I was sorting through some old magazines and came across an old American Legion magazine from March 2008, with an article by Alan Dowd, entitled, “A Cold Peace.” I can’t find a link, but all I can say is that this man should have been listened to a long time ago. I’ll try to type the last few paragraphs.
Bad Old Days. To strengthen his hand along Russia’s southern borderlands, Putin forged the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), With a membership that includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzebekistan - with Iran as an observer - the SCO could become a counterweight to the U.S. alliance system. If Iran joins the organization as a full-fledged member, as the East Asia Institute’s David Wall told “The Washington Times, it would be “an OPEC with bombs.”
Russia is certainly strengthening its ties to Iran. Recent transactions include components for a nuclear reactor in Bushehr and sophisticated air-defense systems. More over, during his ill-timed visit to Iran last year, Putin woarned that “no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state.” The statement was more than a thinly veiled threat to Washington and its Middle Eastern allies.
Rusia used the same argument and the SCO to pressure Uzbekistan to cut military ties with Washington.
Has allowed the USAF to use an old Soviet base in Bishkek, their capital, (called Frunze in the Soviet era.) Not exactly the act of a country hostile to the US. Manas Air Base, Kyrgyz Republic