Manas is a vital link in the US strategy in Afghanistan, providing a base for air patrols over the northern part of the country, as well as a route for shipping in supplies and personnel. But in February the Kyrgyz officials decided to evict the US Air Force from the base, in part because of complaints over noise and pollution from Manas and the death of a Kyrgyz man, shot by US security personnel.
The other reason was cash, and a lot of it. Russia, not happy with a US military presence in their back yard, offered the Kyrgyz government a $2 billion aid package, and soon Kyrgyzstan was asking the US to leave (though both governments insist that the aid package had nothing to do with tossing the US out). But now the US has turned around and made the Kyrgyz a better deal of their own, tripling the amount of rent they pay yearly for Manas, along with a package of over $100 million in improvements to the base and funding for anti-drug trafficking programs (and you have to hand it to Kyrgyzstan for turning a crumbling Soviet-era airstrip into such a cash cow).
For their $100 million, the US Air Force will be allowed to use Manas as a transit hub to ship non-lethal supplies into Afghanistan, but not as a combat airfield, an option the Air Force still wanted. It is a similar deal to one the US has with other Central Asian states, important to the war effort in Afghanistan, the US military says, so that they are not solely dependent on a route up through Pakistan for their supplies.
Another reason Kyrgyzstan may have had a change of heart over Manas, besides the cash, is a growing feeling among the countries in Central Asia that if the war in Afghanistan were to fail, Islamic extremists could begin operating in their countries as well. A bombing last month in Uzbekistan was linked to Islamic extremists by the Uzbek government, though they have a habit of branding any opponents to the authoritarian rule of President Karimov as "terrorists".
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