Steven Collins
February 23, 2008
There are many things happening on the world scene as the nations flex their muscles and make preparations for an eventual future war. Please keep in mind that I am not saying that war is imminent just yet. What I’m saying is that rival nations are seeing that their national interests are in deep conflict with each other, and that they are taking preparatory actions to ready themselves for a time when these differences lead to open warfare. Diplomats will not admit these actions are preparations for warfare, but the actions speak for themselves.
First let’s consider an item which readers have no doubt seen discussed in the media. As you know, the US Navy recently shot down a large space satellite with a missile shot from an Aegis class cruiser in the US Navy. This was a remarkable technological feat, considering the facts that both the satellite and the missile were traveling many thousands of miles per hour and the interceptor had to make a “kinetic” hit on the satellite to kill it (i.e. achieve a “bulls eye”). America diplomats proclaim this shoot-down was needed to protect the environment from toxic chemicals on the satellite. This may be true, but the best “cover stories” are always true ones. In its February 18, 2008 issue, The Washington Times National Weekly Edition published an insightful article (“US Motives for downing satellite include sending a message to China”) even before the interception was successfully accomplished. The article notes that the test “…would signal that US missile defenses can be used to counter China’s strategic anti-satellite weapons.” Note that this line asserts the test shows the US can target China’s “anti-satellite weapons,” not just its satellites. In other words, the test demonstrates the USA can not only shoot down Chinese satellites, but it can also defend American satellites from Chinese attack.
The article further noted that the US naval ship which shot down the satellite had “three” anti-satellite missiles on-board to use if necessary. In other words, this indicates that the anti-satellite weapons of the USA are being produced in some quantities already. The test shows that naval ships equipped with Aegis missile-control systems are now platforms for launching missiles which can (A) shoot down attacking missiles against the fleet, (B) shoot down ballistic missiles in space and (C) shoot down enemy satellites. The article added another very interesting statement. It quoted John Tkacik, a “China specialist at the Heritage Foundation” as saying: “We have a fleet of Aegis destroyers, including those in the Pacific, and the Japanese have several.” This statement hints that the Japanese navy either has now, or will soon have, a similar capacity. This attests to a growing military alliance between Japan and the USA. There is one bit of “blow-back” though from this test. The USA has now shown Russia and China that the Aegis ships are more strategic targets than they may have previously realized. Apparently, US war planners decided it was worth it to demonstrate to China that the USA has military capacities that they hadn’t realized. Keeping your adversary guessing is always a good strategy.
The first link below details that NATO is finally waking up to the military threat posed by China. The UPI reported out of Hong Kong that “NATO is watching China’s military expansion with an attitude of rising concern and wariness. NATO members are starting to view China as a possible emerging common adversary,” and that “China’s military is expanding at a pace unmatched by any other country in the world.” It further asserts that the USA and Japan both “see China as an immense challenge, over a much broader area, against the United States, Japan, NATO and even India (emphasis added). I recommend you read this entire link as it is quite specific and serves as a “wake up call” to the military threat posed by China (which, keep in mind, is Russia’s strategic ally). This story has biblical significance as it shows that the USA, NATO, Japan and India are being pushed by events into a common alliance against China (and Russia). This is exactly the line-up of world alliances which this website has been saying are prophesied in Ezekiel 38 for the end of our age. Previous blogs at this site, an article about Japan in prophecy and another entitled “What Ezekiel 38-39 Reveals about a Future World War III” will all affirm this point. That the nations are falling into the exact roles that were prophesied for them in Ezekiel 38 indicates that (A) we are in the latter days, and (B) that the God of the Bible is in charge of world affairs and is guiding them to fulfill his prophesies.
Turkey has also taken its most aggressive military action in a long time, invading a slice of Iraq to root out Kurdish guerillas who launch terrorist attacks inside Turkey. According to an article (“Turkish Troops Clash with Kurds”) in today’s issue of The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 10,000 Turkish soldiers and about 60 tanks took part in this action, supported by artillery and aircraft. Turkey has actually acted with much restraint in the past on this matter, but this action shows that Turkey is now serious about using military force to protect itself. Turkey also demonstrated that it will act militarily in its own actions even if the USA doesn’t want it to do due to the sensitivity of the Iraqi rebuilding situation. See the second link below for a report on this conflict. Matthew 24:6 prophesied “wars and rumors of wars” will characterize the latter days of our age. The many simmering conflicts in the world, which periodically break out into open fighting, fulfill this prophecy.
