In what should have been a headline story in all American media, Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, openly called for more Russian weapons to not only “punch through America’s new missile shield,” but also to “stop the Americans doing ‘whatever they want.'” This report is in the first link below, which was reported in the British media. The article, quite correctly I think, observes that Putin’s warlike statement is “reasserting himself as [Russia’s] real ruler.”
The article details the Russian politics which indicates that Putin will again run to be Russia’s President (the real ruler) in 2012. My expectation is that Putin will win in a landslide as he has been an effective leader by almost single-handedly pulling Russia together after the collapse of the USSR and reasserting Russia’s place in the world as a real power. If I was a Russian voter, Putin would have my vote. 2012 is shaping up to be a critical year. Not only could it see the return of Vladimir Putin to lead Russia, President Obama is also up for re-election in 2012.
It didn’t take long for Obama to make concessions to the Russians in cancelling Bush’s missile-shield plan in Poland and the Czech Republic without receiving any concessions from the Russians in return. This uncompensated concession by Obama really shows what a rookie he is in international affairs. I think Obama thought he “won” a concession from Russia when Russia allowed the USA to fly over Russian-dominated airspaces to resupply American troops in Afghanistan, but that was also a diplomatic/strategic victory for the Russians. Russia “conceded” to help Obama “wear out” American military forces in a non-strategic war in Afghanistan (which furthers a strategic Russian-Chinese-Iranian goal). It also gives Russia a bargaining chip to allow it to cut off that supply route in the future whenever it wants to do so. Obama’s failure to grasp that this arrangement was a “win-win” situation for Russia and a “lose-lose” result for the USA is a testimony to how little Obama understands of global geopolitics.
Putin is clearly angling for more concessions from what he sees as a weak American president. So far, he has played Obama “like a violin,” and this emboldens Russia (and all American enemies) greatly. However, Putin’s desire for more Russian weaponry to oppose the USA in the future is no bluff, in my opinion. Ezekiel 38 prophesies that Russia, China, Iran and their allies will invade the homelands of the modern nations of the house of “Israel” in the latter days. Russia wants all the weaponry it can get for that objective, and it needs pretexts and excuses to build more offensive weaponry. In Isaiah 41:21-26, God challenges all humans to witness his ability to bring to pass all his prophecies as evidence that he is the one and only Creator God and that the Bible is the only Holy Book that is Divinely inspired. As those who have read my books realize, God has fulfilled all his prophesies about the ten tribes of Israel throughout their history (even when the Israelite nations didn’t even know who they were). The scriptural and secular/historical evidence is overwhelming that the USA, UK, many European nations, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are the nations of “Israel” identified in Ezekiel 38. “Israel” does not identify the Jewish state in the Mideast even though that is its secular name. Its scriptural name in prophecy is “Judah,” not Israel. Newcomers to this blog can read my articles and listen to my audio messages at this website to examine thew evidence that many western nations are descended from the supposedly “lost” ten tribes of Israel. A good start is the article at my home page on the “USA in Prophecy.”
So what is the USA doing about the rise of Iran to a nuclear power, rapid Chinese militarization for war and Russia’s reversion to a Cold War enemy? So far…nothing. The Obama administration and Congress is hell-bent on destroying the USA’s federal balance sheet and continuing President Bush’s policy of exhausting the U.S. military in endless warfare. At least, Bush’s war in Iraq is winding down and it appears that it will at least be partially successful. It was also fought for a vital national interest—access to Mideast oil. The Iraq war also offered American forces an easy avenue of both resupply and retreat (critical factors in any war). Obama’s ramped-up war in Afghanistan has no secure supply lines and no secure avenue of retreat for U.S. forces and its serves no critical U.S. interest.
What America is doing as it exhausts its soldiers and wears out its military equipment in Afghanistan is turning the U.S. military into a “hollow force.” This warning comes from no less a figure that than Admiral Mike Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (see second link). Admiral Mullen warns the U.S. military is already “tired,” and could degrade into being a “hollow” military force. He chose his words carefully as I sense his remarks were not cleared by the White House. Indeed, his going public with such comments may be an effort to try and have the the Commander-in-Chief realize the gravity of the situation. His remarks warn that the policy (began in the Clinton administration) of transitioning the U.S. military from one which can fight major wars to one which is devoted to “peacekeeping and nontraditional missions” is a factor in the military becoming “hollow.”
The article, from the Washington Times, suggests (rightly, I think) that Admiral Mullen disagrees with Defense Secretary Gates’ policy of having the U.S. military focus on counterinsurgencies instead of large-scale wars with nation-states such as North Korea, China or Iran. I wonder if Admiral Mullen realizes just how right he is. Ezekiel 38 warns the USA (and NATO and their western allies) will have to fight an all-out, global war simultaneously with Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Belarus, Kazhkstan, the Central-Asian (ex-Soviet) nations, the radicals in Afghanistan, Pakistan, most likely Syria and such other nations as Venezuala, Nicaragua and Cuba which are already in the Gog-Magog alliance or are sliding rapidly into it. Turkey’s status is unclear. It could be on either side. No diplomatic efforts will stop this event from eventually occurring in the future. Because Ezekiel 38 prophesies this war will catch the West by total surprise, it infers that this war will break out at a time when the West gullibly thinks a new age of “peace” has arrived (I Thessalonians 5:3 agrees that such a thing will happen at the end of our age). Ezekiel 38:4 and 10 prophesy that God will compel the leaders of the Gog-Magog alliance to attack the USA, NATO and the West when it fits his prophetic timetable. We do not know when that attack will come and I do think other major prophetic events must come first (the fall of Babylon the Great, its replacement by the beast power and the ministry of the Two Witnesses), but at some point it will come.
I dearly wish there was better news, but the Gog-Magog alliance already is preparing to fight that war by increasing its military forces and making sure the USA weakens its military forces. The West is in denial re: the increasing danger it faces. The USA appears to be a nation in which the utterly blind lead the utterly blinded.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6970921.ece
http://www.gertzfile.com/gertzfile/InsidetheRing.html
