Steven Collins
5-13-07
The May 8, 2007 issue of USA Today had a front-page article entitled “General: Air Fleet Wearing Down.” Previous blogs have commented on the unprecedented weakness of today’s US Army and Marine Corps due to its small size, the excessive redeployments of troops back to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the wearing out of the equipment needed by our ground forces.
The above article also documents that the US Air Force has also been wore out and its needs have been neglected. General Ronald Keys, the leader of the US Air Combat Command, is cited as stating that the entire U-2 spy plane fleet was grounded recently due to a maintenance problem. The entire fleet of 356 A-10 “Warthogs” (a ground-support, tank-busting aircraft) needs wing replacements due to its continuous use in warfare. The article did point out that Congress has authorized funds to replace the wings of 132 of these aircraft, but the rest will need new wings as well to keep them flying.
The article stated : “The US Air Force’s fleet of warplanes is older than ever and wearing out faster because of heavy use in Iraq and Afghanistan.” USA Today’s article stated that the average age of a USAF warplanes is now 23.5 years (the oldest average age for a warplane in US history!). The article contrasted that average age to 1967, when the average age of a USAF warplane was only 8.5 years.
This article confirms that the US military is being steadily weakened by President Bush’s decision to wage two wars without increasing the size of what was a actually a “peace-time army” at the beginning of these wars. I want to stress that I did not disagree with President Bush’s decision to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq; however, it is a very risky policy to commit the military to two prolonged wars while declining to increase the size of the military to handle the increased workload, deployment schedules, etc.
Ezekiel 38 prophesies that the nations of the latter-day house of Israel will not be prepared for a great World War III which will break out suddenly when Russia, China, Iran and their allies launch a surprise attack upon the USA, NATO, the Israelis and their allies. The nations of the house of Israel will be armed (Ezekiel 38:21 states God will call upon them to use their weapons to resist the attack), but they will be in a state of readiness for such large-scale warfare. Ezekiel 38:11 prophesies the nations of the house of Israel (the USA, NATO, etc.) will be like cities without walls, bars and gates. In other words, they will have neglected their defenses at the time this attack comes. The massive disarmament of the USA and NATO after the “Cold War ended” combined with the wearing out of the US military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan is bringing about the conditions for Ezekiel 38’s prophecy to be fulfilled. The more the USA weakens itself while declining to strengthen its military, the “juicier” a target we become in the eyes of our enemies.
Make no mistake about it! Russia, China and Iran are the enemies of the USA and the West. Iran openly calls us “the Great Satan” and its current leader makes apocalyptic pronouncements about Iran’s intent to fight the Western nations and Israel in the future. China continues to wage economic/monetary war upon the USA and the West by keeping its currency grossly undervalued and by stealing the West’s industrial base by duping its global corporations into relocating their
production facilities to China to obtain low-cost labor to bolster their bottom lines. Many media articles have commented on the increasingly hostile statements and actions of Putin’s Russia toward the USA and the West. Ezekiel 38’s prophecy is being dramatically fulfilled right before our eyes in world geopolitics. That a prophecy written thousands of years ago is coming to pass in precise detail in what is provably “the latter days” of our age confirms that a Divine Creator has authored the Bible and is bringing his prophecies to pass right on schedule, just as he promised to do in Isaiah 41:21-26.