In the third link below, from Israel National News, it is reported that Israel “has been quietly transforming its Navatim base, a standard air force installation, into a Middle East wonder of the military world.” It will feature the “largest landing strip in the entire Middle East,” and it should be ready in 2009. The main runway will be 2.5 miles long, which makes me wonder if it is being designed to conduct simultaneous operations on each end of the runway to expedite sortie rates, provide an alternate landing location for US space shuttles, or accommodate new aerial weaponry that has not yet been revealed. We will have to wait and see, but this project also indicates that Israel is preparing for expanded future warfare.
The fourth link below, from Bloomberg.com, is an excellent article detailing the ever-closer military ties between India and the USA. The article reports that the two nations are drawing so close together militarily that their alliance would “survive even the possible unraveling of [a] nuclear accord” being debated in India’s parliament. This military cooperation has grown so strong that the USA has supplanted Russia as India’s main arms supplier and the two nations are working on an agreement “that would allow the two nations’ militaries to use each other’s refueling and basing facilities for naval vessels and aircraft.” India even bought a US navy ship for re-use in the Indian navy. This is very good article which further documents that Ezekiel 38’s prophecies are coming to pass and that India is, indeed, the “Sheba and Dedan” of Ezekiel 38:13.
The fifth link below, from FOXNews, reports that the USA broke up another Chinese spy ring in the USA. One of those arrested is a man who worked in the Pentagon itself! Gregg Bergerson is identified as a “weapons system analyst,” although later media reports identified him as working with the USA’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. It would appear that China turned even a Pentagon official into a Chinese spy. This is another in a series of Chinese spy rings uncovered in the USA. It makes one wonder how many more there are that have not yet been found. This incident further affirms China’s hostile intentions toward the USA, even though there are still gullible officials in the US government who can’t see this obvious fact.
The final link below indicates that the USA better start minding the state of its own military forces, which are in serious decline in both quality and quantity. It is well-known that the quantity of the USA’s military force were cut almost in half by President Clinton, who apparently failed to realize the world was still a dangerous place. President Bush took America’s reduced military forces and is wearing them out to the point of exhaustion in Iraq and Afghanistan. The TIME story states that “After more than six years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Air Force’s aging jet fighters, bombers, cargo aircraft and gunships are at the breaking point.” The story cites the C-5 transports, the B-52 bombers, the KC-135 tankers and the A-10 attack warplanes as being especially “geriatric.” As if to punctuate this report, the media has reported today that a giant B-2 Stealth Bomber (with a price tag of $1.2 billion) has crashed in Guam, and two more F-15’s crashed off the coast of Florida in a training exercise. A previous F-15 broke up in flight a few months ago due to excessive age on its components, leading to a grounding of a significant percentage of the USAF’s F-15 fleet.
The article emphasizes the point that the USA is in no financial condition to build high numbers of new, high-tech weapon systems. I would like to suggest a possible stock-gap solution. When President Clinton “laid off” half the USA’s navy and air force, there were many ships and warplanes berthed in the reserve (i.e. “mothball”) fleet or parked in the American Southwest for reserve use. Why not activate these warplanes and naval ships which had a lot of their service life left when they were deactivated? They could be cheaply activated and one huge advantage is that US servicemen and sailors are already trained to use and service these kinds of ships and planes. Since the USA can’t afford lots of new weaponry, why not activate the “lightly-used” ones in our reserve war stocks?
Since President Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are wearing out the US military and degrading its abilities to carry out its missions, one wonders who is really winning the “War on Terrorism.” I think the real winners of the “War on Terrorism” are Russia and China, who are increasing their military strength even as the US steadily weakens its own military forces with overdeployments of personnel and overuse of equipment. Russian and Chinese war planners must be salivating at the steady deterioration of America’s war-fighting abilities under President Bush. Whoever is elected as the next US President in November, he (or she) will have a huge plate of needs handed to them by the departing Bush Administration.
http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Security/2008/02/09/natal_keeping_an_eye_on_china/9490/
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080223/FOREIGN/695636977/1001&template=printart
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125298
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a8Ngl6SJY8ls&refer=home
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,330320,00.html
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1714329,00.html
