Watching the evolution of this mess in the Middle East would be terrifying if not for the knowledge of biblical prophecy. We know exactly what will happen in the future, thanks to God Himself, who decided to dictate to the ancient prophets the events we are watching right now in real time.
We know that a war will ignite - a war involving Israel and the so-called 'inner circle' of radical Islam, described in the prophetic scriptures of Isaiah 17 and the prayer/petition of Psalm 83. This war will involve the destruction of Damascus. The world will also witness the epic battle/war of Ezekiel 38-39 as the alliance of Turkey, Iran and Russia will lead a coalition including much of Northern Africa into Israel, in what would surely lead to Israel's complete destruction, but God supernaturally intervenes in a dramatic way, so that the entire world will see that God's actions directly saved Israel while destroying the invading forces. Personally, I don't believe the Church will be present to witness this scenario (Ezekiel 38-39), as we, during the church age believe by faith, not by sight (and we know that Ezekiel 38-39 will conclude very much "by sight" as "...and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence" [Ezekiel 38-20], "And So I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord." [Ezekiel 38-23], "I will display my glory among the nations and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay upon them." [Ezekiel 39-21]).
We appear to be on the brink of both wars occurring and they are approaching at light-speed. The ramifications of this scenario should be obvious to the prophecy watcher:
Western and Middle East powers led by Washington began moving Saturday night and Sunday morning, Aug. 25, toward a first strike against Syria following the Assad regime’s large-scale chemical attack in eastern Damascus last Wednesday. The first targeted strike may well signal the start of a series of US-led attacks aimed at toppling the Assad regime, DEBKAfile’s military sources report. They may consist of imposing a no-fly zone and the sealing off of sectors in northern and southern Syria against government forces.
Russian forces also went on war alert
President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron spent 40 minutes on the phone Saturday night amid the strongest indications to date from Washington that direct military intervention by the West was approaching, following a change in the US president’s posture. He has become convinced that the strike would have to be conducted outside the United Nations.
Military commanders from Western and Muslim countries are meeting Sunday in the Jordanian capital of Amman to coordinate action in Syria, with the participation of the US, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, France, Italy and Canada. Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Chiefs of Staff chairs the meeting. Saturday night, four American destroyers were moving closer to Syria, armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles, which are capable of precision strikes.
While Western media are reporting at length on Western, Arab and Muslim military preparations, Israel’s armed forces are moving ahead in secrecy. Its officials spread soothing statements asserting Israel’s non-involvement in the Syrian turmoil, as Israel’s military and intelligence agencies get ready for Syria to counter an attack by loosing missiles against their country as well as Jordan and Turkey. All three also expect an explosion of terrorism.
Moscow has placed on war alert Russia’s Mediterranean and Black Sea fleets as well as rapid deployment forces in southern and central Russia.
PM: Israel's 'Finger On The Pulse' Of Syria Developments, If Necessary Will Also Be 'On The Trigger'
Israel's "finger is on the pulse" following the situation in Syria, and – if needed – will also be on the trigger, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday in his first public comments on reports that hundreds of Syrian were killed last week by chemical weapons.
What is happening in Syria is both a horrible tragedy and crime, he said at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu said that Israel drew three conclusions from this episode.
"First, this situation cannot continue. Second, it is forbidden for the world's most dangerous regimes to have the most dangerous weapons in the world. And thirdly, we expect this to end, but we remember the ancient adage of our sages: 'If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us' – that is to say, our finger, our hand, will always be on the pulse. Our finger is responsible, and when needed it is also on the trigger."
Peres said that the "time has come for a joint effort to remove all the chemical weapons from Syria. They cannot remain there either in the hands of Assad or of others."
He said that while he could "understand the problems and doubts" about intervening in Syria, "the moral call is superior to any strategic considerations." He praised Fabius for speaking out on this issue, and said his voice "has been the clearest in recent days concerning the situation in Syria."
"In addition to everything else needed to stop this massacre there must be an international attempt to take out the weapons. It is very complicated and it is very expensive but it is more dangerous and more expensive to leave it there. It must be done," he said
Signals from the US suggesting a military response to thealleged chemical massacre in Syria are growing louder, and Israel, it is safe to assume, is quietly making preparations to ensure it is ready for potential retribution attacks.
