News items that look towards Ezekiel 38 & 39

[Shammu]

Arab Sentiment Backs Soviets Over Georgia
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
By Patrick Goodenough, International Editor

Russia’s military intervention in Georgia in the face of Western protests is being viewed by some in the Arab world as evidence of American weakness, with media commentators voicing barely-disguised delight at what they see as a defeat for Washington.

At the same time, some voices are cautioning the Islamic Middle East not to throw its lot behind Moscow as many of the region’s leading countries did at times during the Cold War.

Russia on Aug. 8 sent troops and tanks across its southern border after Georgia’s pro-Western government mounted an offensive against separatists in the Russian-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia, saying it was forced to act to protect its citizens and peacekeepers in South Ossetia, drove Georgian forces from the rebel province and then pressed into other parts of Georgian territory.

A European Union-brokered ceasefire is now in operation and Moscow on Monday claimed to have begun pulling back.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was Tuesday attending an emergency meeting of NATO’s North Atlantic Council, called at Washington’s request to discuss a response to the crisis. En route to Brussels, she said NATO must reaffirm membership process bids for both Georgian and fellow former Soviet republic Ukraine, despite strong Russian objections.

“We are also going to send the message that we are not going to allow Russia to draw a new line at those states that are not yet integrated into the transatlantic structures like Georgia and Ukraine,” she said. NATO was determined to deny the Russians the strategic objectives of weakening the Georgian state and undermine its democracy.

In the opinion of some in the Arab world, however, the crisis was a clear victory for Moscow – and some thought this was a good thing.

A Gulf News editor, Abdul-Hadi Al-Timimi, wrote in an op-ed Sunday that Russia’s willingness to use its military might to reassert its influence in the former Soviet space was “long overdue,” and “most urgently needed at a time when the U.S. and its allies are targeting two of the last few Russian allies in the Middle East: Iran and Syria."

The United Arab Emirates’ daily Khaleej Times in an editorial predicted that there would now be changes in the international order.

“America will remain the biggest economy and military, yet its diplomatic [authority] will continually trim till it finally rests at a more acceptable level to the rest of the world,” it said.

“From its handling of Iran to its desire to play a more effective role in the Middle East and world affairs, it is apparent that the new Russia is not prepared to be thrown around like a lightweight any more as it was after the end of Soviet Union,” the same paper opined Monday.

“The return of Russia portends a shift in the balance of political forces in the Middle East that for the moment at least appears to weaken the American and pro-Western side of the balance and to strengthen the Iranian side,” said Cairo’s Middle East Times in an editorial.

It noted that Russia supplies Iran with weapons, is completing its new nuclear reactor and “ensuring the U.N. sanctions are not too burdensome."

Some commentators saw an opportunity to criticize the U.S.

Saudi Arabia’s Arab Times in a Saturday editorial sought to put the blame for the crisis on what it called the “inept belligerence” of the Bush administration, and said the Western Europe was being drawn into a U.S. face-off with Moscow.

Qatar’s Gulf Times, meanwhile, scoffed at the American and British criticism of Russia’s actions in Georgia.

“One would think, in light of the Iraq debacle and the continuing disgrace of detention without charge, that these two world ‘powers’ would have been among the last to plant their flags in the shifting soil of moral high ground."

‘Back to the worst years of the Cold War'

Pundits also wondered what the Russia-Georgia war meant for small, U.S.-backed countries.

An editorial in Dubai’s Gulf News said the conflict “has shown that Washington will not always come to the rescue of its allies in their time of need.”

The son of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, said the crisis had sent a warning to other countries that rely on America and think that “closeness to the United States will allow them to do anything they want."

“It’s not so,” he said an interview with the Russian daily, Kommersant.

Gaddafi took issue with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili’s charge that parts of Georgia were “occupied” by Russia.

“How can you talk about occupation, when you are occupiers yourself? The Georgians along with the Americans occupy Iraq! And now they are trying to portray themselves as fighters for freedom and democracy.”

As the crisis unfolded, the U.S. flew 2,000 Georgian troops back home from Iraq, where they had constituted the third-largest foreign contingent in the U.S.-led coalition.

Gaddafi said the Arab world welcomed their pullout.

“All Arabs are mad at Georgia because it sent its troops to Iraq and took part in the occupation of that Arab land,” he said. “If it weren’t for Russia, Georgian forces would still be in Iraq."

Amid the pro-Russia sentiment, a warning came from the Middle East Times, which in an editorial Monday urged Arabs to think with their heads rather than their hearts.

“There is a potential danger of countries in the Arab world to take Russia’s re-entry into the global political scene as a major power broker as a signal to openly side with Moscow,” it said.

Rallying to the Russians would take Arabs “back to the worst years of the Cold War where the Arab world stagnated economically, forever indebted to the Soviets for arms and munitions that were always a step or two behind those of the West.”

Writing in the independent Arab daily Al Hayat, columnist and political analyst Raghida Dergham cautioned the Islamic world against a rush to embrace the Russian use of force.

“Today, and merely to spite the U.S., many Muslims forget that [Russian prime minister and former president] Vladimir Putin has repeatedly taken violent military stances against Muslims in Chechnya and elsewhere, and celebrate his violence to compensate for their constant failure,” she wrote.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union had close ties at times with a number of countries, including Egypt, Syria, Iraq, South Yemen, Algeria and Libya. It was also a key ally of the terrorist Palestine Liberation Organization.

Arab Sentiment Backs Soviets Over Georgia

[Shammu]

We have passed the point where "stability" if you will is a thing of the past. Soviets unprecedented aggression has shown us their quest for power. It will deteriorate till the Gog Magog happens. I have a sense of dread for our country if Israel attacks Iran.

