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Our ingestions of propaganda about the event in Belarus and of religious identity speech from Russia have shown that US political opinion is too often affected by hysteria. Russia has a few military friends in its Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO: members listed below).

All of the following excerpts are from the CIA World Factbook (as accessed on 29OCT06).

Russia
Religions:

Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, other Christian 2% (2006 est.) note: estimates are of practicing worshipers; Russia has large populations of non-practicing believers and non-believers, a legacy of over seven decades of Soviet rule

Kazakhstan
Religions:

Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%

Kyrgyzstan
Religions:

Muslim 75%, Russian Orthodox 20%, other 5%

Tajikistan
Religions:

Sunni Muslim 85%, Shi'a Muslim 5%, other 10% (2003 est.)

Uzbekistan
Religions:

Religions: Muslim 88% (mostly Sunnis), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%

Belarus

Government restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, peaceful assembly, and religion continue . . .

Religions:
Eastern Orthodox 80%, other (including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) 20% (1997 est.)

Armenia
Religions:

Armenian Apostolic 94.7%, other Christian 4%, Yezidi (monotheist with elements of nature worship) 1.3%

"Oh! I just don't want to believe it! Oh, my! But what about the children! And they're Christians! It just doesn't make sense!"

But those of us who've studied religious content in the speeches of pre-WWII and WWII Nazi leaders know better. We need to invade, occupy and denazify Iran before the Russians get too involved with it. There's still a little time.

General: Russian military won't intervene in Iran

But don't expect that situation to last as long as we want to procrastinate.

Here's some history in an excerpt from PalestineFacts.org:

What led to the Six Day War in 1967?
Military Provocation By Arab Countries and Soviet Disinformation

At the same time, and unknown to the Israelis, the Soviet Union mounted a disinformation campaign pushing Egypt to join Syria against Israel. At that time, the Soviets were providing military and economic aid to both Syria and Egypt. On May 13, 1967 a Soviet parliamentary delegation visited Cairo and informed the Egyptian leaders that Israel had concentrated eleven to thirteen brigades along the Syrian border in preparation for an assault within a few days, with the intention of overthrowing the revolutionary Syrian Government. This was a complete fabrication designed by the Soviets to destabilize the Middle East. Similar false information may have been given to Egypt by the Soviets as early as May 2.

The build up and aggressive intent were denied by Israel. UN Secretary General U Thant reported that UNTSO observers on the Syrian border:

... have verified the absence of troop concentrations and absence of noteworthy military movements on both sides of the [Syrian] line.

Nasser probably correctly interpreted the Soviet information as an indication to him that the time was ripe for an attack on Israel and that he had their backing. With the United States deeply distracted by the War in Vietnam, the Soviets had reason to think there would be no US intervention. Nassar then abandoned his former cautious policy and took the lead for new aggression against Israel. Syria and Iraq eagerly joined Egypt's preparations, increasing the momentum toward war.

Sooner or later, folks, we're going to have to be less ambiguous as to whose side we're on.

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