The latest round of WikiLeaks cables have raised the intriguing notion of the United States' interest in establishing a U.S. Air Force base in Tajikistan.
The notion is a long shot, but one that the U.S. needs to consider.
The issue was raised as a result of the latest round of WikiLeaks cables which stated that Tajikistan would welcome the USAF on a Tajik air base.
"They have indicated they would be happy for the U.S. (to) establish an air base in Tajikistan. They see U.S. involvement in the region as a bulwark against Afghan instability, and as a cash cow they want a piece of," the cabled stated, as published in the Guardian newspaper in Britain.
U.S. forces entered Afghanistan in late 2001 to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and topple the Taliban government after the September 11 terror attacks killed nearly 3,000 Americans.
Since then, U.S. and allied NATO forces operating in Afghanistan have primarily been supplied by the U.S. Air Force using Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan as a refueling and jumping-off point.
Until mid-2005, the USAF was also allowed to use the Khansi-Khanabad, or "K-2," air base in Uzbekistan.
However, instability remains in Kyrgyzstan and the party that won the most votes in Kyrgyzstan's October 10 parliamentary election has said it wants the U.S. evicted from Manas.
And the possibility of the U.S. returning to the K-2 base is also looking less likely.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov has reportedly been angered by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's actions concerning human rights and once implicitly threatened to "suspend transit of cargo for American forces via the northern distribution network," according to WikiLeaks cables, Central Asia News Wire reported.
Karimov also signaled a move away from the U.S. and toward Russia last week during the summit of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) when Karimov failed to raise his previously strong and public opposition to the creation of a Russian-led CSTO rapid reaction force.
So far, the U.S. embassy in Dushanbe has denied that any talks with the government of Tajikistan have taken place on the possibility of the U.S. Air Force using the Ayni air base near Dushanbe or other facilities.
The Tajik government has also refused to respond to the WikiLeaks release.
"We do not consider any materials published on WikiLeaks as important or truthful," the Reuters news agency quoted Tajik Foreign Ministry spokesman Davlatali Khaidarov as saying.
But the U.S. has also not explicitly ruled out the possibility of an air base in Tajikistan.
The Tajiks, however, would have much to consider if a U.S. offer were laid on the table.
Tajikistan was torn apart by a clan civil war in part motivated by Islamist extremism from 1992 to 1997 that killed 100,000 people in the nation of only 7.5 million.
Russian forces supported the government of President Emomali Rahmon and defeated the insurgents. But since September there have been a rash of terror incidents in Tajikistan thought to have been the work of Islamic extremists. Among the attacks was the killing of 28 national army soldiers in an ambush in the Rasht valley east of Dushanbe.
A USAF presence on a Tajik air base could enrage and energize Islamist extremists. This is especially the case as Taliban guerrillas from Afghanistan are known to have already crossed the poorly-secured 810-mile border with Tajikistan. The Tajik government believes they played an important role in stirring up the latest round of violence.
On the other hand, the initial economic impact of welcoming Americans could be a boon to the Tajik economy which still depends heavily on the money that Tajik migrant workers, especially in Russia, send back to their families.
U.S. policymakers in Washington know that a Tajik base is a relative long shot and they don't want to be driven to need it.
But with circumstances changing in Central Asia and U.S. President Barack Obama moving the full pull-out of U.S. forces from Afghanistan to 2014, the possibility of a U.S air base in Tajikistan may not be as far-fetched as it seems.
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