Global SITREP B11-13: Psalm 83 and AQ in Iraq

Update 09 January 2014: In the past 48 hours Iraqi government sent a relatively light force of combined security and military units on a mission to enter and recapture Fallujah from Al Qaeda's forces. These Iraqi government forces were easily repulsed by the several thousand members of the Al Qaeda ISIS brigade holding Falluja.

It has been revealed that Iraqi government heavy-handedness against local tribesmen involved in a protest of their grievances against the pro-Shi'a government in Baghdad was the cause of a revolt by the citizens of Falluja on 30th of December. Al Qaeda seized upon this situation to turn it into a full-fledged reconquest of the city previously taken by US military forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom and handed over rebuilt to the government in Baghdad just two years ago. The Al Qaeda forces were buttressed by several hundred of their own which had been freed from Iraqi government prisons at Abu Ghraib and Al-Taji in major military-style jailbreak operations during the summer of 2012. Senior Al Qaeda leaders and hundreds of combat-hardened fighters were released in the twin operations.

The loss of the main junction of Highways 10, 11 and 12 west of Baghdad now not only threatens the stability of the current Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki, but it also represents a significant strategic blow to Iran. Those highways are a direct link from Baghdad and the International Airport to Syria and Damascus, and they had been an important overland pipeline for Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps troop support to Bashar al-Assad in Syria.  Now the Islamic Republic of Iran is offering Iraq the use of those troops to retake this strategic corridor. One can just image the reaction of the local Sunni tribes and family clans in Anbar province to the notion of Iranian troops being used against them by their own government. We'll keep an eye on this for sure.

4 January 2014: The Shi'a led government of Iraq and its premier 7th and 1st army divisions have been handed an utterly crushing military defeat at the hands of the Sunni-led Al-Qaeda forces (ISIS) in Iraq's expansive and westernmost Anbar Province.  Yesterday the combined jihadists forces of ISIS/ISIL raised Al-Qaeda's black flag over the city of Falluja on the Euphrates River, approximately 20 miles from Baghdad International Airport and the city of Baghdad itself.

Further to the west these same Sunni jihadist forces are literally on the verge of capturing the city of Ramadi. Remnants of both the 7th and 1st armies were last seen retreating in complete disarray towards Baghdad, leaving vast amounts of heavy weapons abandoned in their wake. At this point virtually nothing except the 300-some odd miles of open desert expanse stands between these Sunni jihadist forces and Damascus, Syria. Only an air bridge now connects Iran with its Syrian and Hezbollah allies.

The Sunni-Shi'a War is now synonymous with the three formerly distinct civil wars going on in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, or literally, from Baghdad to Beirut. There is no question that more intense land warfare will engulf the region. This is the net result of the incompetent policy of the rapidly imploding Obama Administration known as "Operation New Dawn" in 2010.

30 December 2013: As noted in the 24 December portion of this article, more than half of Iraq's territory is today Al-Qaeda's (i.e. Sunni Jihadist Islam) playground, as Iraq's 7th Division commanding general learned the hard way and the Iraqi Defense Minister nearly did a week ago. Sunni Iraqis have zero love for the Shi'a-led government in Baghdad, so they view the Al-Qaeda insurgents either with indifference or as a buffer between themselves and the Shi'a. 

Lessons were recently learned despite the Iraqi military's rampant ineptitude, logistical incompetence and combat ineffectiveness. Accordingly, Iraq has requested and will receive from the US inventory at some point in 2014 or 2015, due to the aforementioned incompetent logistics, a total of 10 each ScanEagle and 48 each RQ-11 Raven UAV drones with which they hope to keep an eye on the movements of insurgent AQ fighters. Last week Iraq received 75 brand new AGM-114 Hellfire missiles which have been adapted to the Iraqi Air Force's 5-year old militarized Hawker-Beechcraft King Air-350ER twin-turbo prop attack aircraft. The Iraqi King Air-350ERs did successfully strike four different AQ camps on the Syrian-Iraqi border with the Hellfire missiles in recent days. How much damage was done to those camps is the subject of some debate.