If and when Washington, together with its allies, launches a military strike on Syria, the move will not only target the Assad regime.
A US military response will also challenge the belligerent axis that stands behind Syria, made up of Iran, which is sending weapons and military advisors to Syria, and Hezbollah, which sent thousands of highly trained, heavily armed fighters to Syria to help keep the Assad regime alive.
This axis, also known as the Shi'ite crescent, operates under Russian diplomatic cover, as well as military support from Moscow, in the form of extensive sales of sophisticated arms to Syria.
Iran, leader of the Shi'ite crescent, views Syria as its critical forward province. Now, the axis' members will be thinking about how they should respond to an imminent US military strike.
Attempts to lash out at Israel could include Syrian ballistic missile attacks, rocket attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon or in Syria, or terrorist attacks on overseas Israeli targets by global Hezbollah or Iranian operatives.
Despite the threats, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran all know that any provocation against Israel could backfire badly against them.
The strength of Israel's deterrence, based on its military prowess, will help decide whether Israel becomes the target of a retribution attack.
The signals Israel has sent consistently in recent months and years suggest that it would be wrong to assume that Jerusalem will repeat its actions from the 1991 Gulf War, when Israel did not return fire at Iraq after coming under Scud missile fire.
The signals Israel has sent consistently in recent months and years suggest that it would be wrong to assume that Jerusalem will repeat its actions from the 1991 Gulf War, when Israel did not return fire at Iraq after coming under Scud missile fire.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz have already made it abundantly clear that Israel will respond to any attack on its civilians. The most recent demonstration of this resolve was on display last week, when the Israel Air Force bombed a terrorist site south of Beirut, in response to the firing of four rockets at northern Israeli cities.
The airstrike was the latest in a series of clear signals designed to exhibit Israel's determination to respond to all attacks on it. Before that, the IDF's Northern Command responded to gunfire and shelling attacks from Syrian army units by silencing the sources of fire with guided surface-to-surface Tamuz missile strikes.
Not only has Israel beefed up its deterrence with such responses, it has also – according to foreign media reports – demonstrated its preemptive capabilities, and resolve to use them.
According to reports, targets of past preemptive strikes range from caches of Iranian guided missiles in Damascus to a jihadi terrorist cell in the Sinai Peninsula preparing to fire rockets on Israel.
With the Israel Air Force able to strike more targets (near and far) than ever before, and IDF Military Intelligence keeping its many eyes on more enemy activity than ever before, those who consider striking at Israel will surely not proceed to do so lightly, if at all.
Any assessment of potential retribution should also factor in the possibility that Syria, Hezbollah and Iran might decide to take a calculated risk and launch a limited assault on Israel in response to a US strike, based on a prediction that Israel will refrain from responding with full force.
As the United States mulls response to the escalating situation in Syria, Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi warned Washington of launching military action against his country.
"The basic repercussion would be a ball of fire that would burn not only Syria but the whole Middle East," Zoubi told Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen TV.
Similar warnings also came from Iran, one of President Bashar Assad's main allies.
Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, warned the United States on Sunday against crossing the "red line" on Syria, saying it would have "severe consequences", according to the Fars news agency.
"America knows the limitation of the red line of the Syrian front and any crossing of Syria's red line will have severe consequences for the White House," Jazayeri said, reacting to statements by Western officials regarding the possibility of military intervention in Syria, according to Fars.
U.S. naval forces are moving closer as the president emphasized that a quick intervention in the Syrian civil war was problematic, given the international considerations that should precede a military strike.
U.S. defense officials told The Associated Press that the Navy had sent a fourth warship armed with ballistic missiles into the eastern Mediterranean Sea but without immediate orders for any missile launch into Syria.
U.S. Navy ships are capable of a variety of military actions, including launching Tomahawk cruise missiles, as they did against Libya in 2011 as part of an international action that led to the overthrow of the Libyan government.
'The Defense Department has a responsibility to provide the president with options for contingencies, and that requires positioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options - whatever options the president might choose,' Hagel told reporters traveling with him to Asia.