[nChrist]

We have passed the point where "stability" if you will is a thing of the past. Soviets unprecedented aggression has shown us their quest for power. It will deteriorate till the Gog Magog happens. I have a sense of dread for our country if Israel attacks Iran.

Brother,

Stability and safety probably is a thing of the past, but Christians are in GOD'S Hands. We can pray, trust GOD, and go about GOD'S Business. GOD will handle the rest.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Favorite Bible Quotes 441 - Romans 10:9-10 That if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.

[Shammu]

Russia rolls into Georgia, rolls back the clock

By DOUGLAS BIRCH, Associated Press Writer Sat Aug 23, 1:15 PM ET

MOSCOW - This spring, Russian tanks and missiles rolled across the cobblestones of Red Square as soldiers in olive green uniforms goose-stepped and a military band played the revived Soviet anthem. It was the first full-scale military display at the annual Victory Day parade in almost two decades.

On Aug. 8, the tanks rolled again, but this time it wasn't just a parade. As hundreds of Russian armored vehicles rumbled toward the cavernous Roki tunnel into Georgia, the show ended and the shooting started.

The move stunned many in the U.S. and Europe. But it was the result, at least in part, of factors the West has never really understood: Russia's wounded pride over its loss of the Soviet empire, its fear of NATO expansion along its borders and its anger over being treated as a backwater in Europe rather than a global power.

Russia says it was forced to respond to Georgia's ferocious assault on the capital of separatist South Ossetia, which likely killed scores of civilians and a number of Russian peacekeepers. But Russia's role in the Caucasus is much more than that of a neutral peacekeeping force, and its intervention goes much deeper than the latest clashes.

Georgia, meanwhile, blames Russia for provoking the crisis by supporting separatist territories on its soil. The sight of Russian tanks rolling down its highways was also a searing reminder that Moscow dominated Georgia for almost two centuries, and that Soviet tanks entered the capital of Tbilisi in 1989 and soldiers beat 20 protesters to death with shovels.

For much of the world, the motives behind the conflict seem murky; after all, the Cold War is over and the Soviet Union is dead. Russia, it seemed, was becoming a modern nation, part of the international community.

What is hard for the world to see, though, is that there are two Russias. The first is a rapidly developing modern country, a major energy exporter with expanding ties to the global economy, a nation with a sense of pride and purpose after years of struggle.

Symbols of this new Russia are everywhere, from the gleaming skyscrapers springing up along the Moscow River, to shopping centers being built in Siberia, to Russian tourists crowding beaches in Turkey and shops in Manhattan, to the reed-thin women in designer dresses who saunter down the capital's Tverskaya Street, a coiffed miniature dog tucked under one arm.

But behind this growing European facade is an older and less familiar Russia, one that is much harder for foreigners to grasp. This Russia is a 1,000-year-old civilization that is distrustful of political change, wary of the West and jealous of its historic role as master of its corner of the world.

This is a country that throughout its history has felt threatened by independent nations on its borders, and now feels under siege.

The feeling of being surrounded is an uncomfortably familiar one for Russia, which has no natural borders and has been invaded by everyone from the Mongols to the Swedes and the French. To protect itself physically, Russia continually sought to extend its borders and prop up neutral buffer states at the periphery of its sphere of influence. To protect its unique culture, which is neither European nor Asian but both, it adopted a kind of psychological isolation from the rest of the world.

Russia's intervention in Georgia draws on a long history of empire that goes back not just to the Communist era, but much further, to its Czarist past. The symbols of this past survive in the names of many Russian provincial cities — Vladivostok, which means "Conqueror of the East," and Vladikavkaz, "Conqueror of the Caucasus" — in the canals and mansions of St. Petersburg, dredged from a swamp on orders of Peter the Great; and of course in the red-brick walls of the Kremlin itself.

Unlike many Western powers, Russia seems unable or unwilling to turn its back on its cruel but glorious legacy of empire. As Vladimir Sorokin, the Russian writer, told a German magazine last year: "We still live in the country that was built by Ivan the Terrible."

Andre Mironov, one of the last of the Gulag prisoners and a longtime human rights advocate, said Russia's decision to send troops into Georgian-controlled areas showed that the habits of empire survive under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer.

"People like Putin, they have no other idea of how to rule," Mironov said. "What Russia does now, it cannot be analyzed with modern political logic. It is obsolete. If modern countries like the U.S. declare war, they have more or less rational reasons, even if they are mistaken."

Autocratic states like Russia, he said, are not constrained by logic. "You shouldn't expect logic from a KGB lieutenant colonel anyway, you shouldn't expect modern political thinking."

But Mironov's views are in the minority here.

A survey by the respected Levada Analytical Center showed more than half — 53 percent — said Russia was right to send troops into South Ossetia to fight Georgia, as opposed to 36 percent who opposed the idea.

"Russia is a big and capable country, which will not let the West dictate the conditions," Igor Saryov, 33, of Moscow, said matter-of-factly as he waited on a sidewalk outside a Moscow metro station. "In any situation, Russia is going to act as it sees fit."

Standing next to him was Alexei, 33, with slicked-back black hair, drinking a beer at around 10:45 a.m. He refused to give his last name.

Far from committing aggression in Georgia, he said, Russia was resisting it. "Russia has never been conquered, not in 1,000 years, though many tried," he said. "It's because it's in our genes not to allow anyone to dictate the conditions, how to act, where to act."

The roots of Russia's latest intervention in Georgia can be traced at least back to 1991, when Tbilisi declared its independence and an impoverished, divided Soviet Union finally crumbled.

