[starfish923]

I'm glad that the US doesn't border Muslim countries like Russia does. We have enough trouble with Mexico. It seems like Russia does get hit rather regularly, doesn't it? *sigh*

Russia probably had this problem for a long, long time.
It's just that now that the USSR and its rigid censorship of all/any news (Everything is perfect in the USSR.) is gone, we get to hear about it.

[katana]

A very long time indeed.

The Cossacks were originally sent south by the Czars to settle the North Caucasus specifically to provide an armed buffer against the (muslim) Turks. They smile when you compare our Cowboys and Indians vs. their Cossacks and Turks and say the only real similarity was that both groups generally did their work on horseback.