Hagel said the U.S. is coordinating with the international community to determine 'what exactly did happen' near Damascus earlier this week.
An Iranian commander is warning the United States over a possible military move against the Tehran-backed regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The semi-official Fars news agency, which has close ties to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard, quotes Gen. Masoud Jazayeri as warning that “trespassing over the red line in Syria will have severe consequences for the White House.”
Gen. Jazayeri did not provide details but said Washington is well aware of such red lines. He said the war in Syria is a product of a U.S. plot and “regional reactionary” countries, a common reference to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Earlier Saturday, Washington said U.S. naval forces are moving closer to Syria as President Barack Obama considers a military response to Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons.
Newton's third law strikes again.
Yesterday, when describing the latest US developments in the Syrian "liberation" and "WMD elimination" we pointed out that the "use of war as a culmination point to end a depression is nothing new. Just look at the first Great Depression. And just like then, the only cost to perpetuate the myth of the Keynesian and monetarist religion and the pillaged wealth of the 0.01% status quo elite, will be a few hundred thousand innocent men, women and children. Or, as they are known in the Beltway, collateral damage. That is, unless, Putin decides to retaliate."
Moments ago Interfax reported that Russia is starting to pre-emptively, for now, retaliate.
Russia can increase its military presence in the Mediterranean in the case of the possible enlargement of the U.S. naval grouping in the region in the event of the aggravation of the situation in Syria, President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Leonid Ivashov believes.“Russia can increase its naval grouping in the Mediterranean as a reply measure. I think that nothing else remains to prevent the development of the factor of aggression,” he said to Interfax-AVN on Saturday commenting on media reports of the possible increase in U.S. naval presence in the Mediterranean.In his opinion, Russia should point out to the world the most crying violations of the UN Charter concerning Egypt and especially Syria.“We should be speaking more strongly of noninterference in the internal affairs of Syria,”Ivashov said.He said that deliveries of Russian defense systems to the Syrian armed forces could become a lever of influencing the United Statesand of averting the threat of an attack on Syria.
Will Obama's misreading of the "New Normal" geopolitical balance of power, in which America is rapidly relegating itself from global superpower status and in which Putin most certainly does not see himself as inferior to the US, yet in which there is no actual game theoretical winner if everyone defects (but lots and lots of losers, except for the Fed) force America into a milltary confrontation from which there is no easy and simple way out?
We will find out over the next several days.
While the United States is repositioning its naval forces in the Mediterranean as it considers a possible military response to recent developments in Syria (as reported and shown yesterday), at least two other nations are joining in preparation for a naval offensive against the Middle Eastern nation.
Below, courtesy of Reuters and Stratfor, are details of U.S., French and British forces in the region that could be involved in any attack.
UNITED STATES
- A U.S. military source said on Friday the U.S. Navy was increasing its number of cruise missile-carrying destroyers in the Mediterranean to four from three by delaying the return to the United States of the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Mahan.
- The aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman, by far the most powerful warship in the region, left the Mediterranean last weekend, passing through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea.
- Defence experts say the carrier could still strike Syria from south of Suez. As well as the strike aircraft carried by the Truman, several of her escort ships are also capable of firing Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.
- Since earlier this year, the United States has also had F-16 jets in Jordan, where they remained after a major military exercise this year at the request of the Jordanian government. It also has a major air base at Incirlik in Turkey that could easily house multiple aircraft as part of a wider military campaign.
FRANCE
- Having completed a major refit in the past few weeks, the French nuclear aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is operational. Officials say she remains for now in the Mediterranean port of Toulon.
- France also has Rafale and Mirage jets based in the United Arab Emirates that could potentially reach Syria.
BRITAIN
- Without any operational aircraft carriers, Britain would likely be dependent on its cruise missile-carrying Trafalgar and Astute class attack submarines if it wished to join in any U.S.-led campaign.
- Defence sources say the Royal Navy has kept at least one of its submarines in the Mediterranean in recent months partly for that reason.
- Britain does not currently have any combat aircraft in the region, although they could theoretically operate from UK sovereign bases in Cyprus providing the local government agreed.
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