The US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) is to provide the current government of Iraq with $4 billion in hardware and other war materiel in contract sales announced in July of this year. Half of that figure is for a total of 40 Avenger truck-mounted anti-air systems which fire Stinger missiles (nearly 700 Stinger missiles are part of the sale) and 3 Hawk anti-air missile batteries with over 200 Hawk missiles. This begs the question: Has Al-Qaeda recently acquired an air force in Iraq or are the air forces of friendly governments in neighboring Syria and Iran now posing a significant threat to Iraq? 

The other materiel going to Iraq in this sale includes: 50 General-Dynamics Nuclear, Chemical and Biological (NBC) weapon detection vehicles based on the Stryker combat vehicle platform along with a 5-year maintenance contract that will include additional maintenance services for M88A1 and M88A2 Hercules armored and main battle tank recovery vehicles, M113 Personnel Carriers, assorted Howitzers and general purpose Humvees. Iraq will also begin taking delivery of F-16 strike aircraft in late 2014-early 2015 according to the current schedule.

Again, this begs a question: Is this the type of American military inventory that the Shiite-led, Iran-friendly current government of Iraq needs to kill off Al-Qaeda. Of course this assumes the current government of Iraq survives the threat Al-Qaeda poses in over-running Iraqi government forces.  Nevertheless, and whatever the case may be in the near future, it sure seems to me that this type of heavy hardware would be far better suited for utility in the Psalm 83 scenario, particularly as detailed in verse 8.

24 December 2013: In the news from the still very active battlegrounds of Iraq is a powerful reminder in support of my interpretation on the identity of those named in verse 8 of Psalm 83: "Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot," and how they will constitute the ideological, political and military strength (Heb: H2220 zĕrowa`) provided to the modern-day Jordanians (Ammonites and Moabites) in the ultimate fulfillment of this prophetic psalm. This region of modern-day Iraq seen in all of the salmon-colored and striped-shaded areas of the map above was the central and original homeland of ancient Assur circa the psalmist Asaph's time 3000 years ago. Today it is a region of Iraq that is fully controlled by the Islamic jihadists of Al Qaeda, or as they refer to themselves, ISIS or "Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham (Syria)." 

Here we have the ignominious net result of President Barack Obama's incompetent, hasty and ill-advised order for the total disengagement of US combat forces in 2010 through "Operation New Dawn" prior to a truly stable Iraq being realized in the aftermath of Operation Iraqi Freedom. These Sunni jihadist forces also comprise the preeminent armed opposition fighting the Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad to the west in Syria. Note that when US and Coalition forces were engaged with these Sunni jihadists they were referred to as "insurgents."  Now this same force of Sunni jihadists fighting in both Iraq and in Syria are referred to merely as "rebels" and have received considerable assistance from the United States during Barack Obama's tenure as president - be they engaged against the regime of Muammar Khadafi in the Libyan civil war of 2011 or the current Syrian civil war of 2013. Obviously, the Obama Administration's "Operation New Dawn" was an abject failure as far as military operations go, ceding a country the size of England and Wales combined to the enemy.

In Iraq's western province of Anbar, in its western city of Ar Rutbah, the gateway to Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia from central Iraq, and the last Iraqi hub of the now defunct Mosul-Haifa oil pipeline (image above), Gen. Ahmed al-Kurwi, the commanding general of Iraq's newly-minted 7th Division, his staff and several senior Iraqi Army officers were ambushed by a trio of ISIS bombers in the midst of an inspection tour following what they had believed was a successful operation against ISIS.  More details can be found here at "The Long War Journal.Org" daily blog. Nearly at the same time AQ attempted an ambush assassination of Iraqi Defense Minister Saadun al-Dukaimi's convoy between Falluja and Ramadi. Al-Dukaimi escaped the attempt on his life but his security escorts were not so fortunate. We will be watching as this situation continues to develop with the final group of the Psalm 83 confederacy now firmly identified. I also have the expectation that the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 17 will cause a major divergence in the course of the ongoing Sunni-Shi'a inter-Islamic war; a divergence that would unite for the Psalm 83 purpose of destroying Israel the inner-ring nations of the Arab League with the Shi'a-Hezbollah of Lebanon. "Wars and rumors of wars" continue apace; these things "must take place."

Memo to Bibi: NUTS! is the Word

Update: 09 January 2014: It was just announced that 85-year old Ariel Sharon has died.