After centuries of being feared by its neighbors and presiding over a patchwork of European and Asian cultures, Russians were suddenly expected to build a modest nation state and live within its shrunken borders. While many of Moscow's satellite states in Europe rebounded quickly, Russia, the epicenter of the failed Soviet experiment, never recovered from the memory of humiliation, poverty and dependence of the immediate post-Soviet period.

Like the U.S., Russia is a patchwork of ethnic groups and cultures. America's diverse population has traditionally rallied behind ideals of individual freedom. Russians, meanwhile, have been united in their pride in Moscow's imperial scope and power.

When the empire crumbled, Russia suddenly found itself without a reason to exist.

cont'd next post

[Shammu]

A few days after his re-election in 1996, President Boris N. Yeltsin asked an advisory panel to come up with "a new national idea to unite all Russians." The panel gave up in frustration.

As Europe advanced, so did NATO, the Western military alliance originally formed to thwart Soviet expansion — stoking Russia's fears of being surrounded and eventually overwhelmed.

Analysts also say Europe has tended to treat Russia as a second-class European nation. "They've realized that if Russia merely plays the role the West has made for it, we would quickly become a country that protects the pipeline sending gas and oil from Western Siberia," said Sergey Mikheyev, an analyst at Center for Political Technologies.

After Russia defaulted on its debt in 1998, its economy started to grow, aided by cheap rubles and fueled by rising gas and oil prices.

Russia's gross domestic product rose 58 percent from 2000 to 2006, and perhaps a fifth of Russians belong to an emerging middle class that didn't exist in Russia before 1991. Russia now earns $1.2 billion a day from gas and oil exports, according to UralSib Capital, a Moscow financial corporation. Its gold and currency reserves are worth more than $581 billion, compared to just $10 billion a decade ago.

Suddenly, there was the sense that the West needed Russia more than Russia needed the West.

The driving force behind Russia's political transformation was Putin, who rose under late President Boris Yeltsin to become prime minister in 1999. In an essay released just days before Yeltsin's resignation, Putin wrote: "It is too early to bury Russia as a great power."

Whether by accident or design, the political system Putin built came to bear an uncanny resemblance to that of the old Czarist state. Today, as in the Czarist epoch, Russia's institutions — its courts, media and businesses — enjoy a measure of independence they could only dream of in Soviet times. But they still are ultimately answerable to the government, especially if they challenge the state.

So what happens now?

While politicians sometimes talk of a new Cold War, none seems on the horizon. The Kremlin seems to have abandoned efforts to impose a Utopian system on the world by force and keep its citizens captive behind an Iron Curtain.

But in striking at Georgia, Russia has asserted its right to intervene in the affairs of countries along its borders — especially the former Soviet republics, which Russians call their "near abroad." The invasion also expanded the role of Russia's military, which until now mainly kept the peace domestically, fighting Islamic or ethnic separatists in the restive North Caucasus.

This policy seems to guarantee more confrontations with Europe and the U.S., which has supported several former Soviet republics like Georgia that are now seeking to establish stable, Western-style governments.

The Kremlin in particular is outraged by U.S. plans to install a missile defense system in Poland and the former Czech republic. Washington insists the system is designed to counter the threat from Iran or North Korea, but Russia says it is aimed at blunting Russia's nuclear capability.

Shortly after Russia's invasion of Georgia, Poland agreed to host the anti-missile system. A top Russian general immediately suggested that Poland had exposed itself to the risk of a Russian nuclear strike.

Viktor Kremenyuk, the deputy director of the U.S.A. and Canada Institute in Moscow, said in some ways tensions between Russia and the West are higher today than they were toward the end of the Soviet period because Europe's borders have moved closer.

"What makes the situation even more difficult is that all these small nations which existed between Russia and the heart of Europe, they have rushed to join Europe," he said.

It is difficult to say whether Russia will again resort to military action, or where it might choose to strike. One possibility is Ukraine, which like Georgia is a country with strong historical and cultural ties with Moscow, now led by a Western-oriented president seeking NATO membership.

Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko, a pro-Western former central banker, was elected in 2004 in a bitter contest against a Kremlin-backed candidate. He has accused Moscow of refusing to cooperate in an investigation of his mysterious poisoning during that campaign.

The Kremlin has cultivated close relations with most of the states of Central Asia, whose vast energy reserves it has helped tap. But even there officials have warily strengthened ties with China and, in some cases, the U.S. in recent years as a counterbalance to Moscow's influence.

Russia's leadership appears to believe it can pursue a more aggressive foreign policy without wrecking its relations with the rest of the world. But some more optimistic experts say the pressures of the global economy will eventually push Russia toward Western-style reforms and closer integration with Europe and the West.

If not, this may not be the last time Russian tanks roll beyond its borders.

Russia rolls into Georgia, rolls back the clock

[Shammu]

Enemies united in pain as Russia trumpets victory
Jon Swain, South Ossetia
August 24, 2008

The memories of the short, vicious war Georgia and Russia fought over the tiny breakaway province of South Ossetia keep flooding back to haunt Ana Robertovna: the screams, the noise, the smoke and, most unbearable of all, the terrified pleading eyes of her grandchildren hiding in the basement as barrage after barrage of Georgian Grad missiles slammed into the houses above.

“After the bombardment we heard the rumble of the tanks and heard on the radio that the Georgians had entered the town,” said Robertovna.

The Georgian soldiers were firing into the cellars and ordering everyone to come outside.

“My granddaughter Sasha was screaming loudest of all. She is only 10. I had to clap my hand over her mouth to stop the Georgians hearing her. They were killing people in the street as they came out of the cellars. We stayed hidden but we knew we could not hide for ever. If the Russians troops hadn’t intervened we would be dead.”

