Global SITREP A8-16: The Rapidly Changing Dynamics In MidEast Wars

UPDATE 24 February 2016: When Gog of Magog leads his confederated military forces into Israel as foretold by Ezekiel 38/39, he will almost certainly launch his attack from the Caucasus region seen in the map above. In particular, from the nation of Armenia which has become a fully functional satellite state and forward operating base for Vladimir Putin's military forces. My inclusion of the Russian Federation leader's name in the same paragraph as Gog of Magog is not by accident but by intention. I think they may well be one and the same individual.

Since late December 2015 Russia has been pouring its military forces into Armenia with whom it has just inked a defense agreement which extends Russia's military presence in the country through the year 2044. The sprawling Russian base at Gyumri, Armenia is within walking distance (less than 6 miles) of the Turkish border (NATO ally). Armenia is a virtual dagger pointing at the heart of critical U.S. allies Georgia and Azerbaijan. It would make all kinds of military sense for Russia to overwhelm Georgia and Azerbaijan prior to moving south against Israel.

It is instructive to look at the types of weaponry pouring into Armenia at present: advanced drone aircraft, attack helicopters, Iskander-M (SS-26 'Stone') tactical strike ballistic missiles with a range of 30 to 300 miles, a full division of combat troops, a thousand artillery pieces plus an additional 5,000 troops to operate all this hardware. Notice also that all of this military force is of the air mobile or air assault type. 

The questions to ask are: Why are you just now hearing about this; why is this immediate threat not being reported by mass media? (25FEB - Forbes.com has reported this; Drudge.com links to the report) I still think you know the answer.

22 February 2016: The first hints of a dissonance in the Russia-Iran-Syria military alliance are being heard in recent OSINT reports. I mention this only because it is an interesting item to note given what has been occurring around Aleppo and Dera'a.

Accordingly, Russia wants a gradual winding down of its military operations and withdrawal of its combat forces from Syria in favor of a political resolution to end the 5-year old conflict in Syria. Part of the envisioned political process is Russia's tacit admission that Bashar al-Assad will be required to step down. In other words, Russia has no real interest in an open-ended war against Sunni Islam. 

For Iran and Syria, Bashar al-Assad in particular, it is only total military victory over all of the anti-Assad forces that will suffice to determine Syria's future. They see negotiations as a means to an end of their choosing, meaning that negotiations are a distraction from their true objective of military conquest over all rebel factions. Such a tactic worked against compliant American and European foreign ministers in nuclear negotiations, so why not against an incohesive, and fratricide-happy mix of anti-Assad rebel militias?

No matter what, newspaper headlines and insider reports will always have to take a back seat to what Bible prophecy has to say about current events in Syria. The texts of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 are what will be in the future, and it is toward that future reality that events will inevitably maneuver.

19 February 2016:  Nothing should change the military dynamic in the Middle East faster than precision airstrikes by the Israeli Air Force directly against Syrian military targets. This is precisely what transpired on Wednesday evening, 18 February, according to the SOHR (Syrian Observatory on Human Rights) as reported by Reuters News Service and multiple Israeli news sources. Now the wait is on to see how the dynamic changes.

Background: Russian military forces are in Syria to defend the regime from several groups of rebel Sunni forces. So are the Iranians (IRGC), Hezbollah and other Iranian-led Iraqi and Afghan Shi'a militias. Since the Russians and these other foreign forces arrived in Syria, this is the second such IAF strike in the country, and it occurs at a time when increased Russian airstrikes are occurring very close to the Golan border. Wednesday evening's IAF airstrikes scored direct hits on a Syrian regime military facility located between Damascus and Dera'a. There has been, thus far at least, no Russian or Iranian military response to the Israeli strikes.

There is little doubt these strikes, as with the previous strikes, were an Israeli red-line crossed response for the ongoing transfer of advanced weaponry to Lebanese Hezbollah by Syria, Iran, or both, in southern Syria. These strikes very probably destroyed the advanced weapons in a Syrian government depot, as has occurred on multiple previous occasions in the past couple of years as reported on Eschatology Today.

So we watch and wait... 

