Global Voices Online

Six years after its invasion of Afghanistan, the United States has announced it will curb aid to the war-torn country. Bonnie Boyd thinks this does not make much sense at all; and Joshua Foust again disagrees with The Economist, arguing that things in Afghanistan are not as bad as they have been for much of the past thirty years.

Recent Links also in Central Asia & Caucasus

Musafirbek says that the president of Uzbekistan officially thanked the cotton-growers for gathering the harvest of this strategic product for Uzbekistan. However, those who sweat away, collecting this cotton (including children) were not mentioned in the president’s address.

Alexander Visotzky writes about the opening of a monument in Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, where the authorities uncovered a 15-foot high bronze statue of incumbent president Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Dafydd reports that the EU has lifted the arms embargo on Uzbekistan. Reasons given are abolishment of the death penalty and release of political prisoners.