Global SITREP A10:19: In These 'Last Days'

Seen recently on Russian television...

3 March 2019: Been meaning to post this for about a week now, but there've been a couple of real-world disturbances that required some attention. The image above is a screen capture from a program which recently aired on the Russian Government (i.e. state-owned) channel Russia-1. The screen capture clearly depicts a Russian submarine launching a new Russian weapon from the Pacific Ocean against multiple targets in the western United States.

If you're not familiar with this news item, it is the Russian Federations response to the Trump Administration's cancelling our participation in the three decades old Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) due to many years of the Russian Federation being in blatant material breach of the terms of the treaty. In comman language, Russia has been cheating so no good purpose is served by the United States remaining the only nation fully adhering to the terms of the INF.

President Trump knows a 'bad deal' when he sees one, so as with serveral other 'bad deals' he identified in the past two years (i.e. NAFTA, Paris Climate Accord, etc.) he pulled the United States of America out of this one too. Sometimes you just have to walk away from a bad deal in order to get a better deal later on. If you followed the news recently, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un also just experienced a POTUS Donald Trump walk out during nuclear negotiations. It's the same principle here with the INF.

However, instead of the Russian Government recognizing the American withdrawal from the INF for what it is, (i.e. a tactic to get a new or better deal regarding intermediate-range nuclear weapons), the Russian's immediately went to threatening the USA with a nuclear Armageddon scenario. The screen capture above depicts this scenario in action - a preemptive nuclear strike on a west coast command and control center and a facility whose purpose is specifically to aid in national recovery from a natural, or as in this case, a man-made disaster. They also announced a list ofsimilar targets on our eastern coast. 

The Russian's, especially those in their government, have learned nothing about American in the past century, especially the fact that we don't take kindly to threats, especially terroristic nuclear threats. The USA takes such threats seriously from the folks who have used WMD like polonium and novichok to poison their expats on forign soil, or invade other sovereign nations (Georgia and Ukraine) on the flimsiest of excuses. 

What kind of Godless villians are in charge of the Russian Federation today? Is it not obvious that such a government as this is the one identified 2600 years ago in the God-breathed prophecy of Ezekiel? And our Israeli friends are intent on playing with fire by trusting Russia and believing in a mutual partnership with them to create security for Israel in Syria. None of this is going to pan out as we know from several volumes of God-breathed Scripture regarding the last days prior to the start of the 70th Week. 

For example. PM Netanyahu recently returned from his face-to-face meeting with RF President Putin. In his weekly briefing to Israel's security cabinet Netanyahu related how Putin agreed on the removal of all foreign forces in Syria, especially those that arrived after the 2011 start of the indigenous Syrian civil war. This statement by PM Netanyahu includes a very special detail that is worthy our attention. 

The foreign forces that must depart from Syria is inclusive of American, British, French, Iranian, Lebanese, Iranian Shi'a proxy forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, but also as importantly, Russian forces at Tartus and Latakia which are beyond the number which were stationed there in bilateral agreement prior to the start of the civil war. What is missing from the Russian-Israeli foreign forces in Syria agreement is a fail-safe mechanism for its full implementation. Other than that, the agreement is also more akin to swiss cheese than a binding agreement on the status of foreign forces in Syria today. This is problematic and we'll soon see how much.

In these 'last days' we know not how, or what spark or unforeseen event or events will take place, but the whole of Syria won't survive that event or events as it exists today as Isaiah 17:3 and Jeremiah 49:24-26 inform. This current situation, even globally speaking, is what Christian eschatologists have been warning about, particularly since the 1970s to present. Keep your eyes on Christ! The LORD God is in complete control. Marana'tha!

Global SITREP D7-18: MidEast Wars Magnified

Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Missouri (SSN-780) on May 31, 2018. US Navy Photo

UPDATE 30 November 2018: No real surprise here, but again it has taken a full month for the real-world news to catch up with Eschatology Today. The direct reference here is to the final sentence of the 29 October update highlighted below which defined the meaning of this SITREP's title "MidEast Wars Magnified." Today, Israel National News is the news site whose just published analysis "Syrian war becoming a global conflict" achieves that catch-up. Indeed, a magnified MidEast war is a global war.

12 November 2018: This update is not really new news, although it may be new news to some folks. Russia and China are not the only nations currently preparing for war. The United States of America has also been preparing as was revealed in an article first published by the United States Naval Institute last Wednesday (07NOV18) and updated Thursday (08NOV18). 

The reason this linked article is not new news is that the core of the article was actually new news back on 6 August 2018 when RADM Charles Richard became the United States Navy Commander Submarine Forces (COMSUBFOR). It was at that time that RADM Richard told all U.S. submariner forces to "prepare for battle." 

In the few months since August, as the more recent article attests, an aggressor force of submariners has been created to train our submarine fast attack forces much as the Navy's Top Gun squadron trains Navy pilots, or, by extension, how the US Army's "OPFOR" has trained Army ground and airborne combat units at NTC Ft. Irwin, California.

VADM Richard told our submariners, "To the men and women of the submarine force, prepare for battle. It is only by being prepared for battle that we can hope to avoid it. If we cannot (avoid it), our nation expects and demands victory. We shall not fail." 

