Actually, being a boring sod, I looked up Iraq and Uzbekistan in the CIA factbook
Both about the same land area.
Both about the same population (26m).
Iraq produces 2.2m barrels of oil/day, Uzbekistan produces 146,000.
Comment column in the Grauniad today* asking how the hell you are supposed to move towards democracy by peaceful means in a country where the security services use torture, bullets and boiling alive, where the 'judicial system' has a 99% conviction rate (i.e. none of the people sprung from prison the other day were guilty in the sense we know, much less 'terrorists' as the US maintains) and all that lot is propped up by $80m of US money last year.
500 killed in Iraq by rebels and Condoleeza Rice visits
500 killed in Uzbekistan by the regime and it's dismissed with calls for restraint from both sides. How do you restrain yourself from getting shot, I wonder?
*Edit - by the former UK ambassador
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/st...484631,00.html