Her face ashen with sorrow, Robertovna, an ethnic Ossetian, was walking with other survivors of the August 7 attack through the rubble of the shattered buildings, her world torn apart. All around were battered blocks of houses in the old Jewish quarter of Tskhinvali, the small South Ossetian capital at the heart of the conflict. There was blood on the wall next to the stairs leading up from a cellar, marking the spot where an old man had collapsed and died from his wounds.

With her was a man bent with sorrow. He said he and his wife had spent 15 years trying to have a child. At the end of July his wife gave birth to a girl. Ten days later, on the night of August 7, she was dead, her tiny body perforated by shrapnel from the fierce bombardment.

As she walked, her feet crunching through broken glass, Robertovna vowed that after the death and destruction of the military strike there could never be reconciliation.

She cared nothing for the heavy-handed way Russian forces had responded to Georgia’s surprise attack by intervening with troops from inside the Russian border, forcing the Georgians out of South Ossetia and driving their own tanks deep inside Georgia to positions within 25 miles of Tbilisi, the capital, where they sat for nearly a fortnight until they withdrew the bulk of their forces on Friday.

Equally angry and bitter was Gulnara Militaura, but as an ethnic Georgian victim she had a different perspective on the conflict that tore Georgia apart. Georgia was the victim of the Russian bear. Until a few days ago she was living in the peaceful village of Tkvaivi, a few miles south of the breakaway statelet on the road linking Tskhinvali to the important Georgian crossroads city of Gori, famous as Stalin’s birthplace, just outside the disputed enclave.

She had once lived in Tskhinvali, like Robertovna, but along with many Georgians in Tskhinvali her family fled earlier fighting that broke out in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and settled in Tkvaivi. It was there that the violence finally caught up with them as a wave of looting and ethnic cleansing engulfed the region after Georgia’s initial offensive sparked the war.

Although several houses had been looted and set on fire she and her family were unwilling to flee, but on August 12 a group of armed men barged into her kitchen. They shot dead her husband and brother and stole a tractor and car. She recognised them as Ossetians.

Over the following days Militaura, a language teacher in her seventies, tried to stop their bodies from decomposing by spraying them with vinegar.

Eventually she was rescued by her son, who managed to join a Georgian government convoy that Russian forces allowed into the area. She had eaten nothing for days and was faint with hunger. Together they buried the bodies next to a rose bush in the garden and fled to Tbilisi. Despite the Russian withdrawal on Friday she was still too frightened yesterday to contemplate returning home. “It will take time to heal her sorrow,” said a friend.

The looting has often been carried out behind the backs of Russian soldiers. In another incident an armed Ossetian gang raided the church in the Russian-occupied city of Gori, which Stalin, himself half-Osse-tian and half-Georgian, had once frequented. They stole a priest’s car.

The withdrawal of the majority of Russian forces was greeted with relief in Georgia yesterday, but there was alarm that Russian troops were clearly establishing a long-term presence in the breakaway region, building peacekeeping outposts in a so-called “security zone” around South Ossetia’s border with Georgia that takes them to within a few miles of Gori.

David Barakadze, the president of parliament, accused Russia of making a mockery of the withdrawal pledge by Dmit-ry Medvedev, the Russian president. He suggested the columns of tanks rolling out of Gori and other areas of Georgia did not constitute a genuine pull-out. “It is not a deal,” he said, a view shared by western states, including Britain, which said Russia had still not complied with the ceasefire agreement negotiated by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.

Georgia and Russia have been bitter enemies since the collapse of the Soviet Union 17 years ago, their relations bedevilled by complicated border disputes in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia’s charismatic president, puts a positive spin on the war, but it has been a humanitarian and economic disaster for the little country and made Georgia’s chances of recovering South Ossetia from the Russian grip even more remote.

Each has its own version of the violent events. For Saakashvili, a Columbia University-trained lawyer, Russia bullied, needled and then invaded its small neighbour, burning villages and butchering civilians.

The attack showed the ugly face of a resurgent Russia that could not forgive this country of just 5m people for betting its future on a western-style democracy and wanting to join Nato. He said Georgians were engaged in a national struggle against Russian domination and he had authorised the Georgian attack only after he was told that Russian tanks were crossing into South Ossetia and Georgian military positions began to take mortar fire from Russian peacekeepers and Ossetian separatists in Tskhinvali.

In the Russian version, naturally accepted by the breakaway Ossetians, Russia intervened after Georgia attacked the enclave, killing hundreds of civilians and 15 Russian peacekeepers. Its crushing military victory over Georgia was justified and has moved them much closer to independence and union with Russia.

The Georgian strike was the breaking point, said Eduard Kokoity, the Ossetian separatist leader, who added that the war was the result of Georgian “fascism” that had flourished with the support of the West.

Certainly that was the prevailing mood at the pro-Russian concert on Thursday night in the ruins of Tskhinvali led by Valery Gergiev, the conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, an Ossetian and a supporter of Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister.

Robertovna wept quietly as she listened. There could be no more potent symbol of the widening gulf separating Ossetians from Georgians than the concert. It would have been particularly apparent to a group of Georgian prisoners huddled in an underground courtyard a few hundred yards away. They could hear the orchestra triumphantly playing Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony and sense the nationalistic fervour of the audience. Nobody knows when they will be released.

On Monday the Russian parliament is due to discuss recognising independence not just for Ossetia but also for Abkhazia, the other Georgian enclave that broke away after fierce fighting in the 1990s, and which is now under tacit Russian control.

A senior Russian spokesman hinted that Putin would visit Tskhinvali soon. To emphasise its status, Russia has given passports to the population making them legally citizens of Russia who are certain to vote for union with Russia in a future referendum.

Whatever gloss Saakashvili puts on the war, the price tag of Georgia’s misadventure is considerable. The fighting killed hundreds, not the thousands both sides have claimed, but the sight of Russian tanks in Georgian villages less than 30 miles from Tbilisi has dealt a crushing blow to its fledgling tourist industry and left a big question mark over investment prospects.

