Global SITREP A15-13: Obama Administration Will Hollow Out the US Army by 12 Combat Brigades

26 June 2013: Between FY 2014-2017 the Obama Administration has determined to hollow out the combat capability of the US Army by 12 combat brigades. These are front-line combat brigades, our top-line, cream of the crop, boots-on-the-ground combat power. The number of combat troops these cuts will eliminate is somewhere between 42,000 and 60,000.

In terms of the United States Army before the Force XXI transformation began a decade ago, this number of troops would equal, at most, 6 heavy combat divisions.

Over three years this is an unprecedented slash in American combat power at a time when the economy is probably not robust enough to employ all of these men and some of the women in civilian jobs. Recall also that America's combat veterans, and America's military veterans in general, were labeled not so long ago by the Obama Administration's apparatchik toadies and lackeys as being the greatest threat faced by America. Yes, we were placed on the Obama's Administration's "enemies list." Apparently they want to increase the number of domestic enemies by the tens of thousands.

The twelve combat units to be eliminated are:

4th Combat Infantry Brigade of the 82nd Airborne, Ft Bragg, NC.
2nd Combat Armored Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division of Ft, Benning, GA.
4th Combat Armored Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, of Ft. Hood, TX.
1st Combat Armored Brigade of Fort Bliss, TX
3rd Combat Armored Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, Ft. Carson, CO.
4th Combat Infantry Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, Ft, Riley, KA.
3rd Combat Infantry Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, Ft, Knox, KY.
4th Combat Infantry Brigade of the 101st Air Assault Division, Ft. Campbell, KY.
3rd Combat Infantry Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, Ft. Drum, NY.
4th Stryker Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA.
170th Heavy Brigade at Baumholder, Germany.
172nd Heavy Brigade at Grafenwoehr, Germany.


This is insanity. Just as the current DoD sequester is, so is this an in-your-face manifestation of President Obama's fiscal policies from January 2009 to the present. It is by design born of the agenda of the global elite which he is executing with a lay-down and cry Congress and a silent majority of We The Sheeple.

Where this leads is absolutely prophetic.

Nearing Midnight: Who Have The End Times Snuck Up On?

26 June 2013: This is a break from the Global SITREP series, but it well could be considered a situation update. I just came across a Nearing Midnight commentary at Rapture Ready by Todd Strandberg titled "The End Times Are Sneaking Up On Us." The title of this commentary struck me immediately as being a prime candidate for a post-publication edit. And I haven't even read the article. I'll do that after posting this because I never interrupt the Spirit when He is stirring my soul to speak.

Perhaps it should read: "The End Times Are Sneaking Up On Some Of Us" because "most of us" (the Bride of Christ) have become aware of the End Times at various times in the past six and one-half decades.

Some in 1948, some in 1967, some in 1973 and some all along the way since those "early years" of conscious End Times awareness.

The Bride of Christ is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, no? Surely He has tickled our innards with the reality that these are the days of which the Lord's prophets spoke in the Spirit? Do we not anticipate that any microsecond our ears will hear a shout from the voice of the archangel Michael in Heaven declare "Come Up Hither!!!"

Yes. Yes, and Yes.

Then who are End Times are sneaking up on? The End Times have already successfully snuck up on the scoffers, the willfully blind and those in spiritual allegiance to the Adversary just as the Lord through His prophets told us they would.

Another in a dazzling array of ancient prophecies fulfilled before our witnessing eyes. That's what we, the Bride of Christ, do in part in this time.

We are here to witness the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the unredeemed and to bear witness to the literal fulfillment of the Lord's End Times prophecies prior to the Father issuing the command to call us Home.

The fulfillment of these prophesies are a living tool with which we must witness to the unredeemed; they are proof that what we say is the Truth. It is up to the free will of the unredeemed to accept or deny the Truth as it is spoken to them.

Mission accomplished. Marana'tha!

Any questions?

Global SITREP A14-13 Special Edition: Christ in Prophecy TV Presents: 'The War of Psalm 83- Past History or Future Prophecy'

L to R: Dr. David Reagan, Bill Salus, Nathan Jones on the set of Christ in Prophecy TV

