Global SITREP E2-15: Bible Prophecy and the War in Syria - Part II

UPDATE 11 November 2015:  I noticed on today's front page of my local newspaper there a USA Today article (links to Chicago Sun-Times) written by Tom Vanden Brook confirming my previous update of 6 November below regarding the deployment of USAF F-16C air-to-air combat aircraft to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as well as the reasons for this deployment according to an anonymous DoD (Pentagon) source. The F-16Cs now confirmed purpose is: "...to protect low-flying U.S. attack planes hitting Islamic State targets and to deter Russian aggression in the region..." Protect them from whom? From Syrian and Russian fighter aircraft. This article reveals that 6 additional F-16E are being deployed to Incirlik to join the B-1 Lancers, A-10 Warthogs and AC-130U Spooky and the new AC-130J Ghostrider gunships striking Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq. Ahead of the curve is a good place to be.

6 November 2015: Another rather large nail was driven into the coffin of the faulty exegesis and expository preaching of some that the Russian military intervention in Syria's civil war is heralding the immediate fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39 yesterday when the NATO alliance publicly sounded a call to arms to counter the ongoing Russian military buildup. Ezekiel 38/39 is coming, but it most definitely is not the next fulfillment within the now apparent sequence of pre-70th Week fulfillments that have been discussed in many blog posts over the past seven years and reside in the front-page archives of Eschatology Today.

The forceful call to arms announced in Troia, Portugal (a 'merchant of Tarshish' by the way) by NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg is the diametric opposite of what is prophesied to occur in Ezekiel 38:13. This announcement at its core is an order of magnitude beyond the self-perceived enhanced flexibility of U.S. President Barack Obama in his dealings with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin. This announcement effectually is a line drawn in the sand instructing Putin to go no further; that this is not about Obama, but something well beyond him, this is about the future of the West itself, 'Revived Rome of the 70th Week' as referred to in our dispensational exegesis.

As reported by a plethora of world corporate media, the NATO call to arms (a military response) is a direct response to the Russian military challenge to NATO that is occurring along a north-south axis from Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, to Crimea and Ukraine on the Black Sea, to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea on the Syrian littoral where Russian military forces have been massing all manner of combat capabilities in recent weeks. To quote Stoltenberg, "We have to be sure that we are able to overcome these capabilities, so we can reinforce, so we can move and we can deploy forces if needed." NATO's military response is now in progress and is the reason behind the publicly announced movement of a squadron of American F-16C Fighting Falcons to Incirlik Air base in Turkey.

Again, SITREP E2-15 is a continuation of SITREP D10-15. In the second-to-last paragraph of D10-15 I provided an assessed forecast which was based upon Jeremiah 49:23-27 and Isaiah 17. At this junction that forecast might bear repeating.

"There are verses in both Jeremiah's and Isaiah's prophecies that directly relate to an apparent military catastrophe along the Syrian littoral of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and ashore in the area from Hama to Arpad (the area of Aleppo and north to the Turkish border), and, of course, the destruction (possibly if not probably by nuclear means) of Damascus and all of the military forces that will be within the city as it meets its prophetic fate. Also, not only will the endgame of this intervention in Syria be a military disaster for the Russians and Iranians, but Syria as a nation itself will cease to exist."

In Happier Pre-War Times - Parading IRGC Troops

5 November 2015: As the title strongly suggests, this SITREP is actually going to be a continuation of D10-15.

It may still come as a surprise to some, but a report published today by Asharq al-Awsat (datelined in both Tehran and London) claims according to a source close to Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) that due to the deaths of several senior Iranian generals and field-grade commanders (at least 30 in the past two weeks), and the increasingly heavy death toll among IRGC regular troops in Syrian combat against Sunni jihadists, a mutiny has begun to take hold with a significant number of senior IRGC-QF commanders who have begun refusing to return to the front lines and fight with their troops, while still others back home in the majority ethnic Arab province of Ahvaz have retired from the IRGC-QF and the regular Iranian Army rather than be deployed into the Syrian war zone. In a bid to entice other ethnic minorities in Iran (Balochis, Azeris, Sunni Arabs and Kurds ) to join its depleting ranks, the IRGC is offering these would-be recruits the equivalent of $830 for agreeing to a six week combat tour in Syria after completion of their training. According to Bible prophecy, specifically Jeremiah 49:34-39, Iran's military problems are just beginning with unimaginable losses foretold for the future.

 
One of the adjunct repercussions of the war in Syria, as we all know, is the flood of Christian, Muslim and secular refugees fleeing into the heart of Europe. Much has been made of the strong probability of Islamic terrorists coming with the rank and file refugees, but we've not heard much about what many Europeans themselves think of this influx, until now. Below is an image of a hand-painter banner measuring 50 feet tall by 75 feet wide that was unfurled at a home soccer game in Wroclaw, Silesia, Poland. The banner depicts boatloads of jihadists giving the one-fingered salute of the Islamic State coming uninvited to the southern shores of Europe, only to be greeted by European continent guarded by a fully armored Crusader brandishing a massive sword and St. George's cross, and whose shield displays the Wroclaw football club's crest on it.

Incidentally, one week prior to this soccer match the result of the national election was that the Polish people threw out of office ALL of the left-wing members of the national Parliament. All of them. Memo to America: one year from now follow Poland's lead.

Russia has just a few of it's best combat aircraft in Syria, but America is not letting that go unchallenged. While both countries are against the Islamic State, they are also supporting opposite sides in the Syrian civil war. So the U.S. has upped the ante by sending a squadron of F-16C Fighting Falcons armed only with air-to-air weaponry to operate in Syria from Incirlik Air Base in Turkey. Clearly these top-of-the-line U.S. Air Force fighters will not be dog fighting with Islamic State fighter aircraft. So, their purpose is to defend NATO ally Turkey from Russian or Syrian air force incursions - or - to give the anti-Assad rebels the US is supporting air cover from attacks by Russian and/or Syrian aircraft and helicopters. 

Russian Air Force General Bondarev is being quoted in various media reports of 5 November saying that due to the possibility of foreign fighter aircraft being "hijacked" in countries adjacent to Syria (i.e. Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Israel) the assets Russia has deployed to Bassel al-Assad Air Base near Jableh includes an air defense system comparable to Israel's Iron Dome air defense (AD) system. The types of anti-air defenses was not mentioned by Gen. Bondarev. However, Eschatology Today has determined precisely what systems have been deployed into Syria. They are the modernized 9K33 OSA SA-8 'Gecko'; the S-125-2M Pechora-2M, the NPO Almaz S-200 SA-5 'Gammon', the Pantsir-S1 SA-22 Greyhound' and BuK-M2E SA-17 'Grizzly,' as well as all of the associated radar emitters and command and control (C2) infrastructure. This effectively constitutes a division-level air defense umbrella to cover the Latakia and Tartous governorates in Syria. No one should believe the 'hijack' nonsense given by this Russian air force general, these weapons are clearly designed to defend against NATO and Israeli airstrikes against the Russian bases in Syria.

Did I say "upped the ante?" Roger that, I certainly did. And to those who still think the Russian intervention in Syria is a lead-in to Ezekiel 38/39, think again, Russia and Turkey are enemies in this war.