Saakashvili insists he retains massive public support, but his last patriotic rally in Tbilisi’s main square attracted only 15,000 people.

Despite the flag-waving and singing of patriotic songs it was said to have been stage-man-aged, with many of its participants on the government pay-roll. Nobody is in a hurry to take up arms again.

PUTIN’S MAESTRO
Valery Gergiev, the conductor of Thursday night’s concert amid the ruins of Tskhinvali, is principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

A fiery 55-year-old, he was born in Moscow but grew up in Vladikavkaz, the North Ossetia capital. He is a friend of Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, whose daughter is his godchild.

Enemies united in pain as Russia trumpets victory

[Barbara]

Connecting the Dots -- Russian attack clarifying prophetic world order

by Bill Wilson, KIN Senior Analyst

Some media pundits are saying that Russia is starting Cold War II: but in reality, the escalation of the Georgia conflice by Russia and the subsequent actions by NATO and the United States have the makings of a prophetic march toward fulfilling ancient Biblical prophecies about the end times.

Ezekiel 38 and 39 speak of an attack by Russia on Israel where Russia is assisted by the Islamic nations of Iran, Libya and most of Northern Africa. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of the attack in Ezekiel 38:9 (NKJV):

"Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee."

The cunning Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has chosen a very strategic time to invade Georgia and probe the world with his bayonet to see where he hits bone. The United States, which under its last two presidents has become the worlds police department, is in its most vulnerable strategic position.

The U.S. is bogged down in a war against Islam, a bona-fide Russian ally. Moreover, the U.S. war is being conducted in Iraq, the heart of Babylon, a crown in the former Persian Empire - a place many consider the throne of satan.

Satan's strongholds are so powerful in this area that the Biblical prophet Daniel wrote that Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, had to battle against the "kings" (spritual principalities) of Persia there for 21 days.

Putin's probe is a calculated risk in that he seems to believe that the U.S. and NATO will not lift a finger to help Georgia militarily because of being occupies by the Islamic front. Instead, the U.S. has opted to place missile systems in the former Soviet states of Poland and the Czech Republic. This has drawn threats from Moscow that Poland risks being attacked by Russia, even with nuclear weapons.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told reporters that NATO 'is not going to permit a new line to be drawn in Europe.' So far, Putin's risk seems to be rewarded. He has found that he can advance on another nation with words and diplomacy as the only resistance to his assault.

Taking inventory, Russia has chosen a military option in an area that no nation dare engage because it is the most defenseless of the former Soviet Union. Because Islam has the forces of the West occupied in satan's heartland, there is little more than rhetoric to stand in Russia's way.

The U.S. and its allies are spread so thin in a long war of attrition that they haven't the will to take on a Russian advance.

If Putin and his Islamic allies thrust the bayonet beyond the rhetoric, the world may quickly begin to see the true nature of the Russian-Islamic alliance manifesting itself in the Persian Gulf, where the power of oil, world dominance, and prophecy will meet at the unwalled cities of Israel.

[Shammu]

Russian General Criticizes US Black Sea Presence
Russian general: US naval presence in Black Sea will increase tensions after Georgia conflict
By DAVID RISING Associated Press Writer
ABOARD THE U.S.S. MCFAUL August 25, 2008 (AP)

ABOARD THE U.S.S. MCFAUL

A Russian general suggested that U.S. ships in the Black Sea loaded with humanitarian aid would worsen tensions already driven to a post-Cold War high by a short but intense war between Russia and Georgia.

The U.S. Navy destroyer U.S.S. McFaul reached Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi on Sunday, bringing baby food, bottled water and a message of support for an embattled ally.

The deputy chief of Russia's general staff suggested the arrival of the McFaul and other U.S. and NATO ships would increase tensions: Russia shares the sea with NATO members Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria as well as Georgia and Ukraine, whose pro-Western presidents are leading drives for NATO membership.

"I don't think such a buildup will foster the stabilization of the atmosphere in the region," Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn as saying Saturday.

Georgian Defense Minister David Kezerashvili told The Associated Press on the aft missile deck of the McFaul after greeting U.S. Navy officers that the population of Georgia would feel "more safe" from the "Russian aggression" as a result of the ship's arrival.

"They will feel safe not because the destroyer is here but because they will feel they are not alone facing the Russian aggression," he said.

Local children offered the Americans wine and flowers.

In Europe, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would convene a special meeting of European Union leaders over the crisis as Russia ignored Western accusations it has fallen short of its commitment to withdraw forces from its smaller neighbor.

The war erupted Aug. 7 as Georgia launched a massive artillery barrage targeting the Russian-backed separatist province of South Ossetia. Russian forces repelled the offensive and drove deep into Georgia, taking crucial positions across the small former Soviet republic.

Russia pulled the bulk of its troops and tanks out Friday under a cease-fire brokered by Sarkozy, but built up its forces in and around South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist region. They also left other military posts at locations inside Georgia proper.

The U.S. and EU say both those moves violated Russia's commitments.

NATO halted the operations of its vehicle for interaction with Russia, demanding a fuller withdrawal, and Moscow responded by freezing military contacts with the alliance — its Cold War foe whose eastward expansion has angered a resurgent Russia.

The guided missile cruiser USS McFaul, carrying about 55 tons of humanitarian aid, is the first of three American ships scheduled to arrive this week. It brought baby food, diapers, bottled water, milk and hygiene products.

Sailors in a chain on deck passed the supplies up from the hold to be lifted by a crane for transport to shore.

The commander of the U.S. task force carrying aid to Georgia by ship, Navy Capt. John Moore, downplayed the significance of a destroyer bringing aid.

