Why Russia Will Not Attack America - Church of God - NEO

tral Asia. The bulk of the population(60 percent) is Pushtun orPathan, the main tribes being theDurrani and the Ghilzai. Othergroups represented are the Tajiksor Tadhziks (30 percent), Uzbeks(5 percent), Hazaras, Turkomansand Kirghiz.The unifying factor amid all thisethnic diversity is religion. Afganistanis almost wholly Islamic,mostly Sunni. Moslem armies hadgained control of Afganistan asearly as A.D. 652.The biblical origins of theAfghan peoples are widely varied.Some are traced to the sons ofJapheth. (The Turkomans, for example,claim descent from Tiras, ason of Japheth.) Others descendfrom branches of the families ofJoktan, of Gomer, of Uz and ofEsau. Some Afghan chronicleseven claim that elements of thePathans are descended by intermarriagefrom King Saul of ancientIsrael through his grandsonAfghana.Also predicted to cluster aroundthe banner of Gog in the latterdays are Cush and Phut (or Put).These peoples of Ezekiel 38:5 aregenerally found today in the regionof India and Pakistan.Cush was a son of Ham (Gen.10:6). Cush is often translated"Ethiopia" in the Bible. But not allCushites live in Ethiopia!The descendants of Cush splitinto two major groups, the Easternand Western Cushites. The WesternCushites are found in majorareas of Black Africa today, includingmodern Ethiopia, now underSoviet influence.The Eastern Cushites, on theother hand, are the brown peoplesof central and southern India andpart of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Theyare represented by such groups asthe Dravidians, Tamils and Tehtgus.Herodotus calls these EasternCushites "Asiatic Ethiopians."During their migrations, incidentally,these Asiatic Cushites gavetheir name to the Hindu Kushmountain range of Central Asia.Interestingly, the names ofCush's sons Seba and Raamah(Gen. 10:7) have been perpetuatedin the Hindu god Siva or Shiva(the destroyer) and the hero Rama(an avatar of the god Vishnu).12Phut was also a son of Ham.Phut is often translated "Libya" inthe Bible, referring to the land ofLibya in North Africa. As withCush, there is also an Asiaticbranch of the family of Phut orPut. It is that Asiatic branch thatwill eventually become associatedwith the U.S.S.R.Along with elements of Shem,descendants of Phut (or Put) wereamong the Indo-Aryans who settlednorthern India and drove theCushitic Dravidians into the southof India in the second millenniumB.C. The warrior-caste Rajputswere rulers over the historic regionof Rajputana, a former group ofprincely states comprising what isnow Rajasthan state of northwesternIndia.Elements of Phut are also foundtoday in other states of northernand central India and in the neighboringcountries of Pakistan andBangladesh. The clear implication,therefore, is that these nations willultimately become politically associatedwith the U.S.S.R.India, along with China, will undoubtedlycontribute heavily to the200 million-man army of Revelation9: 16. After one-thousand-million-strongcommunist China, Indiahas the largest population ofany country in the world (morethan 750 million!). India today ismilitarily the most powerful countryin the South Asia region.The nation of India is officially aneutralist state aspiring .to a nonalignedstand between the superpowers.But in light of India's longand often tension-ridden borderswith China and Pakistan, the SovietUnion has become necessaryinsurance for New Delhi. Indialeans on Soviet protection to counterbalancethe alliance of Chinaand Pakistan.India is heavily dependent on theKremlin for key military supplies.New Delhi has a friendship treatywith Moscow, signed in 1971. Andthe Soviet Union has become India'smajor trading partner.The government of Pakistanlyingto the east and south of Soviet-occupiedAfghanistan isgrowing more nervous by the day.Pakistan now stands as the onlyobstacle between the Soviet troopsin Afghanistan and Moscow's goalof a warm-water Arabian Sea port.By virtue of the Soviet militarypresence in Afghanistan, theKremlin is now in a prime positionto exert political and military pressureon Pakistan.The Muslim nation of Pakistanconsists of four provinces, two oneach side of the Indus River. Thetwo provinces on the eastern side­Punjab and Sind are firmly inthe control of President Zia ul­Haq's government in Islamabad.The two provinces west of theIndus North-West Frontier andBaluchistan are in a state of unrest.These provinces share a1,200-mile border with Soviet-occupiedAfghanistan. The Pakistanigovernment fears that the Sovietsmay now use Afghanistan as a baseto exploit the separationist sentimentsamong the ethnic groups inthese two provinces. Troubleamong these ethnic minorities isalready straining Pakistan's unity.Of primary concern is the longsimmeringindependence movementamong the Baluchi tribesmenof western Pakistan. The Baluchishave long sought to unite with fellowtribesmen in southernAfghanistan and eastern Iran toform an independent state ofBaluchistan.There is strong evidence of deepSoviet involvement in this effort tocarve out a separate Baluchi state.A pro-Russian vassal state inBaluchistan would effectively extendSoviet influence all the waysouth to the Arabian Sea. TheKremlin would at last have thewarm-water ports that it hassought since the days of the czars.As an added bonus, the Sovietswould be in a position to controlthe major oil supply lines leadingfrom the Persian Gulf!Pushtu-speaking tribesmen innorthwestern Pakistan and easternAfghanistan have also longdreamed of their own independentstate of Pushtunistan. These peoples,like the Baluchis, provide potentiallyfertile soil for Soviet revolutionarypropaganda.The predominantly Muslim nationof Bangladesh once known asEast Pakistan broke away fromPakistan in a bloody civil war in1971. Though Bangladesh officiallyadheres to the principle of