Meanwhile, according to Arab media over in the Hafr al-Batin, region of northwestern Saudi Arabia, in the desert just southwest of Kuwait where the 1991 Operation Desert Storm was launched against Iraqi forces 25 years ago this month, there is an ongoing Saudi-hosted military exercise of Arab and Sunni Islamic countries known as Exercise North Thunder. The number of troops and war materiel involved in the exercise appear to be somewhat exaggerated as reported by "unconfirmed sources."  Nevertheless, this exercise is being touted as a message to Iran and intended to get the apocalyptic, Mahdi-hastening Shi'a clerics to modify their ambitions.

Participating nations in Exercise North Thunder are: Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Bahrain, Senegal, Sudan, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Chad, Tunis, Djibouti, Comoros, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia Egypt, Mauritania and Mauritius. North Thunder is scheduled to conclude on 10 March 2016.

15 February 2016: The dynamics of ongoing wars in the Middle East are changing pretty much as expected ever since the Russian military intervention in Syria commenced a few short months ago.

It is painfully evident at this juncture that the Russian military alliance with Syria's Alawite-Ba'athist regime under Bashar al-Assad, the Twelver-Hojjatieh-led Islamic Republic of Iran and their terrorist proxy Hezbollah of Lebanon have declared total war against the Sunni Muslims in Syria, and by extension, in the entire Greater Middle East that is populated by Sunni Muslims. 

The tactic being ruthlessly employed in battles raging around Aleppo in the north and Dera'a in the south of Syria by these Russian-led allies is one of ethic cleansing, pure and simple. Russia, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah have jointly come to the conclusion that winning this war requires nothing less than the systematic extermination of the Sunni population in Syria by carpet bombing and the forced migration of Sunni refugees towards Syria's international borders with Turkey, Jordan and even Israel.

As one might expect, the newly established Sunni Arab military alliance led by Saudi Arabia has now taken up a position to enter the war against the Russian-Syrian-Iranian alliance, and has joined the Turkish military in a build up of joint forces on the Turkish-Syrian border. Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the UAE and other Sunni nations are also taking positions with their Sunni allies in the south. Reports of a multi-national Sunni Arab force of 150,000 troops being assembled continue unabated.

American combat forces are once again entering Iraq and Afghanistan in large numbers, and the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve stands as the overall command structure for military operations in Syria and Iraq against the Islamic State. If ever there was a formula for a 'perfect storm' military conflagration in the Middle East, the dynamic inherent in the proximity of these various forces coming into direct, large-scale contact such a confrontation a very real possibility. 

Global SITREP A7-16: Global Military Power in a Multipolar World Order

UPDATE: 26 February 2016: Twice within the past week (20 and 25 February) the United States Air Force test fired nuclear-capable (W87 475kT) Minuteman III ICBMs from Vandenberg AFB in California at a target over 4,000 miles distant in the Pacific Ocean region of the Marshall Islands. Crews from the 91st Missile Wing based at Minot AFB, North Dakota removed both missiles and associated equipment from their silos, transported them intact to California, stood them back up into full operational capability and conducted both test fires at approximately 2300 hours. Two test launches within a single week is an extremely rare and noteworthy event.

Zipping along through the Earth's uppermost atmosphere at a speed in excess of Mach 19 (15,000+ mph) the Mk-21 re-entry vehicle hit its target within 30 minutes of launch. For all of our enemies incessant sabre rattling (Russia, Red China, North Korea and Iran) notice was effectively served that America's ability to strike is very much alive and well. An image of the launch on 20 February is seen above. 

14 February 2016: A report published today at DefenseNews.com reinforces the points made in the second to last paragraph of the original report below. Plainly put, the United States Army is returning its land warfare power back into Europe in a very big way in 2017. 

With the strategic re-adjustment that Russia is the number one threat to the USA, the Army has halted and reversed the pivot to Asia to return its power back into Europe in a process known as the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI). The ERI consists of a financial bedrock of $3.4 billion in funding that will be used for three primary purposes; strengthening our NATO allies combat capabilities, and putting thousands of American combat boots back on EU, and launching large-scale exercises on European soil to deter further Russian adventurism in Europe.  

