Global SITREP A5-19: Southeastern Syria

U.S.-led CJTF-OIR base at Al-Tanf

UPDATE 22 February 2019: As my comments in the past couple days initmated, the decision has been made to maintain the presence of US military forces in Syria. The number of troops to remain is technologically irrelevant. Even a highly mobile handful of soldiers equipped with our battlefield technology can rain havoc upon far larger enemy forces - as has been demonstrated several times in Dier-Ez-Zor and the approaches to the small garrison at Al-Tanf in the past year. Far larger numbers of dead Russian contractors, Iranian proxy troops, Syrian and Lebanese Hezbollah troops who participated in these foolhardy engagements do attest to this fact.

This real-world reality task some recent predictive writings by various Christian authors to task. They have suggested that the withdrawal of US troops form Syria would cause Russia, Turkey and Iran - the three primary antagonists in the Ezekiel 38/39 prophecy - to see an opportunity to be seized upon to attack and despoil the State of Israel. Thus, these writers claim Ezekiel 38/39 is an imminent fulfillment. Eschatology Today is here to declare that such pronouncements are excessively premature and just plain wrong by unqualified armchair generals. In sum, it is dangerous writing and false teaching.

The problem is that this kind of Christian writing is without question blatant newspaper exegesis. Moreover, this kind of eschatological Christian writing actually ignores what the Lord told Ezekiel would happen and had him write it down in detail. Russia, Turkey and Iran have not and will not regard the departure of US troops as an open door opportunity to strike Israel for the purpose of plundering her. 

Much to the contrary what God told Ezekiel is that He would put hooks in the jaws of Gog of Magog and pull him and all his forces to their destruction on the mountains of Israel (Judea and Samaria). So, what these writers are saying and what God has said are in direct opposition to one another. Readers who are wise in the Holy Spirit will automatically believe what God has said will take place and ignore the nonsense being written.

And, dear brethren, do not for a minute forget that in the real-world the State of Israel has been and will continue to be for the foreseeable future a very powerful, nuclear-armed nation. Unless Russia, Turkey and Iran are suicidal nations, they will not be coming down on Israel before other prophetic events have taken place. And it goes without saying that on the Spiritual level Israel has the angelic forces of Michael the Archangel watching over her people. 

09 February 2019: This is a special SITREP on the U.S.-led CJTF-OIR base at Al-Tanf (image above) in the tri-border junction region of Syria, Iraq and Jordan. This is not news for regular visitors to Eschatology Today as it has been covered in previous SITREPs. It remains to be seen what the ultimate fate of this base will be given the announced U.S. "complete military withdrawal" from Syria while still confronting aggressive Iranian expansionism into Syria, not to mention Iraq.

As seen in the clickable image below, Al-Tanf is an extremely strategic location and therefore its immense value cannot be ignored. Al-Tanf commands the southernmost of the two logistics land-corridors through Iraq and Syria essential to Iranian military entrenchment in Syria and continuity into Lebanon. This is the so-called Tehran-Damascus-Beirut highway. It is also known as Route 1 between Baghdad and Damascus, but which also runs in a straight line east to west across the Jordanian panhandle as Highway 10 to the northwestern Jordanian population centers and capital at Amman. U.S. forces have on multiple occasions attacked with devastating effect that Syrian or iranian forces that have attempted to penetrate the 34-mile (55km) buffer zone around al-Tanf.

Iranian land-corridors to the west

It's essential nature to iran is based upon the Shi'a Twelvers eschatologically-mandated landwar confrontation with Israel. Jordan also faces a very significant threat from the purely military aspect an western military abandonment of Al-Tanf would create. Imagine the nightmarish crisis that Iran-controlled Shi'a militias numbering in the tens of thousands from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan would present to Jordan (and Israel) when presented with a "back-door" entry into western Jordan. 

Iranian control of this region would present an intolerable situation to both Jordan and Israel, a situation that would demand a coordinated large-scale military action at some point in the future - if al-Tanf were to be abandoned by the U.S. We'll revisit this when the expected crisis unfolds.