"We really are here on a humanitarian mission," he said.

The McFaul, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, is outfitted with an array of weaponry, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads, and a sophisticated radar system. For security reasons the Navy does not say whether ships are carrying nuclear weapons, but they usually do not.

A U.S. official said the American ship anchored in Batumi, Georgia's main oil port on the Black Sea, because of concerns about damage to the Georgian port of Poti — not because Poti is closer to Russian forces in Abkhazia and Georgia proper.

Russian troops still hold positions near Poti, and Georgian port officials say radar, Coast Guard ships and other port facilities were extensively damaged by Russian forces. AP journalists there have reported on Russians looting the area.

An AP television cameraman and his Georgian driver were treated roughly and briefly detained Sunday by Russian troops outside Poti as he shot video of Russian positions.

Adding to the tension, South Ossetian officials claimed that Georgia was building up military forces in an area along the edge of the battered region and had fired sporadically at villages overnight.

As Moscow's military moved to redraw de facto borders on the ground, Russia's parliament on Monday was planning to consider renewed requests from South Ossetia and Abkhazia for recognition of their claims of independence from Georgia.

Georgia claims Russia wants to annex the regions.

Russian General Criticizes US Black Sea Presence

[Shammu]

Are they going to refuse humanitarian aid for the people they claim to be so concerned about protecting??

The communist/socialist mind has a rather warped concept of "humanitarian aid" to begin with. Add to that the fact that the vessel coming to deliver aid just so happens to be armed to the teeth and prepared to defend itself, and the Russian forces can't help but get their hackles up.

But we know through Bible study, Georgia will become apart of the Gog invasion of Israel.

Russia's move into Georgia, and her threats to other countries in Eastern Europe.

This is, of course, a very significant development in terms of Bible prophecy being fulfilled. However, those who are expecting Russia to invade Israel as a next step, and for Ezekiel chapter 38 to wind up the whole story now, just aren't reading the prophecy carefully enough. Russia must build up her confederacy and her military might first. What we are seeing at present is the beginning of a new phase in Russia's determination to "re-establish control over independent states in its backyard, regardless of who their allies are.

What's unfolding in Georgia today is an emblematic battle in a much larger conflict between Russia and the democratic West that has been simmering since the supposed end of the Cold War, and especially since Putin became president in 1999... other conflicts--not necessarily military--will likely follow in places such as Ukraine, eastern Europe, and the Baltic states. Moscow has emerged from this altercation victorious on all fronts. It has shown that it has the will to crush--all too easily--a small neighbour, and it has sent a collective shudder through the other countries along its borders, all in the face of hollow denunciations from the outside world--and not much more."

Other countries that Russia has in its cross-wires are the Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Poland. In fact, the whole of eastern Europe lies under the shadow of Russia's threatening posture. Russia's vast reserves of oil and gas give it substantial leverage, including in western Europe. Indeed, destabilizing Georgia has only increased Russia's energy clout. Several oil and gas pipelines traverse Georgia, and links are planned to Europe, bypassing Russia. But if Georgia is too fragile to safely transport oil and gas, Europe will have little choice other than continuing its reliance on Russia.

Jewish historian Josephus, whose work has survived for almost 2,000 years wrote as follows........

Magog founded those that from him were named Magogites, but who are by the Greeks called Scythians--Antiquities Bk. 1, chapter 6

From this information we can be reasonably sure that the Biblical Magog is the territory known in ancient history as Scythia. And it is the Greek historian Herodotus (writing in about B.C. 470; that is about 100 years after Ezekiel) that tells us that the boundaries of Scythia were the rivers Danube and Don, the Black Sea and the Baltic. That means that Scythia--our Biblical Magog--occupied land which we today would term eastern Europe, including part of Germany, Poland, Belarus, Romania, Moldova, the Ukraine and the Baltic countries.

Now this is almost exactly the Land that Rosh (Russia) controlled following World War 2. We called it the Communist block. If you take Ezekiel 38:2 on its own, then that was the Russian sphere of control for just over 40 years.

Ezekiel 38, and put all the pieces together, we surely see what to expect next. When the military "coming forth" takes place, we see what follows in verses 5 and 6.

"Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee."

This is the alliance that Russia will form. It will include the whole of Europe, many Islamic countries.... including Turkey. We face difficult times. These things promise us no picnic. Yet while Russia gathers her company the Lord will come. He will judge his people. We must be prepared for that. We must prepare ourselves by studying Scripture.

[Shammu]

Hizbullah-Iran-Syria-Lebanon Axis Tightens
25 Av 5768, August 26, '08
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

(IsraelNN.com) Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned Sunday his terrorist army is much stronger than before the Second Lebanon War and can destroy Israel. He issued the threat at a Boy Scout ceremony as a response to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's remark last week that "if Lebanon becomes a Hizbullah state, then we won't have any restrictions" in striking the country.

The Prime Minister claimed that during the last war, Israel did not use all of its firepower because the enemy was Hizbullah and not its host country Lebanon.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora has sent United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon a letter protesting Olmert's remarks. Siniora, at a meeting with his Cabinet, accused Israel of "once again… threatening to launch a new attack on Lebanon, forgetting that the [Israeli] occupation was the core of the problem for Lebanon and the region."

The flurry of threats and warnings came two days after a report in the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that three Hizbullah leaders visited Russia in July to clinch a deal involving the purchase of anti-tank missiles and air-defense systems.  Israel disclosed evidence during the Second Lebanon War that Hizbullah used advanced Russian anti-tank missiles smuggled from Syria, in violation of previous international agreements.
 