20 June 2013: Since the last Global SITREP was posted we have witnessed the defeat of the heavily out-gunned Sunni rebel jihadist forces at the near-epic siege of al-Qusayr, Syria by a coalition of Alawite-Shi'a forces from Bashar al-Assad's rump national army and air force, Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian IRGC troops North Korean military advisers were also reported to have been in the mix on that side of the battle. This was followed immediately by ominous military movements occurring on both Israeli and Syrian sides of the Golan no-mans-land, and by an extraordinary meeting of 19 Islamist scholars of the Sunni Arab League and Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi in Cairo, Egypt which resulted in Mursi accepting the Islamist scholars diktat and the immediate the breaking of diplomatic relations between Egypt and Syria and a de facto declaration of war between Egypt and Hezbollah. Accordingly, Egypt, as the leader of the Arab League, has abandoned its embassy's functions in Damascus and closed the Syrian embassy in Cairo. The Islamic scholars also read Mursi the proverbial riot act regarding the tremendous Shi'ite threat to Sunni dominance in the Middle East, particularly in the Levant, and that all Iranian ships must be banned from transiting the Suez Canal which are enroute with arms for the Syrian regime.  The Arab League can now be expected to strike at Iran's Achilles heel through the 20 million Sunni's who live within the Islamic Republic. In addition to all of this action, battle lines are also being drawn between the US-led NATO alliance in Europe who support the Sunni's and the Russian Federation and its allies who support the Alawite-Hezbollah-Iran military confederation.

Against this backdrop I would now like to present the most recent edition of the Lamb & Lion Ministries Christ in Prophecy TV program. In this program Dr. David Reagan and Nathan Jones discuss the Psalm 83 War with author/lecturer Bill Salus (Isralestine, Revelation Road:The Missing Prophecy Revealed). On this program they interview Bill Salus about the War of Psalm 83. Some say this war was fulfilled in past history, but Bill points why that’s not the case. Additionally, David, Nathan, and Bill answer all the other questions about the timing of Psalm 83, like is it part of Ezekiel 38 or the Armageddon scenario. Some have suggested that this may be one of Bill’s best TV interviews, even though he was feeling a bit under the weather that day in the studio.

Click HERE to watch this informative Christ in Prophecy TV show.

Global SITREP A13-13: Chaos Magnified

03 June 2013: As if the chaotic situation in the Middle East could not stand another violent variable to be entered into an unsolvable equation, this is precisely what has occurred. And it has occurred in Turkey of all places. It's not the usual type one might expect of Kurd vs. Turk or Turk vs. Kurd violence. This time is different because it is Turk versus Turk civil unrest. This weekend saw the eruption of violent of anti-regime protests in approximately seventy of Turkey's largest cities by tens of thousands of anti-Islamic protestors ranging from nostalgic Ataturk secularists to the communist TKP (Türkiye Komünist Partisi). It would seem obvious that the anti-Islamic portion of Turkish society has had quite enough of the so-called Justice and Development Party (AKP) Islamist's led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It is impossible to predict where this violent uprising against Turkey's Islamist regime by Turkish citizens will lead except to say that violence begets more violence. So either this popular revolt against the Islamist government will escalate, or the Islamist government will direct their attention to the full-scale war going on in Syria and Lebanon to the south. 

Turkey also has serious international problems created by Erdogan's Islamists that are directly related to the Syrian civil war. Turkey, a new partner with the eastern bloc SCO alliance discussed in Global SITREP A10-13, is militarily at odds and ostracized from its new friends in the SCO, namely Russia and Iran, who both militarily support Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist regime in Damascus with all manner of war materiel and fighting men. Turkey, as a NATO ally, would also be opposed to Russian shipments of S-300PMU-1/2 missiles and MiG-29M fighters through its Bosporus and Dardanelles Straits to the enemy regime in Syria. Turkey is also aligned with the terrorists of HAMAS in Gaza and against the Palestinian Authority controlled by Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas. HAMAS and Hezbollah are now at war with each other in Lebanon, and the Islamists of the Syrian FSA and Iraqi-led Al Qaeda-led Al-Nusra are killing each other with rocket fire across the Syrian-Lebanese border and an ongoing epic siege battle at al-Qusayr in Syria.

And then, not to be left out of the completely chaotic mix, there's Turkey's self-created problems with Israel. These are problems which the Islamist Turkish government under Erdogan's AKP leadership deliberately created via the flotilla in support of HAMAS terrorists. To make matters worse Turkey recently rebuffed an unnecessary but requested Israeli apology, which was PM Netanyahu's attempt at reconciliation, which appears to have been orchestrated at the behest of American President Barack Obama. Now, pardon me for being flippant about this situation, but just how many enemies can the Turkish Islamist government make in just a few months time? Could this be a new Guinness World Record for turning allies on all sides into enemies and other enemies into even greater enemies and then to go about making enemies of its own citizenry?

This is mind-blowing chaos magnified to be sure. And we've not quite arrived at the moment of Isaiah 17's fulfillment which I believe will be the catalyst for the final act of the Psalm 83 War. This is just craziness and there really is no way to make sense of it all... except to say that magnified chaos such as this meshes perfectly with our Lord Jesus Christ's Olivet Discourse description of the ever increasing frequency and severity of the birth pangs that herald the soon arrival of the 70th Week.

Look up, our Lord comes quickly!

Marana'tha!