Not only is there now an aggressor submarine force training American submariners, but also NATO submarine forces as well. VADM Richard is also wearing that hat. On top of this is the reestablishment of the US Navy Second Fleet which is tasked with defending and countering Russian fleet activity in the Atlantic Ocean, as was reported in a USNI article back in May 2018. The new U.S. 2nd Fleet, established on 1 July 2018, was stood up in Norfolk, Virginia in tandem with the establishment of a Joint NATO naval command. Simply put, the potential for global warfare demands a global force be in place to fight it.

A fitting tribute on this Veterans Day and Remembrance Day 2018 being observed in the US, Canada and in Europe in honor of those who sacrificed all in the so-called and grossly incorrect "war to end all wars" of 100 years ago. 

Russia's new Novator 9M729  (NATO: SSC-8) cruise missile

Novator 9M729 (SSC-8) cruise missile

29 October 2018: It took a full two years for this part of the SITREP to develop fully. In late 2016 the US and NATO began to cry foul over what intelligence had determined was a new Russian cruise missile under development, yet the allies kept the specific object of their intelligence under wraps and classified. In November 2017 the US and NATO finally made public that it was a new Russian nuclear-capable cruise missile, the Novator 9M729 (NATO designation SSC-8). This missile is a clear cut violation of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty between the USA and the USSR (Russian Federation). The INF treaty is specific to surface launched missiles that have a range of between 310 and 3,417 miles. This missile has been developed by Russia to specifically target the European nations of the NATO alliance or other specific targets in the Middle East.

The seriousness of this violation can not be understated. The Russians had all but ignored the consistent US and NATO protestations of this violation of the INF from 2016 to the present. Suddenly, in October 2018, the issue has welled up like a skin boil in need of lancing. The two key elements to the escalation are:

1.) The US, with full concurrence of the NATO allies, declared that if this new Russian cruise missile were operationally deployed and capable of delivering a nuclear weapon then the US would then be looking at preemptively taking it out. 2.) US President Donald Trump upped the ante by stating the US would unilaterally withdraw from the INF Treaty. This statement by President Trump has one core fact in essence, and that is since Russia refuses to abide by the terms of the INF Treaty, then no purpose is served in the United States remaining a party to it. Therefore, the INF Treaty withdrawal threat is a classic Donald Trump "Art of the Deal" action. 

These two items finally got Russia's attention, the first more than the second. Russia is now fixated of the threat of a US preemptive strike to take out the SSC-8 cruise missiles. Why, because they know the US can accomplish it. Then, just yesterday, following the first meeting of the UN General Assembly, Andrei Belousov, who is very closely tied to Russian Federation president Valdimir Putin, stated the following:

"Here recently at the meeting, the United States said that Russia is preparing for war. Yes, Russia is preparing for war, I have confirmed it. We are preparing to defend our homeland, our territorial integrity, our principles, our values, our people - we are preparing for such a war."  Yes, Russia is definitely preoccupied by the threat of US action to make their new cruise missiles inoperative.

Also, at that UNGA meeting referenced by Mr. Belousov, a draft Russian attempt to support the INF Treaty it is so thoroughly violating, was soundly rejected by the U.N. General Assembly which refused to give an ear to even one word of it.

Without any doubt this will develop further, being either exacerbated or stimulated by events occurring in the Middle East.  So, and with respect to the title of this SITREP - how are MidEast wars magnified? They are magnified when they become global nuclear war.

27 October 2018: The image above is representative of how most folks view the Middle East. It's a flat, 2-dimensional, devoid-of-depth map in a book or pamphlet. However, through the inerrant lens of the Lord's prophetic word, we can see how all of the ongoing wars and rumors of wars are interconnected, and will one day soon result in an exactingly precise and literal fulfillment.

Through the violent flare-up between last night and this morning it can be clearly seen that the warfront in Syria is directly connected to the battles raging in Gaza and southern Israel. 

How? 

Eschatology Today assesses as obvious that the Iranian military command in Syria have convinced themselves that the recent large-scale Russian deployment of S-300PMU2 SAM batteries into Syria has checkmated the Israeli Air Force into total inaction against them in Syria, thus leaving them free to direct their proxies in Gaza to launch massive rocket barrages into southern Israeli communities. Obviously the Iranians also fervently believe that Netanyahu has no stomach for a total ground invasion of Gaza to erradicate the enemy there once and for all. 

However, the bottom line is that it is not about Netanyahu, or the Russians, or the Iranians, Syrians or you-name-them. It's about the Lord's prophetic word, as has been discussed here for the past decade, which unambiguously informs of a completely different outcome than Israel's enemies - or allies - currently imagine. This prophetic outcome has been for almost 3,000 years indelibly written upon the Lord's appointment calendar. It's a 'last days' schedule of key or critical events; all of which are centered upon the present-day State of Israel, and the enemies which surround her. 

The Eschatology Today assessment is that it will be some unheralded critical event, possibly, or probably, a mass-casualty event in Israel, that alters the current dynamic. That event will occur on the day of an indelible appointment resulting in a chain-reaction fulfillment of Isaiah 17, Isaiah 11:14 and Psalm 83.

It is quiet at the moment again, but it won't be an enduring quiet. Stay tuned...