One of the propaganda functions of the US media is to take tyrds that happen to be useful to the White House, dress them up in cute doll dresses, spray them with expensive cologne, and sell them to the US public as huggable plush toys. This process has never been rendered so naked before as in the case of Uzbekistan. Step One in the process is to negate the initial impression that alas, here lies a tyrd. The mass murder of upwards of 500 civillians by troops in APCs would lead the naive to believe that in President Karimov, we have a tyrd. Yet it may not be if we see our leaders hold it in their hands, shake it around, and put it to their noses without complaint. Bush performed this function at the White House in March, 2002, and was further emphasized by yearly grants of money to its military, and confirmed as recently as last year when JCS Gen. Myers complained that Karimoz was not getting enough cash and support. Step Two is putting a pretty dress on the tyrd, and nothing provides a better wardrobe for the fashionable tyrd than the khaki of the War of Terror: Karimov fights terrorists, and more spcifically, so that we can get a viscereal feel for his anti-tyrd nature, he is fighting "Radical Anti-American Terrorists". or RATs for short. Tyrds don't fight tyrds, hence they deserve large airbases, military assistance (i.e. blood money), and will do us the messy favour of torturing tyrds in our name. Step Three is the application of a fine eau de toilette, cologne, or what some us call "whure lure", thus covering up the most obnoxious aspect of tyrds, the stink. The stink emanating from Karimoz has been with us long before the recent masssacre. A Brtitish Ambassador was fired for complaining about, of all things, Uzbekistan's use of torture, and our use of info gained from such torture. But the stink was tolerable if we all turned our noses, yet with the rotting corpses of 500, it was unmistakable. Hence the need for some media-induced perfume, and so we have the spin on the events of the last few days. When 500 people get mowed down, your concerns would automatically leap to "... the outbreak of violence, particularly by some members of a terrorist organization that were freed from prison," as put so eloquently by the White House. When 500 people get mowed down, your concerns would automatically leap to the fact Karimoz is "seen by Washington as an important ally in its so-called war against terrorism and provides it with a key air base in central Asia...". Thanks to the Foxification of the media, watch this story slide off the front pages, as it already has with the NYT. What's in a name? That which we call a tyrd By any other word would smell so much sweeter.