Steven Collins
March 1, 2008
According to the link cited below, the USA may be on the verge of giving the soon-to-be-retired aircraft carrier, the USS Kitty Hawk, to India as part of a major arms deal and strategic cooperation agreement. This is a surprising development and needs some background information for context.
During the Cold War, Russia supplied much of the armaments bought by the Indian military. In 2004, Russia and India signed a deal in which India would pay to refurbish a smaller Russian carrier which Russia would give to India as long as India bought the aircraft for the carrier from Russia. However, the deal has turned very sour as it is badly behind schedule and costs are escalating. India is looking for a better alternative, and that alternative may be coming from the USA. The USS Kitty Hawk, is due to be retired soon, and it may be transferred to the Indian Navy if India is willing to buy the fighter aircraft to be used on the carrier from the USA.
According to the link’s story, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, delivered “a signed letter from US President George Bush offering a better deal…” The offer allows the USS Kitty Hawk, a far more capable aircraft carrier than the one Russia was offering, to be transferred to India for free if India will buy American naval warplanes for use on the carrier. This huge deal could lead to increased sales from the USA to India in other weapons categories. The deal would have great advantages for both the USA and India. India would receive a fully-operational, front-line aircraft carrier from the USA, giving India a vastly-greater naval asset than Russia was offering. Plus India would receive the carrier right away, not years in the future like the ever-delayed Russian deal. The USA would benefit from keeping its military aircraft production lines open, and this would help the ailing US economy.
This deal would also draw India and the USA further together as strategic allies. A previous blog noted that an agreement was being considered which would allow India and the USA to use each other’s military basing facilities. If India accepts the offer of a front-line US carrier, it further implements that agreement because, in future wartime conditions, US naval planes will be able to land on the Indian carrier which used to be the USS Kitty Hawk and US-made Indian warplanes will be able to land on US carriers. In a war, the USA and India could conduct joint carrier operations with full interoperability of weapons and support systems, a huge advantage for both nations! Previous blogs have noted that the navies of the USA, India, Japan, Australia,and Singapore have conducted major joint operational exercises. All these nations are concerned about the growing military threat of China to all other nations in the region, and China’s rapid military expansion programs are driving the USA, India, Japan, Australia, Singapore, etc. into an ever-closer alliance to counter China’s burgeoning military power and bellicose policies. The growing US-Indian cooperation needs to be seen in light of the information in other previous blogs that India and the Israelis are also drawing closer together in military and space-launch missions.
If this carrier agreement takes place, Russia and China will be angry, and relations between the developing rival alliances (the “New Axis” of Russia, China, Iran, etc. vs. the USA, NATO, India, Japan, and other Pacific Rim nations) will grow steadily more acrimonious. The carrier deal would strongly support the viewpoints expressed in my articles and blogs that India is assuming the prophesied role of “Sheba and Dedan” in Ezekiel 38:13 (the descendants of Abraham’s offspring from Keturah and his concubines which traveled to an “eastern” region and which were also blessed with God’s promise to increase their numbers– Genesis 25:1-6). Japan is the prime candidate to be latter-day “Tarshish,” the nation “of merchants” whose export-driven model would be copied by smaller “young lion” nations (the “young tiger” economies of Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, etc.). See the article on “Japan” at this website for more information on these identifications. There will be some irony in this arrangement if the carrier deal between the USA and India goes through. The USS Kitty Hawk was the carrier stalked by a Chinese submarine in the open Pacific Ocean and it was also recently denied docking rights in Hong Kong in a Chinese snub to the USA. If this carrier become a front-line carrier in India’s navy, it will become a permanent part of India’s deterrent against Chinese aggression.
World developments are steadily confirming the accuracy of biblical prophecies for the latter days. The rival alliances prophesied in Ezekiel 38 are rapidly coming into the precise alignments predicted by the Bible. God challenged everyone in Isaiah 41:21-26 to see that he is the real Creator and Sovereign of the Universe by watching his ability to implement his biblical prophecies over the millennia. The fulfillments of so many “latter day” prophecies in our time confirm that the Bible is a Divinely-inspired book, and that the Being who inspired its texts and prophecies is now actively shaping the destinies of all modern nations. If new readers to this blog want to see abundant evidence that biblical prophesies about the latter days are being fulfilled today, please read my article, Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days?, available at this website.
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