02 January 2014: Dear Bibi, when you find yourself in the situation as the image above depicts, and  the American Secretary of State John Kerry suggests to you that Israel must surrender to your enemies virtually all of Judea, Samaria as well as the eastern half of Jerusalem, please, please remember to reply to him: EHGOH'ZEEM! 

If he should ask you what that word means in English, tell him, "Mr. Secretary, it is the same response U.S. Army Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe gave to the German Wehrmacht Lieutenant General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge."

As a response, we already know it's "pretty tough to beat" and is as American as apple pie. Surely Mr. Kerry and his boss will understand you most unambiguously.

I fear that should you fail to respond in such a manner and surrender even more of what God has given Israel, you will end up in the same situation as former PM Ariel Sharon found himself eight years ago after he surrendered Gaza to the enemy.

Never Again.

Global SITREP A1-14: Psalm 83 and AQ against Israel

7 January 2013: As a follow-up to SITREP B11-13: Psalm 83 and AQ in Iraq, it is only natural that attention be turned to the core of that prophecy as it relates to Israel and the threat posed to it by the numerous jihadist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda that are already making their presence felt throughout Judea and Samaria.  

The affiliation of jihadist groups I am referring to here have nothing to do with HAMAS or any of the older, more well-known Palestinian terrorist groups such as Fatah or the PFLP-GC or even the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) which are tied at the hip to Alawite-controlled Damascus and the Shi'a mullahs of Iran.  This affiliation goes directly to Al Qaeda who are currently enjoying a great resurgence and success in Syria and especially in Iraq. Their so-called "emirate" stretches from Aleppo in Syria to Falluja, which lies just about 20-some odd miles west of Baghdad International Airport. 

As reported by Bill Gertz in his "Inside the Ring" column on 25 December, the recently retired Deputy Director of the CIA, Michael Morrell, reported to CBS News that the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups known as Al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham are the two most effective insurgent Sunni Islamist groups in that conflict and that he fears the jihadists groups linked to Al Qaeda will eventually take power in Syria. His fears are not unfounded. Indeed, it is known in US intelligence circles that Ayman al-Zawahri, Al Qaeda's No. 1, has his man sitting at the top of the Ahrar al-Sham leadership. It not should go without saying that the former Deputy Director of the CIA fears this despite knowing all too well that the opposing Shi'a forces of  Hezbollah and the IRGC are operating against them in Syria and from next door in Lebanon. This is important and must be taken into account in any assessment of the unfolding situation in the Levant and in Iraq, as well as the potential for it to spread into Jordan and the threat it will ultimately pose to Israel in the very near-term.

But what threat does Al Qaeda pose to Israel beyond that of the aforementioned longstanding terrorist groups? Well, one has to take into account the origin of Al Qaeda as founded by Osama bin Laden, and exactly who his mentor and inspirational teacher was. That man was Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a Palestinian, who is known as the "father of the  global jihad." Azzam was born in 1941 just outside of Jenin in northern Samaria. At the age of 26 Abdullah Azzam was teaching and preaching jihadist Islam at the local mosque in the village of Silat al-Harithiya until the IDF conquest of June 1967. And the rest is history as this man was the inspiration for the creation of Al Qaeda, the "base" of Islamic jihadism in the world.

Besides being Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri's mentor and inspirational sage, Abdullah Azzam is the name-sake of the Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza-based Abdullah Azzam Brigades (AAB) terrorist sub-units which I believe are becoming a major terrorist concern for Israel as well as for the Palestinian Authority who they view as weak and ineffectual in the cause of the jihad. I believe it is the Al Qaeda-linked AAB which has been a key but largely unheralded player in the recent surge of terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria. The AAB's sub-units are engaged in current combat operations in Lebanon against Hezbollah, the IRGC and the Iranian Embassy itself. They are operating with the aforementioned Al Qaeda terrorist groups in Syria against a coalition of Bashar al-Assad's government forces, Hezbollah and the IRGC. They are making their presence felt also in Judea, Samaria and Gaza; they will lash out at PA security forces as quickly as they will Israelis. The AAB are truly the rabid dogs of Islamic jihadism.