The independent American Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) and Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT) currently based in Europe will shortly be powerfully reinforced with arrival of an Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) plus additional combat aviation. There will also be regular rotations of other Army combat teams occurring in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. The clear fact in all of this is that Russia's launching of a land war in Ukraine - which continues to this very hour - is the impetus for the return of large numbers of US main battle tank armor back into Europe.
 

12 February 2016: In its report on globalization (.pdf) titled "The End of Globalization or a More Multipolar World" released in September 2015, the well-respected Credit Suisse Research Institute of Zurich, Switzerland posed the question: "Is globalization coming to an end?"  The report addressed three possible scenarios, but in all actuality two of the three scenarios placed full emphasis on "new research" postulating that globalization, that is the unifying of various world 'spheres of influence, ('poles' in others words) into a single global entity, a 'one world order,' is in the process of being replaced by a new multipolar world order. 

According to Bible prophecy, which always comes to its fulfillment exactly as it has been foretold, there will be a time during the 70th Week (the final 42 months) when the Antichrist, empowered by Satan, will be the head of an irresistible globally projected economic, political and military power. (Revelation 13:4-8) A very great many expositors of Bible prophecy focus upon this satanically empowered "New World Order" as constituting the crux of Bible prophecy regarding the political, economic and military power wielded by the Antichrist during the 70th Week. 

However, according to Bible prophecy the truly salient fact of the matter is that the Antichrist's rise to global domination occurs within and against a multipolar world order!  Expositors of Bible prophecy like to speak in terms of of reference, such as "prophetic stage setting." The multipolar world order that I am speaking of here is the stage setting which exists right now, today. This multipolar world order is staring all of us in the face, and its represented by the images and words below.

The Antichrist, if one reads Scripture closely and interprets it correctly, is the king of the West, the fourth beast empire very much revived.  It is the reconstituted heir of what was Rome and Greece, Babylon and Medo-Persia in ancient times. Ten crowns represented also as the ten toes of two feet that came from two legs which themselves are representative in Scripture as the eastern and western aspects of the Macedonian-Greek and Roman Empires which encompassed Europe and Southwest Asia. This is one pole of a multipolar world order, and today we know it by various circumferential names, such as: the Western World, or simply, The West; the European Union; NATO.

And, as we read in the plain text of Scripture, Antichrist goes to war against the other great powers of what? An existing multipolar world order! Antichrist, as detailed by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel, will engage in warfare against the king of the north, the king of the south and, shortly thereafter, the kings of the east. All directions of the compass are with respect to Israel's location on the Earth. This is what Scripture really tells us. (Daniel 11:40-45)

While economics and political power are key elements of globalization as we know it in these last days prior to the 70th Week, they are also the key elements of a multipolar world order and the ability of those poles to project their power globally - on land, in the air, on the sea and even on the ultimate high ground, in outer space and cyberspace.  And how do those four-fold poles manifest their power with and against each other on a global scale? Through their military forces.

The Global Military Imbalance and Power Structure

On page 56 of the referenced Credit Suisse report there is the above weighted and variables chart which provides a ranking of the top 20 nations of the world with respect to their ability to project military force. In recent years I have referenced a similar chart that was compiled by the website GlobalFirepower.com. Since 2014 that chart has undergone significant changes in the ranking of countries below the top 3. Among the most significant changes are those of Japan which rose in ranking from the 9th most powerful military to the 4th most powerful military in the world; Germany which fell from 8th to 18th position; the UK which fell from 5th to 9th, Canada which fell from 14th to 20th, and most surprisingly of all are the armed forces of Italy which rose from 16th to a ranking of the 8th most powerful in the world.

Despite these changes, and despite the great reductions and realignments that have occurred during the Obama Administration, the United States remains the world's lone superpower and the world's number 1 ranked military power due to having maintained a defense budget of $601 billion dollars more than Russia, China, Japan, India, France, South Korea, Italy, the UK and Turkey combined (numbers 2 through 10 in the scale rankings). One of the primary factors is the ability of the American Navy to project power globally through its total of 19 Aircraft Carrier and Expeditionary Strike Groups. No other nation on earth has such raw global combat power projection capability as this.