Nasrallah said, in a speech televised by the Hizbullah-backed Al Manar satellite network, that his arsenal of weapons is so great that "the Zionists will think not one thousand times but tens of thousands of times before they attack Lebanon."

The prospect of an Israeli attack on Iran's growing nuclear threat also played a hand in Hizbullah's latest threats. Mohammed Raad, the head of the terrorist party's political bloc in the Lebanese government, warned, "The first shot fired from the Zionist entity toward Iran will be met by a response of 11,000 rockets in the direction of the Zionist entity. This is what military leaders in the Islamic Republic [Iran] have confirmed."

Hizbullah has become a stronger political force in Lebanon since the end of the war two summers ago, winning enough representation in the Cabinet to veto any major decisions.

Syria, which aided Hizbullah in the Second Lebanon War, last week established diplomatic relations with Lebanon for the first time in history, providing Syrian President Bashar Assad with a stronger political base in Beirut's affairs after having withdrawn its military from Lebanon before the 2006 war.

Syria has dominated Lebanese affairs for 30 years, and the West has joined Lebanese opponents of Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs in accusing Damascus of being behind the the 2005 assassination of anti-Syrian former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The new Lebanese government that gives Hizbullah more power assures Syria that it still can influence affairs in Lebanon, with the naming of Michel Suleiman as president. He is close to Syria and was the Lebanese army chief for 10 years during the Syrian army's control of the country.

"It's a win-win situation," said Patrick Seale, a British expert on Syria told the Associated Press. "The Lebanese get diplomatic recognition and the Syrians get recognition of vital interests in Lebanon."

Hizbullah-Iran-Syria-Lebanon Axis Tightens

[Shammu]

Iran will hit back if Israel attacks Hezbollah
Sun Aug 24, 2008 12:10pm EDT

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israel will be targeted by thousands of rockets if it attacks Iran, a senior official in the Tehran-backed group Hezbollah said on Sunday.

There has been speculation that either the United States or Israel could attack Iran's nuclear facilities, although both have said force should be a last recourse in curbing a nuclear program which they suspect aims to build atomic weapons.

Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, is the main backer of Hezbollah -- a Lebanese political and military group which fired thousands of missiles into Israel during a 34-day war in 2006.

"The first shot fired from the Zionist entity towards Iran will be met by a response of 11,000 rockets in the direction of the Zionist entity. This is what military leaders in the Islamic republic have confirmed," said Mohammed Raad, the head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc. His remarks were reported by the National News Agency.

Hezbollah has not said what it would do in the event of a conflict between Iran and Israel. Analysts count Hezbollah, which shares Iran's Shi'ite Islamist ideology, as a major asset for the Islamic republic in the event of conflict.

Tehran has said it will respond severely to any attack. Israel staged an air force exercise in June that triggered speculation about a possible assault on its nuclear sites.

Both Hezbollah and Israel have said the group has expanded its missile capability since the 2006 conflict.

Iran will hit back if Israel attacks Hezbollah

[HisDaughter]

Are they going to refuse humanitarian aid for the people they claim to be so concerned about protecting??

The communist/socialist mind has a rather warped concept of "humanitarian aid" to begin with. Add to that the fact that the vessel coming to deliver aid just so happens to be armed to the teeth and prepared to defend itself, and the Russian forces can't help but get their hackles up.

But we know through Bible study, Georgia will become apart of the Gog invasion of Israel.

Russia's move into Georgia, and her threats to other countries in Eastern Europe.

This is, of course, a very significant development in terms of Bible prophecy being fulfilled. However, those who are expecting Russia to invade Israel as a next step, and for Ezekiel chapter 38 to wind up the whole story now, just aren't reading the prophecy carefully enough. Russia must build up her confederacy and her military might first. What we are seeing at present is the beginning of a new phase in Russia's determination to "re-establish control over independent states in its backyard, regardless of who their allies are.

What's unfolding in Georgia today is an emblematic battle in a much larger conflict between Russia and the democratic West that has been simmering since the supposed end of the Cold War, and especially since Putin became president in 1999... other conflicts--not necessarily military--will likely follow in places such as Ukraine, eastern Europe, and the Baltic states. Moscow has emerged from this altercation victorious on all fronts. It has shown that it has the will to crush--all too easily--a small neighbour, and it has sent a collective shudder through the other countries along its borders, all in the face of hollow denunciations from the outside world--and not much more."

Other countries that Russia has in its cross-wires are the Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Poland. In fact, the whole of eastern Europe lies under the shadow of Russia's threatening posture. Russia's vast reserves of oil and gas give it substantial leverage, including in western Europe. Indeed, destabilizing Georgia has only increased Russia's energy clout. Several oil and gas pipelines traverse Georgia, and links are planned to Europe, bypassing Russia. But if Georgia is too fragile to safely transport oil and gas, Europe will have little choice other than continuing its reliance on Russia.

Jewish historian Josephus, whose work has survived for almost 2,000 years wrote as follows........

Magog founded those that from him were named Magogites, but who are by the Greeks called Scythians--Antiquities Bk. 1, chapter 6

From this information we can be reasonably sure that the Biblical Magog is the territory known in ancient history as Scythia. And it is the Greek historian Herodotus (writing in about B.C. 470; that is about 100 years after Ezekiel) that tells us that the boundaries of Scythia were the rivers Danube and Don, the Black Sea and the Baltic. That means that Scythia--our Biblical Magog--occupied land which we today would term eastern Europe, including part of Germany, Poland, Belarus, Romania, Moldova, the Ukraine and the Baltic countries.

Now this is almost exactly the Land that Rosh (Russia) controlled following World War 2. We called it the Communist block. If you take Ezekiel 38:2 on its own, then that was the Russian sphere of control for just over 40 years.

