Like a lolcat photo, things are happening around the globe that aren’t being connected by MainStream Media and captioned…  I’ll put the puzzle together for you:

A lineup of U.S. air force KC-135 tanker planes seen at the Manas air base in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan(AP Photo/Azamat Imanaliev)

Kyrgyz parliament approves US base closure

By LEILA SARALAYEVA

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — Kyrgyzstan’s parliament voted Thursday to close a key U.S. air base in the country — a move that could hamper President Barack Obama’s efforts to increase the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Deputies voted 78-1 for the government-backed bill to cancel the lease agreement on the Manas air base, a transit point for 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo each month to and from Afghanistan. Two deputies abstained.

If President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signs the bill and Kyrgyz authorities issue an eviction notice, the United States will have 180 days to vacate the base.

“The decision to shut the American base reflects the will of the Kyrgyz people,” said Nurbyubyu Kerimova, a deputy with the pro-government party that overwhelmingly dominates parliament in the former Soviet bloc nation.

Bakiyev unexpectedly called this month for the closure of Manas, complaining that the United States was not paying enough rent for the base.

His announcement of the base closure was made in Moscow, shortly after Russia offered his impoverished country $2.15 billion in aid and loans. Analysts say the closure and the aid appeared to be linked, although officials deny any connection.

Hmmmm, why isn’t the US known for its aid and loans? We seem to only want military bases, not to rebuild countries in their own vision. We can help Trent Lott rebuild his New Orleans mansion but can’t stand to let Kyrgyzstand build itself unless we can land our bombers

Next up:

Don’t take a Senator’s word for it. Old Google Earth satellite photos, dug up by the News of Pakistan, show U.S. drones, parked on a Pakistani runway, back in 2006.

The paper ID’s the robotic planes as massive Global Hawk drones — unlikely, the shape’s all wrong. More likely, the aircraft found at coordinates 27 degrees 51 minutes North, 65 degrees and 10 minutes East are Predator drones.

Google Earth no longer shows the planes at the airfield, “built by Arab sheiks for falconry trips,” according to the Times of London. But the 2009-edition images do show several new buildings — including what appears to be a hangar, big enough for several Predators.

Pakistani blogger Teeth Maestro, for one, is not at all pleased by what he sees. His latest headline: “Drones parked in our own backyard, to Bomb our own People.”

The Pakistani and US governments have repeatedly denied that Washington is running military operations, covert or otherwise, on Pakistani territory — a hugely sensitive issue in the predominantly Muslim country. The Pakistani Government has also repeatedly demanded that the US halt drone attacks on northern tribal areas that it says have caused hundreds of civilian casualties and fuelled anti-American sentiment. But The Times has discovered that the CIA has been using the Shamsi airfield — originally built by Arab sheikhs for falconry expeditions in the southwestern province of Baluchistan — for at least a year.

DRONES???

• Target was Hamas member riding motorbike past bus stop

A Doctor treats a wounded Palestinian boy following an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis, Gaza. Photograph: Hatem Omar/UPPA/Photoshot

Lying in bed, their lower limbs were bandaged and bloodied. “What kind of criminals do this?” asked Rewaa al-Farah, clutching her daughter’s hand where the child lay in her bloodied gingham school dress. “They can see what they are doing [when they launch the missile] but they don’t care. If they can see the motorcyclist then they can see the children waiting for the bus as well.

Abdel Majid, 12, was waiting for the bus to take him home from school when the Israeli drone struck. Its target was a Hamas member riding a motorbike past a bus stop crowded with children.

“I could hear the zanana [drone] above me,” Majid said today from his bed in Naser hospital, in Khan Younis, Gaza. “Then it fired a rocket.”

The shrapnel from the drone peppered his legs as it knocked him down. It also hit Ola and Yahyeh al-Farah, aged 10 and nine, as well as Insherah al-Wan, eight.

Know what?

Countries around the world are getting fed up with being used as landing strips for US military weapons.

Pakistanis, Palestinians, Iraqis, pretty much everyone we’re in contact with DO NOT LIKE TO BE BOMBED by drones.  Its taken war-mongering to the next level of inhumanity.  Sure George Lucas had his clone army, but that’ supposed to be Sci-Fi.  Bringing it into 2009, its no wonder the Kyrgyzstani people evicted us.  No wonder the Pakistanis don’t want our drones on their land.

US military bases on sovereign lands serve, guess who? The US military.  The US military consists of people, corporations, and hardware.  Its the corporations who want expansion, for profit, and the hardware that needs to be housed close to where its going to do its damage.

Time for a re-evaluation of our mission.

Related Posts

• Agreement on American culpability in Israeli-Palestinian war
• Christian Militia in Michigan raided by FBI, because Jesus told them to weapon up in his name
• Who is fighting for America these days?
• US ignores sanctity of sovereign state of Pakistan, sends drone bombs with penises painted on side
• Vatican says: Rapist stepfather can still come to church, mom and docs who got 9 year old an abortion? Not so much