The Water Wars

http://www.vice.com/read/is-central-asia-on-the-verge-of-a-water-war-

I think our interests in this area are pretty clear.  We need to get troops out of Afghanistan and back home without tampering with Pakistan.  This is also how we can see maintaining good relations with societies on the ground are important everywhere, because you never know when or if you're going to need their help on an issue.

Unfortunately, the US leaders have been incredibly pig-headed and stumble bum about how they interact with others.  Hence how we're only stuck with the unappealing option of using Pakistan to get troops out of Afghanistan.

As far as the larger conflict that could be brewing between China and Russia, I say stay out of it and let them fight if they want.  I think that we should also maintain our military's projection power while nursing the troops back to a state of combat readiness in case we should have to come to blows with either one of these super powers while giving aid to support the loser of the conflict.

That is as far as the big powers is concerned.

I would need to do more research on Uzbek, Tajik and Kryrgyz and Kazhak relations, but I would advise offering to send an experienced moderator who's very familiar with the peoples of the region (traveled extensively there, studied it formally, staffed with people from the area, etc) to sort out the conflict.  If this should fail, I would recommend waiting for the war to be over and then helping with reconstruction and reconciliation efforts, again, with much research done first on the situation and condition, before we make any specific actions in the area.

This is all to maintain American interest in general and advance the position of the American people by doing what is needed, necessary and appropriate for the other peoples we are working with.  One's benefit is another's gain.  And, if it's done right, it can yield more powerful and lasting connections than anything we can do right now.

By being useful and helpful to others while looking out for our own self interests in the process, we can yield some amazing things in our world in the empirical, demonstrable and tangible senses of it.  And it's only our brains that are the key limitation to our ability to act appropriately with others.

Think about it.

Cause you lose out when you don't.

And it's only in your brain that it works out to be otherwise.

Think about it.