It’s part of a bigger trend, with US forces set to leave Iraq and Afghanistan. The new Kyrgyz President-elect Almazbek Atambayev now wants a US airbase shut by 2014. The base at Manas is a critical logistics hub for US forces operating in the region and is located in Central Asia, bordering China and oil rich countries in the region. The country also has significant deposits of rare earth metals and gold.
The New Prez: I want US base closed
“We know that the United States is often engaged in conflict,” he said. “First in Iraq, then in Afghanistan, and now relations are tense with Iran. I would not want for one of these countries to launch a retaliatory strike on the military base.”
Location, location, location
This move is certainly going to please Atambayev’s friends in Moscow, who have wanted the US base gone for awhile. The President-elect is widely seen as very pro-Russian, so the tilt in his policies are expected to go beyond just closing the American base. Kyrgyzstan is also a major transit point for Afghan heroin headed for the international market.
Within the next few years, the US presence in this part of the world will have almost completely evaporated. Out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Kyrgyzstan. Turkey has moved increasingly out of the pro-western orbit. Our ability to conduct military operations in the region will be severely limited.
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