Also of great importance is that of the top 10 most powerful military forces on the planet four of them (France, Italy, UK and Turkey) are America's NATO allies in Europe, and two (Japan and South Korea) are America's allies in Asia. Of the top 20 ranked military forces in the world 13 are American military allies. Therefore, on a global scale the military balance of power remains firmly in the hands of America and its allies in Europe and Asia for now and well into the foreseeable future, which includes, obviously, the rapidly approaching 70th Week.  

Revelation 6 details the opening by our Lord Jesus Christ of the Seven Seals. The first four of those opened seals are directly relevant to the pertinent facts presented here thus far because they all relate to a multipolar world war. The multipolar world prophesied to exist and wage war during the 70th Week, and even prior to the 70th Week, is plainly evident right now if one is willing to look at it directly and objectively. In closing, and just in case you were wondering, Israel's armed forces are ranked as #14, and the Islamic Republic of Iran's military is #23.

Global SITREP A6-16: The New Mediterranean Alliance

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades (center), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras shake hands at the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, on January 28, 2016.

Update 10 February 2016: This SITREP has to be updated with the fact that a brand new political reality, a unity of purpose, exists in Israel at this time. This is in every sense a tectonic shift of the political reality in the State of Israel to the political right. And that this shift comes on the heels of Israel's historic alliance with Mediterranean Sea partners Greece and Cyprus is by no means accident of history.

Both of Israel's main political parties, the rightist Likud and leftist Labor, find themselves in complete agreement that a two-state solution with the "Palestinians" is not attainable. This major political shift has come about through the rank and file members of the Labor Party, led by Yaacov Herzog, voting to change a longstanding platform of the party from one of being a solid backer of negotiating a "Two State Solution" to one of near total disengagement from negotiations with the PA because, as Herzog put it, "Israel is at war."  

At a time when the political left in the United States remains in total denial regarding the truth and costs of negotiating and cooperating with Islamic jihadists, the political left in Israel has finally seen, albeit belatedly, that the daily death toll of Jewish Israeli citizens at the hands of knife-wielding Arab Islamists is no longer a cost it is willing to bear politically.

The State of Israel now has the requisite political unity based upon the fact that the nation is at war and that the war must be fought and won before any further negotiations with the enemy can become a worthwhile endeavor. It is the belief of this Eschatology Today blog that a political realization of this exact kind is the first and most basic necessity for the prophecy of the whole Psalm 83 scenario to begin an approach its final fulfillment.

03 February 2016:  The fourth sentence of the Trilateral Declaration can been seen as the enlargement clause through which other Mediterranean nations can join these three nations: "Our partnership is not exclusive in design or nature, and we are ready to welcome other like-minded actors to join our efforts to promote coordination and cooperation, as well as regional peace and stability." Also of significant importance are the following sentences.

"We remain steadfastly committed to working together towards the enhancement of the bilateral relations between the European Union and Israel in areas of mutual interest and concern.

We stress the importance of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation for the countries of the region. On the occasion of the 21st anniversary of the Barcelona Declaration, we welcome the role the Union for the Mediterranean can play to this end, as reflected in the EU Joint Communication on the Review of the European Neighborhood Policy of 18th November 2015."

The Trilateral Declaration, as an instrument of international relations in unity of purpose for the 21st century, is unique in that nowhere within any of its paragraphs is there any reference to the United States of America. The next Trilateral Summit will be held in Israel during the latter half of this year.

31 January 2016: This is another very important SITREP, having what I believe will be monumental prophetic repercussions in the Middle East and for the world at-large. Better late than never, I've been chomping at the bit to get this posted for three days now, but waited for any further important developments to become known before doing so.

The Trilateral Declaration of Israel, Greece and Cyprus was announced on Thursday. 28 January 2016 by the above imaged three heads of state representing Israel, Greece and Cyprus. The Trilateral Declaration is a geopolitical paradigm shift of immense importance in that it commits the three nations to act as one "in promoting peace, stability, security and prosperity in the Mediterranean and the wider region." 

From this moment forward whatever Israel does in the Middle East and the greater Mediterranean region, Greece and Cyprus will be integral to that action. This is a virtual economic, energy, diplomatic and military alliance between Israel, Greece and Cyprus. I, for one, cannot think of this paradigm shift with out thinking of the ten toes of the image in Daniel 2, the ten-nation confederacy of the Antichrist of the 70th Week, and all that stems from it in other Bible prophecies.