Now that I've given the current Middle East wars in both micro and macroscopic views, it's time to tie this in with Psalm 83. Asaph names for us all of the peoples and regions of Israel's enemies, the ancient hatred that has manifested since the rebirth of Israel in 1948. The one enemy group which is active in all of these places is Al Qaeda and their various affiliates. And what does Asaph tell us of these enemies? He says in verse two that they, above all else, are the enemies of YHWH God; that they hate YHWH God. And who is the god of Islam? And who is it that wages war against Him and His chosen people? The jihadists of Islam whose modern-day father was born in Jenin, Samaria. Therefore, I submit that Islamic jihad is the final manifestation, the final ideological basis of consulting and conspiracy of agenda to destroy the State of Israel and the chosen of God. And according to Asaph it will be the undoing and perishing of Islam that will be accomplished. The jihadists of Islam will come to know that their god is a false god, that YHWH is the One true God, or they will be swept from the field of battle and from existence, "like chaff before the wind."

Global SITREP B11-13: "Come to Periscope Depth II..."

15 December 2013:  As we all know the world is under the full and sovereign control of the LORD God, and His will is being done in all things in these 'last days' prior to the advent of His Everlasting Kingdom. With this as our benchmark, it's time once again to come up to periscope depth. However, this time we're not going to necessarily take a look around at trends toward future events, but at a trio of items which are going on right here and now. Some of this unvarnished truth you might already be aware of, some of it not so much, or some of it never before. Whatever the case we all know that Jesus is Lord and He is coming soon! Marana'tha!

Nelson Mandela (boo, hiss) was big time in the news from his recent death nine days ago to his burial this morning in Qunu, South Africa. The corporate global media (which will soon be singing the praises of the Antichrist) was the vehicle by which the unwarranted praises of this man were sung with all of the revisionist historical aplomb and deception they could muster. Portrayed by them as a sainted martyr of the global community, he was in all actuality a world-class terrorist ("Winnie's Necklace") and communist revolutionary. He fought and labored not for the freedom of his fellow man, but for the enslavement of mankind under world communism. He held in the highest esteem and brotherhood people such as Fidel Castro, the communist enslaver of Cuba, and Yasser Arafat, the embodiment of Arab hatred of and wannabe destroyer of Israel. Nelson Mandela, truth be told, utterly despised the United States of America and our Constitution. He did not serve God, he served the father of lies. Despite the glowing priase of the corporate global media, Nelson Mandela's eternity is assured in a different venue.

The Islamic Republic of Iran walked out of the continuing nuclear discussions in Geneva this past Friday. I think this is a good thing and they should not be allowed to return as there is nothing good to be achieved from negotiations with islamic jihadists and apocalyptic terrorists. Aside from this, Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former senior official in the Ayatollah's Surpeme National Security Council and close ally of current Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, confirmed during a recent conference in Manama, Bahrain that Iran can construct nuclear weapons "when we want." Tell us something we don't already know Seyed. Seyed Hossein Mousavian has been visiting research scholar at the Program on Science and Global Security within  Princeton University of New Jersey. While Princeton University is fond of heralding Mousavian's role as a former Iranian Ambassador to Germany, they are necessarily tight-lipped about his role as an Iranian regime assassin and murderer during the period of 1990-1997 when Germany forced him to return to Iran. So, why exactly was this miscreant Shi'a terrorist murderer allowed entry into the USA after Barack Hussein Obama's election in 2008?

I am trying to figure out why both Russian President Valdimir "Gog" Putin and Deputy Prime Minister Dimitry Rogozin both issued threats to nuke the United States of America this past week because they think the US will strike them first with conventional weapons via our developing non-nuclear Prompt Global Strike (PGS) system. Do they know something we don't, or is this the thanks we get for President Obama's now-infamous "re-set in relations" with the Soviet Union Russian Federation? Actually, truth be told again, the military and civilian officals of the Russian Federation have consistently and regularly threatened nuclear attack upon the US and our NATO alllies since 2008. Why? Because since Obama became the U.S. President he renounced and went on an international apology tour to disclaim previous U.S. foreign policy only to engage in or threaten illegal wars. Witness the illegal war against Libya (which brought us the fiasco of Benghazi), and he has threatened two others, the most recent against Syria (last fall) and Iran (future - to be determined). And let's not forget the massively expanded drone wars Obama is waging in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. It takes two to tango, so the saying goes, and Obama is doing his doggnoned best to provoke a foreign nuclear strike upon the U.S. Preemption is the name of the game in the present age. And also remember, Obama has done his level best to ensure that the U.S. has no allies in any future wars. Rampant spying on your allies is no way to treat your allies. Even Bill Clinton recent excoriated Obama for this insanity. And how Obama has dealt with Israel is enough to make anyone wretch, even the virulent anti-Netanyahu leftist camp at Haaretz who now admit that the U.S. lied to our Israeli allies. 

