May 2, 2009
Steve Collins
As readers of my blog know, Ezekiel 38 reveals that the nations of the latter-day “house of Israel” are in increasing danger due to the growing military alliance of Russia, China, Iran and their allies. The USA and the NATO nations seem especially oblivious to this danger. Indeed, US leaders (hopelessly addicted to debt and the need to obtain loan “fixes” from their Chinese bankers) are in denial about this serious and growing danger. However, there is hope! One nation among the modern nations of the house of Israel apparently has “woke up” to the dangers posed by the Russian-Chinese-Iranian military axis.
The nation that woke up is Australia. Perhaps that nation’s sudden awareness of the military danger posed by what the biblical book of Ezekiel calls the Gog-Magog alliance is due to the fact that Australia is located uncomfortably close to China and cannot remain in denial any longer. The first link below states the Australian decision to significantly beef up its military is due to military expansions in China and India. While the danger posed by China to Australia is real and growing, India has actually moved steadily closer to the USA, the Israelis and other western nations in recent years. Australia intends to double its submarine forces from 6 to 12 boats, and beef up its air force by purchasing 100 new F-35 airplanes from the USA. It will take years to procure these new weapons, but at least this action indicates Australia is now looking at the world realistically.
The second link is appropriately entitled “Australia muscling up as America’s power wanes,” and it cites the increased danger posed by Chinese military expansion and the weakening of the USA. It adds the new Australian subs will be “very long range” and equipped with modern cruise missiles. This link also draws a comparison between China’s estimated military spending in 2008 at $105-150 billion while the USA’s military budget is $488 billion. How does this square with the fact that China is producing and deploying modern naval vessels at a far more rapid pace than the USA? There are two reasons: (A) All Chinese expenditures go into building up its military as it is not wasting its strength in foreign wars while the USA is expending its military forces and 100s of billions of dollars in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and (B) the USA buys weapons at US wage rates while China can employ low-paid or slave-labor workforces in building its weaponry. There is no way one can accurately compare the US and Chinese militaries on a dollar comparison basis.
I did more research into the Australian military and found that its submarine are called “Collins class” submarines (see third link). This link reveals the Australian Navy has a problem. It currently lacks the technical manpower to fully staff even the six submarines it now has. Where will it obtain the manpower to staff a submarine fleet double its current size? It seems apparent that Australia will have to either raise wages for its sailors or adopt a military draft.
As a sidebar to this story, the Singapore Navy is also beefing up its navy with new and upgraded submarines from Sweden. Singapore is, essentially, a city-state nation which also sees the dangers posed by China and is in the western camp. As noted in previous blogs, Singapore’s navy has been involved in joint exercises with the navies of the USA, Japan, India and Australia. I view Singapore as one of the “young lion” nations mentioned in Ezekiel 38:13 allied to Tarshish and Sheba/Dedan. The world press calls these smaller Pacific Rim nations the “young tiger” nations which are broadly aligned with Japan (Tarshish) and India (Sheba/Dedan). More on these Asian national identifications can be read in my article about Japan (see articles option at the home page of this website).
Congratulations to the Australians for being one of the first nations of the modern “house of Israel” to wake up to the military dangers posed by China. Maybe there is hope that even the USA will wake up some day. However, by the time it does, it may be too late. China has shrewdly used debt-leverage to maneuver itself into a position of steadily growing financial/economic dominance over the US government. That decision by China was no accident. It was cleverly planned. China understood the reality of the inexorable principle of Proverbs 22:7 without even needing to see it in the Bible. China’s very clever manipulation of the US government over a multi-year period has put the US government in a strait jacket in terms of it being able to make decisions necessary for America’s survival.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aZToRT4.2.Vo&refer=australia