The alliance will be the facilitator of the immense wealth that is evident in the prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39, much of it in the form of hydrocarbon exports that will flow from Israeli and Cypriot fields of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea into Greece and Europe beyond. Think of the Arab oil boom of the 1970s and the immense wealth generated and transfer that image to these three nations for the immediate future. The strategic implications, regional and global, are positively mind-boggling as Bible prophecy makes abundantly clear to those who understand the literal sense of the prophecies.

The ink was barely dry on the Declaration, and harmonic echos of the public announcement were still reverberating when the Obama Administration, which has spent the past seven years alternately snubbing, insulting, ignoring, lecturing and in some cases betraying Israel in favor of Islamists in the region, suddenly came calling with a new set of demands for what Israel needs to do in exchange for more empty promises from the socialist American regime. The phrase "take a hike and hit the pike" comes to mind here as the diplomatically proper Israeli response.

This new alliance also is the direct result of the Islamist policies of Erdogan-led Turkey, as all three of the principles in the Trilateral Declaration have significant issues with that country. One need only look at a map of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea to see what this means strategically for Turkey. All three nations currently have friendly relations with Russia, while Turkey continues to threaten shooting down Russian aircraft operation from their bases in Syria.

A new regional superpower is born: Israel, Greece and Cyprus

Did I say paradigm shift? Maybe I should have said a tectonic shift instead. Israel now possesses a strategic depth which it has never had previously, and appeared to have lost when Obama assumed the presidency of the United States. All of that is changed now, and all three countries, marginalized in geopolitical terms for the past several decades, are now to emerge as a dominant force to be reckoned with in the Mediterranean and Middle East region. No pun intended, but Israel, Greece and Cyprus now stand firmly under the Israeli military's 'holy of holies', its long established nuclear weapons arsenal. A new regional superpower has been born.

Global SITREP A5-16: Odds and Ends

UPDATED 4 February 2016: Not sure if anyone or everyone else has noticed this, but the bride of Christ has a chance in the 2016 election to actually make a change for the better of all concerned. I awoke this morning to the thought that we are begin given a great opportunity and it is an opportunity that should be seized for all manner of moral and ethical reasons. 


At this point there remains in the direct vote GOP nominating process of 49 states at least three of our brothers-in-Christ who are candidates for the Office of the President of the United States. In alphabetical order, Dr. Ben Carson, Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Marco Rubio have all publicly professed Jesus the Messiah to be their Lord and Savior. All political bickering aside, at the end of this process we must all end up supporting one of these candidates to ensure he is the nominee and then vote for him in the general election come November. Pretty simple, right?

On the Democrat side, Hillary is exceptionally untrustworthy and as corrupt as corrupt can be. She is a member of the Antichrist hastening global oligarchy, and stands a very strong chance of indictment and lengthy imprisonment for crimes against our desperately in need of saving Republic. There is also Bernard Sanders, a card carrying dinosaur of world socialism who is too senile to understand that his brand of socialism has abjectly failed wherever in the world it has been attempted or imposed upon a nation-state of people; he manifestly represents the failed past. Neither of these can be the next POTUS. 

This makes what might be our final chance to make a real difference almost palpable and a virtual no-brainer Christian duty.

1 February 2016: I've been meaning to post some odds and ends and assorted things that made me go 'Hmmmm' or otherwise make a note of that others might like to read about as general interest material. However, none of this is 'Mickey Mouse' material; I just liked the above cartoon for its sense of nostalgia.

First Item: The other day I received an Email from a US Intelligence Community (IC) veteran in which he related a very succinct rendering concerning ongoing rumblings within the IC regarding the FBI investigation of Hillary Rodham Clinton's private email server crime: "Indictment, Hospitalization and Pardon." 

Transliterated into plain English, this means the prevailing view is that Hillary will be indicted for her crimes while Secretary of State for the abject failure to properly  safeguard above-top-secret caveat code-word (also known as SAP or Special Access Programs) compartmentalized intelligence issues. The indictment will immediately be followed by a sudden and acute health issue requiring immediate hospitalization (i.e. she will disappear from public view for some unknown period of time, as has occurred in her past). She will only re-emerge from this 'hospitalization' upon receiving a full chief executive pardon at the very end of POTUS Obama's term in office, possibly Christmas 2016. Hmmm, sounds plausible.

