Joining forces 
Scouting Central Asia for a site for an Air Force base, America chooses quiet and democratic Kyrgyzstan 

By Karin Palmquist

It's a sight you never thought you'd see: uniformed American soldiers at a US military base in a former Soviet republic. But the world was turned upside down on September 11, as the unthinkable became not just imaginable, but terrifyingly real. The world got new dividing lines, and old enemies found themselves fighting side by side against an elusive evil. The map was drawn in a different us-and-them pattern: for or against terrorism. Kyrgyzstan, a tiny Muslim country in the heart of Central Asia, squeezed in between mighty neighbors Kazakhstan in the north and China in the east, is fervently against. Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev immediately denounced the attacks on America in September and offered his country's assistance. The former Soviet republic is one of thirteen US bases quietly established in nine Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries.

The United States didn't take Akayev up on his offer right away. First contacted were Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and the two countries were used as refueling stops for long-range US bombers and as strategic bases for dropping American Special Forces into Afghanistan. In early November US Air Force reps surveyed airfields in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to find a site for a base. The choice fell on Manas Airport, the airfield serving the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek. Manas has an unusually long runway built to accommodate Soviet bombers and a fairly decent radar system. In addition, the country's stable political and economic climate provided the right backdrop for the coalition's antiterrorist operations. 

Kyrgyz officials, as well as coalition and American Foreign Service representatives, however, deny that geopolitics played a role in the coalition's choice of Kyrgyzstan, rather than one of its Central Asian neighbors, as its new military partner in Central Asia. The decision, they insist, was a practical rather than a political one. "It simply made sense from a logistics point of view," Lieut. Col. Jean-Pierre Even of the French Air Force says.

Through the agreement, the Kyrgyz government is granting the United States permission to use Manas Airport and to build a 37-acre base to accommodate more than 2000 soldiers. Around seven hundred and fifty Americans are already in the Kyrgyz capital, along with 250 French, and a few Spaniards, Norwegians, Danes, Australians and Koreans.

The contract stipulates a one-year open-ended cooperation, meaning that either side could extend or terminate the relationship when the year is up. Both the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard B. Myers, and the commander of the US Central Command, General Tommy Franks, have stated that the US base in Kyrgyzstan is not a permanent one, but anyone who sees the tent city the Americans have built on the airfield grounds finds it difficult to believe that the presence is that temporary. Though all the planes won't arrive until August, the airfield is already littered with Spanish and Danish C-130 cargo planes, two French C-135 refueling tankers, two Australian 747 tankers and six French Mirage fighters. F/A-18 Hornet are expected this month. 

While the biggest benefit no doubt would be regional stability, the deal does bring some financial benefits for Kyrgyzstan in the present. The coalition will spend an estimated nine billion dollars in the country this year, paying for the use of the airport, purchasing fuel and other supplies. But perhaps even more important could be the PR the country gets from the cooperation. Before September, few Americans could point out Kyrgyzstan on a map. Now, the country is getting press as the launching pad for antiterrorist operations. Following the troops, the Kyrgyz government hopes, will be the spouses of the foreign military personnel, and eventually regular tourists.

Kyrgyz public opinion of the coalition has been rather positive. "The Kyrgyz are still feeling us out," Even says. "The events in the near future will determine how they'll feel. We feel no hostility; everybody is very kind to us. I rarely carry my gun."

"It's very important not to look for individual dividends from this situation, but to fight terrorism together," Minister of Foreign Affairs Muratbek Imanaliev concludes. Minister of Defense Esen Topoev adds, "We have felt the effects of terrorism before, and this is why Kyrgyzstan needs to look security from a regional perspective, rather than a domestic one. We all have the same goal here. That goal is the defeat of evil."