Political Quotes

“I would just note that even those individuals, who may be concerned more about that air base than whether hundreds of people were murdered, raped, suffocated or boiled alive, I think the point here is not just about human rights, it is about the security of American families. When we rely on a thug like Karimov, we end up with him squeezing us, just like he is doing now by not letting us have nighttime flights at the K-2 base, not letting heavy cargo planes come in. His limitations are imposed not on the basis that we have criticized him, but that we have not done enough to praise him. We have a base in Kyrgyzstan, we have bases in Afghanistan. We have other ways of continuing the war on terrorism, but we make a mistake when we put the security of our families in the hands of someone who is a terrorist himself. And how ironic that we would be doing this at the same time the recent elections in Iran were criticized by the administration for not being fair enough. There is no danger that Uzbekistan will ever get to the level of Iran. At least Iran has elections, however deficient they may be. We do not have that in Uzbekistan. In short, the administration says democracy is on the march, but in Uzbekistan it is democracy that is getting marched on. I believe we jeopardize our security by contributing to what is a boiling pot. That pot is, Mr. Karimov's method of dealing with his opponents. When that pot eventually boils over, we will lose more than an air base.…”