John on the Sunset Coast -

Until the U.S. stops funding cruel dictatorships with U.S. taxpayer dollars in return for military favours, nothing will change. It is U.S. foreign policy and their unwillingness to co-operate with the U.N. that has created many of the problems in the world today. As long as the U.S. continues to act unilaterally, the U.N. can do little more than appyly pressure to the U.S. and clean up after the messes created by the U.S.

At least it seems the U.S. may be bowing to a little pressure. It looks like after the U.S. has poured millions of your dollars into Uzbekistan (for the privilege of operating an airbase there) they are beginning to realize that the human rights abuses in that country should not be tolerated.

This is an excellent first step since most of those human rights violations have been committed against a Muslim population. At least it sends the right message. Since this has forced Karimov to create an alliance with Russia and China, I'm sure we will now want to liberate the people from Karimov, just like we liberated Iraq from Saddam.

Do you see a pattern here? Support cruel dictators in exchange for military privilege and then wage war against the dictator to free the people. At the same time secure U.S. access to minerals, oil and control of pipelines.

The U.S. has also funded the government of Sudan in exchange for their 'help' in the war on terrorism. Doesn't it seem a bit odd to fund a government that unleashes the fury of the Janjaweed on helpless farmers and at the same time denounces those actions as genocide?

U.S. foreign policy must change. Until it does, the U.N. can do little but mop up after them.