Ezekiel 38, and put all the pieces together, we surely see what to expect next. When the military "coming forth" takes place, we see what follows in verses 5 and 6.

"Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee."

This is the alliance that Russia will form. It will include the whole of Europe, many Islamic countries.... including Turkey. We face difficult times. These things promise us no picnic. Yet while Russia gathers her company the Lord will come. He will judge his people. We must be prepared for that. We must prepare ourselves by studying Scripture.

I love when you lay it out like this.  Please keep doing so.

[Shammu]

I love when you lay it out like this.  Please keep doing so.

Thank you sister.

I try to make it easy for those that don't know the Bible that well or are vistors to the forum that don't understand the Bible.

[Shammu]

Iran-Israel arms race heats up, both boost naval capabilities
By Haaretz Staff and Channel 10
August 26, 2008.

The arms race between Israel and Iran is moving to the sea.

In Iran, the production of domestically-made submarines recently began. The Iranian defense minister, who visited the production line Monday, said the purpose of the submarines would be to defend the oil pipelines in the Strait of Hormuz, through which up to 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes.

But of particular interest to Israel is the fact that the submarines will have the capability to launch what the Iranian state media called "various kinds of missiles." No further details were provided.

Meanwhile, the Israel Navy has its own plans. Two years after Hezbollah almost sank one of Israel's top warships in the Second Lebanon War, naval supremacy has moved up on the military's list of priorities.

Iran-Israel arms race heats up, both boost naval capabilities

[Shammu]

Syria, Iran warm to Russia as US tensions grow

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 26, 1:27 PM ET

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syria's President Bashar Assad has publicly stepped up his outreach to old ally Russia in recent days, seeking aid to build up Syrian military forces and offering Moscow help in return — in an apparent effort to exploit a new Russian-American rift.

U.S. officials have noticed: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Mideast leaders this week that they should worry about Syria's efforts to gain more sophisticated weapons.

Syria's long-term aim, however, remains unclear, in part because Assad also continues to pursue peace efforts with Israel — a key U.S. and European goal — even as he makes overtures to Russia that are sure to antagonize the West. Syria has a long history of apparently contradictory diplomatic moves as it maneuvers to find options and balance its interests.

Yet the latest Syrian moves feed directly into larger Western fears that the Russian-American standoff — prompted by Russia's invasion of Georgia — could lead Russia to provide more military and diplomatic aid to a host of countries and militant groups the United States sees as troublesome.

"The Russian move into Georgia has begun a tectonic shift in the (Mideast) region," said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert in the United States. "It has emboldened Syria, Hezbollah and Iran to push harder against Israel and the U.S."

Some military officials in Iran have, like the Syrians, openly supported Russian actions in Georgia, although Iran's Foreign Ministry called the clashes merely a result of miscalculations by "powers" and called for dialogue.

Some Iranian media have gone further, asserting Russia is now less likely to back U.S.-led efforts to pressure Iran to curb its nuclear program.

The Russian ambassador to Iran, Alexander Sadovnikov, told the official IRNA news agency this weekend that Moscow won't support a new round of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran. But that position did not appear to be a direct result of the new Russia-U.S. tensions, because Russia often calls publicly for dialogue.

"Russia is never after a new (sanctions) resolution. We hope constant contacts between Iran and the IAEA (the U.N. nuclear agency) will lead to a realistic solution, guaranteeing that Iran is not after nuclear weapons technology," IRNA quoted the ambassador as saying.

Lebanon's Hezbollah is another worry for the West and for Israel.

The Iranian- and Syrian-backed militants have long hoped for weapons systems and greater diplomatic backing from Russia, Landis said, although there is no evidence Russia has shown more warmth toward Hezbollah lately.

Hezbollah does not disclose its weapons sources, except to say they are bought on the international market. But it receives money and much hardware from Iran through Syria. Israel complained to Russia that Hezbollah used Russian anti-tank missiles in its war with Israel in 2006. Russia says its sales comply with international rules.

For now, Syria is the most public example of Mideast fallout from the Georgian fight.

"Syria's bad negotiating position (with Israel) is leading it to look for more weapons and to try to grow more teeth before returning to the table with Israel," Landis said.

Both Iran and Syria have long-standing ties with Russia, leading some to play down the recent moves as having little significance. Russia has sold Syria weapons systems in the past, including the advanced surface-to-air Strelets system, and its warships already had been calling on Syria's northern port of Tartous. Many of Iran's weapons systems also have long come from Russian suppliers.

Yet Assad clearly aimed for deeper ties during last week's Moscow visit.

He asked Russia for weapons, and Moscow's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said his government was prepared to sell Syria arms with "defensive character" that would not upset the Mideast's strategic balance — a reference to Israel, which holds military superiority over its Arab neighbors.

Syria reportedly is interested in air defense missile systems and aircraft. Notably, Assad also told the Russian business daily Kommersant that Syria was "ready to cooperate with Russia in any way that can strengthen its security," including discussing deploying Iskander missile defense systems on Syrian territory to strengthen Russia's security.

Assad also said Syria was ready "in principle" to help Moscow respond to the planned U.S. missile defense shield in Europe, although the Russians have not asked for such help, the newspaper said.

As that news grabbed headlines in the Mideast, Syria's government swiftly denied that Assad had made such an offer to host Russian missiles on Syrian land, or even discussed it with Russia.

The swift denial apparently came because Syria does not want to overly antagonize the United States. Assad has long wanted to regain the strategic Golan Heights from Israel, and his only chance of that is through a peace deal with Israel. He has long sought more robust U.S. involvement in the negotiations with Israel, maintaining progress is unlikely without it.

Syria is holding indirect low-level peace negotiations with Israel through Turkey, a U.S. ally.

Syria, Iran warm to Russia as US tensions grow