[Opinionated Blowhard]

God help any of the poor suckers who thought that the US was going to stick around and act as a counterbalance or stabilizing influence.

[Veto!]

From the article: This desire for partners other than Moscow and Beijing is occurring at a time when feelings of insecurity are also growing in the region due to the withdrawal of NATO and the US from Afghanistan, with fears that the resulting power vacuum will be filled by more extreme forms of Islam, either on the part of a resurgent Taliban or greater influence on the part of ISIS, which the secular Central Asian leaders fear is appealing to a small but growing radical segment of their societies (and some Central Asians are known to be fighting with ISIS in Iraq and Syria).

The US should be on a major diplomatic offensive to establish good and workable relations with the "Stans," to keep peace in the area. We already screwed up Afghanistan, but the other stans don't seem to be as primitively islamic and conceivably could be a peaceful buffer zone.

Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

[PGR88]

Russia isn’t sinking.

[SaxxonWoods]

Title should read:

Central Asia Stuck Between A Sinking Russia And A temporarily rising China.

[Undecided 2012]

Hey Ray, great article. Do you think we should send it to Obama or just let him wait until next year on the news when they cover muzzies butchering people?