What are the consequences of having a president who doesn't know what he's doing with regard to our foreign policy?For one thing, he makes Vladmir Putin look like a champion of human rights: In a remarkable role reversal, Russia has positioned itself as a supporter of democratic reform and the protests that toppled this nation's autocratic president, while the United States is increasingly viewed here as a cynical bully, backing a corrupt, abusive leader who refuses to resign. Those perceptions, expressed by ordinary people as well as members of the opposition coalition now in control of most of Kyrgyzstan, have been fueled by Moscow's quick embrace of the new government and Washington's more cautious response -- and it could spell trouble for a U.S. air base here critical to the NATO campaign in Afghanistan. Opponents of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who has gone into hiding in the nation's south, have long accused the United States of refraining from criticizing his record of...(Read Full Post)