And people wonder why there is no clear cut mention of the U.S. in 'last days' Bible prophecy. We the People have elected and then re-elected this wannabe king, and he's been busy about the business of destroying this country by any and all means at his disposal. Nelson Mandela would have loved Barack Hussein Obama.

 

Psalm 68: A Messianic Prophecy for a Snowy Israel

14 December 2013: This girl playing in a snow-covered landscape image was taken in Israel this morning, at that Armon HaNatziv promenade to the south of Temple Mount, Jerusalem. Quite a few out there are attaching some prophetic significance to the snow and wintry weather that has blanketed Israel over the past 48 hours, particularly Jerusalem and other elevated environs.  With end times expectations being what they are in these days, I am inclined to agree that there might well be some significance to an unprecedented snowfall at the end of 2013 AD.

While there is prophetic mention of snow being symbolically linked with the salvation of the human soul, such as found in Isaiah 1:18 ("Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool"), there is also Psalm 68 which prophetically declares how God will scatter His enemies in the last days. Verse 14 appears to point to a specific time of year : "When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Zalmon." Mount Zalmon (a/k/a Mount Ebal) is a mountain in Samaria, near Shechem, the hill country of Ephraim, central Israel. Ephraim figures prominently in the prophecy of Isaiah 17.

A procession of future prophetic verses from King David's point in time begins at verse 18. In sum, Psalm 68 is a historic and prophetic overview of Israel as it was, as it is now and as it will be when the beast, the antichrist, sets his feet in Israel (verse 21). The snow in Israel sent me into His Word early this morning; and so how anxious is the rest of the Bride of Christ for the promise of the Harpazo? If snow flakes have this effect on the Bride of Christ one can only imagine!

So, for the record, I do not see all that white stuff on the ground in Israel as just another weather event, I see it as a special snow as Psalm 68:14 says.

Global SITREP B9-13: A Nuclear Iran

04 December 2013: The overnight assassination of the Hezbollah commander for terrorist operations on foreign soil, Hajj Hassan Hollo al-Laqqis (his Jeep Cherokee looks like so much metallic Swiss cheese from automatic weapons fire), has to have had an effect on the enemy forces. Instead of blowing him up as was done to his Hezbollah predecessor Hajj Imad Mughniyeh, this assassination team got up very close and personal in dispatching this terrorist to his eternal fate. Were it possible to do the same to Ayatollah Khamenei or Hassan Nasrallah that would be the case, and that is the message that has been sent by this assassination: This and worse is waiting for you when the time comes (see Psalm 83:9-12 for the gruesome prophetic details).

02 December 2013: Unless the military option is exercised by the State of Israel at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within a very narrow window, there is nothing else on this earth that will prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from arming itself with nuclear weapons of its own manufacture from start to finish.  These nuclear weapons will range from Radiological Dispersion Devices (RDD), the so-called "dirty bombs," to theater and strategic nuclear weapons in the form of warheads fitted upon cruise and ballistic missiles. Both the United States of America and the State of Israel appear to have talked the talk but failed to walk the walk to prevent this catastrophe from occurring. The world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism, with an apocalyptic national doctrine based upon Shi'a Twelver eschatology, is now within a very few days of acquiring the method with which it can achieve its goal.

Eschatology Today's Four-Part Series "The Road to Revelation" Updated

1 December 2013: Just a note to say that Eschatology Today's four-part series and epilogue entitled "The Prophetic Road to Revelation," first posted during early-April and mid-May of 2009, has (finally) been updated as of this date. Aditional updates will also occur during 2014, but until then... Marana'tha!