The update to this item is that since 28 October 2015 Representative Ron DeSantis (R-FL) of Florida 5th District has yet to receive a reply to his letter to US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, The letter was an inquiry as to why the DoJ had not appointed a special counsel to oversee the investigation into Hillary's email server and related issues. Today Rep. DeSantis sent a second letter demanding to know the specifics of the DoJ's failure to appoint special counsel. There's no doubt the Obama Administration is doing its best to provide partisan political cover and and obfuscation of the many crimes former SECSTATE Clinton is accused of committing instead of engaging in the impartial investigation such extraordinary circumstance as these demand. Both the FBI and patriotic Americans serving in the FBI and the DoJ are reportedly fed up deluxe with such blatant partisanship in the ongoing cover-up.

Second Item: Following the recent torching of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, Iran that was only just barely contained through diplomatic channels, the sectarian warfare between these two polarized Islamic enemies has indeed morphed from a conflict fought mostly by proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen and the Shi'a community within Saudi Arabia itself, into a direct strategic conflict. The next major incident between them may not be manageable through the normal diplomatic channels and mechanisms according the Middle Eastern sources, and full-scale war between them is a distinct possibility.

Third Item: in October 2010 the Professor Emeritus of Physics at UC Santa Barbara, California Hal Lewis sent a letter of resignation to Curtis Callan, President of the American Physical Society (APS). Professor Lewis resigned suddenly after a 67-year long Fellowship in the American Physical Society. The reason for his resignation was not related to his health, or age or anything of the sort as one might expect. No, the reason for this resignation was ... wait for it ... "the global warming scam, with the trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried away APS before it like a rogue wave." Professor Lewis continued in his letter, "[Global Warming]...is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist." Now there goes a scientist with a conscience and integrity.

Fourth Item: According to a poll run within FoxNews that was originated by FoxNews' own Greta Van Susteren (i.e. Gretawire), GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump may have a greater impact and may send a louder message by avoiding tonight's GOP debate than by attending. According to the poll a full 83 to 86% of Fox viewers will boycott the program along with The Donald. I'm with those 86% because, number one, I'm a Cruz guy, and number two, I've been in my own full court press boycott of FoxNews (Losers) ever since the San Bernardino Massacre when 'fair and balanced' died a horrible death that day also.

Fifth Item: Bill Gertz reports - An American RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted this past Monday in international airspace over the Black Sea. In the intercept a Russian Su-27 fighter flew within 20 feet of the RC-135 fuselage and then blasted the aircraft broadside with a full-afterburner turn away from the American jet fully "disturbing the controllability" of the aircraft. This is the latest and possibly most egregious in a continuing series of aggressive Russian military provocations. And we're supposed to cooperate with such an unprofessional military force against the Islamic State in Syria?

New Sixth Item: The capture and detention in the Persian Gulf to two US Navy combatant craft appears to be directly related to the Obama Administration's efforts over the past seven years to neuter the US Armed Forces as much as possible. One of the casualties in the effort has been our capabilities in the realm of Electronic Warfare (EW). A new report by Bill Gertz (Washington Times/ Washington Free Beacon) reveals that according to experts in this field the U.S. suddenly finds itself about a generation or two behind other modern nations when it comes to state-of-the-art EW capabilities. This shortfall is considered a major contributor as to why the IRGC Navy was able to so easily overcome the two riverine combat craft and take both of their 5-sailor crews hostage without a fight.

New Seventh item: The USAF is the first of our armed services to refuse or contradict a direct order from President Obama. Contrary to Obama's directives calling for the disarming of U.S. troops, the U.S. Air Force Security Forces has issued directives across the force requesting local commanders to authorize the arming of airmen to carry weapons, even when they are off duty r in civilian attire. This action is in direct response to a study which determined, as all gun owners already know, that the presence of armed service members is the best defense against active shooter situations such as has occurred at Ft. Hood, Texas and Chattanooga, Tennessee. Air Force installation commanders have always had the authorization to issue these directive and training programs, but now in light of recent events the arming of troops is being formalized by higher command authority.