MOSCOW -- The city "went mad" amid an "orgy of looting." Thousands of people of all ages roamed the streets, plundering shops and government offices. Armed with sticks, they smashed everything they couldn't take home and fought each other over valuable spoils. The dictator's palace, foreboding in the past, attracted looters like yellow jackets to a jar of honey.
Were these scenes from the Crusaders' raid of Constantinople in 1204, or the entry of Genghis Khan's troops in Baghdad in 1258? Neither. It was a "democratic uprising" last week in Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyzstan has become the third nation of the former Soviet Union in 18 months to topple its government -- after Georgia and Ukraine. But if Georgia had a quick and largely nonviolent coup d'etat and Ukraine a well-organized campaign of civic disobedience, Kyrgyzstan is having a pogrom.