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Russia may be planning to move its Black Sea Fleet to the Syrian port of Tartus.

Russia's Black Sea Fleet currently uses a range of naval facilities in the Ukrainian region of Crimea. They operate in the region under a 1997 agreement that allowed Russia to continue its presence in the former Soviet republic for rent of $93 million per year.

The fleet is not scheduled to withdraw until 2017. However the Ukraine has recently voiced concerns that Russia is not paying enough for the facilities and has demanded that a new agreement be signed. Russia says that it will not make any concessions and negotiations between Russia and the Ukraine have stalled.

On June 23, 2006, Ukrainian officials attempted to seize a building and equipment belonging to the Black Sea Fleet, further aggravating the disagreement.

Recently a respected Russian newspaper quoted multiple sources in Russia's diplomatic service and the Defense Ministry, indicating that Russia may be planning to move its Black Sea Fleet to Syria. Russia has started dredging at the Syrian port of Tartus where it maintains a logistical supply point and it may have plans to turn it into a full-fledged naval base. Russia has also launched a modernization project at the port of Latakia, located about 60 miles to the north of Tartus.

A Defense Ministry source said that Moscow was planning to form a squadron led by the Moskva, the Black Sea Fleet's flagship missile cruiser, within the next three years. The squadron would operate in the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis.

Over the past two years, partly as a consequence of the war in Iraq, Russia has been carefully cultivating ties with Turkey, Iran and Syria. After losing the Mid-East foothold provided by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, the Russians have been building a new axis of power based on those three key countries. Russia is now Turkey's second-largest trading partner, with a volume of $10 billion in trade per year; Russia strengthened ties with Iran by supplying it with nuclear-related technologies; and last year Russia and Syria made plans to increase diplomatic and military cooperation. Russia wrote-off approximately 10 billion dollars of Syrias Soviet-era debt and has supplied Syria with Russian made SA-18 surface-to-air missiles.

Russia's arms exports in 2005 totalled a record breaking 6.1 billion dollars. Despite the ongoing controversy about Iran's nuclear program, Russia intends to sell Iran up to 30 Tor M-1 surface-to-air missiles in a deal estimated to be worth up to 700 million dollars. Russia claims to be our ally and partner in the war against terrorism. However despite US objections, Russia is all too willing to sell advanced weaponry to countries (like Syria and Iran) which support the insurgency in Iraq. Russia has also made overtures to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian government. Russia does not consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization, even though Hamas has claimed responsibility for the murder of more than 500 people in at least 350 separate terrorist attacks since 1993.

Russia is a co-sponsor of the Road Map Peace Plan, but that does not mean they are a friend to Israel. Prior to the elections in January, Russian military experts were sent to the Gaza Strip to train Palestinian security forces. In addition to training, Russia is prepared to provide the Palestinians with armored vehicles, ammunition, and helicopters. In past speeches Putin has called on Israel to make concessions and withdraw "from all the occupied Arab lands back to the June 4, 1967 border."

Tensions in the Middle East continue to increase and recent events indicate that the famed battle prophesied in Ezekiel 38 and 39 could be on our near horizon. It is during this battle, that God will directly intercede to protect Israel from Magog and its allies. For more information on this topic see the links below.

If you've ever read or seen the play, "Inherit the Wind", you've not really seen the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. The famous Scopes Trial started eighty-one years ago this week, it was a battle over whether John T. Scopes violated a Tennessee law, passed on March 13, 1925, known as the Butler Act. "Inherit the Wind" is a nice bit of propaganda, and does a good job of promoting the free-flow of ideas and of encouraging people to be intellectually open minded. But, it is a poor portrayal of what really happened that summer in Dayton, Tennessee.

First off, the Butler Act did not outlaw the teaching of all theories of evolution. Although it did make it illegal for public school teachers to deny the divine creation of man or to tell students they had descended from a lower order of animals.

Secondly, John T. Scopes did not necessarily ever teach evolution, and he played a nominal part in the real trial.

Third, the people of Dayton were not fiery, mean-spirited bigots like the play's Hillsboro population.

Fourth, John Scopes' lawyer Clarence Darrow was far more cynical and harsh than Drummond of the play, and William Jennings Bryan, the prosecutor, was far more reasonable, and did not die of a heart attack at the end. A Christian, one of Bryan's major reasons for opposing evolutionary thought was that it promoted eugenics - the idea that genetically inferior races of humans should be eliminated. He wanted to fight that racist sort of thinking. The play, however, presents him as a religious fanatic.

As Robert Harsh notes in his review of the movie, "Christians, particularly William Jennings Bryan, are consistently lampooned throughout, while the skeptics and agnostics are consistently portrayed as intelligent, kindly, and even heroic. I simply cannot escape the conclusion that the writers of the screen play never intended to write a historically accurate account of the Scopes trial, nor did they seriously attempt to portray the principal characters and their beliefs in an unbiased and accurate way."

The whole ordeal, however, was truly a "monkey" trial. In reality, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wanted to fight the Butler Act, and offered to defend any teacher who broke the law. The businessmen of Dayton, TN figured the town could use some publicity, which a trial of this nature was bound to bring. John Scopes didn't know if he had ever really taught evolution, but he volunteered to be the bait, so to speak.

In the end, the jury found Scopes guilty and fined him $100, but the real battle had been won by the secularists. The trial succeeded in making a mockery of those who oppose evolutionary theory. Since the time of the actual trial, "Inherit the Wind" has been used to continue to give the impression that those who believe in Biblical Creation are ignorant fanatics and those who promote evolution are the open-minded, decent intellectuals.

In the Creation-Evolution debate, as in the "Inherit the Wind" version of reality, it is always wisest to find out what is really true - in science and in history - and not depend on the propaganda. The reality is far more inspiring.

For a more accurate description of what really happened at the Scopes Trial, see the following excerpt from James Perloff's outstanding book Tornado In A Junkyard (1999). Click on the following link to read the excerpt:

Reaping the Whirwind by James Perloff