Freedom, Iraqi Style

Something's going on over in Kyrgyzstan. It's hard to tell exactly what's going to come of it. But I know one thing - it looks a hell of a lot like Baghdad circa 2003.

Gunshots rang out on a street in downtown Bishkek after dark Friday and helmeted police in bulletproof vests chased a rowdy group of youths as looting continued for a second day.

In another part of the capital, with its streetlights extinguished, shots were fired near the central department store on the main avenue where vigilantes and police were on duty against looters. Police fired into the air to warn off a group of looters, witnesses said.

"The city looks as if it has gone mad," said Felix Kulov, a prominent opposition figure who was released from prison during Thursday's uprising and appointed coordinator of law enforcement.

But let's not focus on the negative. I have to be honest with you, I'm not up on my Kyrgyzstan current events. But I have to say that a popular uprising sure beats the hell out of the United States sending 150,000 troops and shoving our democracy down their throats.

Akayev's departure made Kyrgyzstan the third former Soviet republic in the past 18 months — after Georgia and Ukraine — to see popular protests bring down long-entrenched leaders widely accused of corruption.

Putin, on a visit to Armenia, said "it's unfortunate that yet again in the post-Soviet space, political problems in a country are resolved illegally and are accompanied by pogroms and human victims."

The overthrow of corrupt leaders, and Putin doesn't like the new guys, so it sounds pretty cool on the surface. Again, we have to stay tuned...