Addendum to SITREP A13-13:

If you ask two random Israeli citizens if PM Netanyahu will order an attack to bomb Iranian nuclear sites you will get two opposing answers. One will be a definite yes, and the other will be a definite no. This is what I've found when it comes to reading secular Israeli OpEds at the Israpundit.com website. In his article (There Are Many Reasons to Expect a War this Summer) Israpundit editor Ted Belman, an American-born Israeli, is the 'hawk' who echos the prevailing opinion on the right on why Israel must strike Iran. And then, in an apples to apples in comparision, is the also conservative, also an American-born Israeli, Barry Rubin who unequivocally states exactly the opposite - there is a zero chance that Israel will unilaterally strike Iran this summer. (See: Turkey, Israel and Syria: Why Things Are Going Wrong)

Who is right?

If there were specific Bible prophecy in support of either position then I would agree with that position, but there is no Bible prophecy on this issue in order to draw an eschatological conclusion... not even Jeremiah 49:34-39 is evidence of an Israeli strike on Iran. If anything it appears to predict a coalition attack on Iranian nuclear sites, and in the past two decades two coalition military actions have occurred in the Middle east and neither involved Israel.

With this is my Biblical basis, I would have to agree with Barry Rubin, Israel will not strike Iran. I have long been of the opinion that a coalition of nations that does not include Israel will do it.

As for HAMAS, they are Sunni jihadists, and they are at war with the Shi'a jihadists of Hezbollah, and by extension, Iran and Alawite Syria.  In this Sunni versus Shi'a war Israel will also remain neutral up until some currently unforeseen event.

I believe that event is most likely something al-Assad does which causes the Isaiah 17 scenario to come to fulfillment like some FedEx overnight delivery.

I believe al-Assad will launch a surprise chemical attack on Israel in retaliation for the repeated attacks that Israel is making against Syria's and Iran's attempts to place more powerful and accurate rockets in Hezbollah's inventory.  I believe al-Assad fully intends to strike Israel the moment when he believes he has the Sunni rebels on the ropes, and at the moment this appears to be possible with a Syrian-Hezbollah/IRGC victory in the siege of al-Qusayr. I believe the Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and president-to-be Saeed Jalili have al-Assad committed to this agenda.

The nuclear annihilation of Damascus would be a pivotal event that would immediately douse the Sunni-Shi'a war with cold water, and the Sunni and Shi'a elements currently at war with each other in Lebanon and Syria will come against Israel in the final act of the Psalm 83 scenario.

Here lies the difference between the secular Israeli views of potential future events and one that is based upon Bible prophecy.

Global SITREP A12-13 : Syrian Missiles Reportedly Target Tel Aviv

19 May 2013: Numerous reports, many with confused or inaccurate details, more or less concur with the premise published in The Sunday Times of London, Jerusalem Post, the Times of Israel, YNet, etc, that the Syrian Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad is now targeting Tel Aviv, Israel with the same type of Short Range Ballistic Missiles (SRBM) that it has been unsuccessfully attempting to deliver to Hezbollah since late January.  The media reports refer to these SRBMs as the Tishreen (seen above), and that name is merely another Syrian nomenclature for the Iranian-made Fateh A-110B. The previously acknowledged name for this missile is the M600. This variant is reportedly accurate enough to strike within 109 yards of its target; it is a single stage, solid propellant-powered missile with a 200-mile range fitted with a 500 lb high explosive warhead. The Iranian-made Fateh A-110 is itself a guided version of the also Iranian-made Zelzal-2 liquid fueled missile, which itself is based upon the Russian-made R-65 FROG. 

Given the reported range of this missile all of the fixed and road mobile batteries must be located in Syria no further north than the border between the Dimashq and Homs governorates on the map below. This significantly narrows the areas which Israel would need to keep under constant overhead (i.e. satellite) surveillance.

Also note with respect to the above map, the southern-most Syrian governorate Quneitra (yellow) is the Golan Heights that has been militarily occupied by Israel since the Yom Kippur War of October 1973.

The "Tishreen" SRBMs are reported to be advanced missiles. However, that advancement is relative to the level of advanced ballistic missile technology and warhead accuracy possessed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, which are fairly accurate, but nothing near that found in Israel's missile inventory. If this report is accurate and the Syrian missiles are imaged in launch position, then another round of preemptive strikes by the IAF could occur at any time. The real question is whether or not Bashar al-Assad is willing to risk the survival of his regime and the whole of Syria on another attempt to supply these missiles to Hezbollah. That is a risk only a defeated tyrant could be expected to take.

Global SITREP A11-13: No 'Game Changer' for Hezbollah/IRGC

 IAF F-16I Sufa

After Action Update 7 May 2013: There are more articles, Op-Eds, speculations, and just plain wild-donkey guesses on what has occurred, what has resulted and what will happen next between Israel, Syria, Lebanon (Hezbollah) and Iran than anyone can shake a stick at.

Nobody can possibly predict what will happen in the next 24-48 hours because no one knows through the current fog of war what has just taken place in its totality.

The very best that can be said is that absolutely surreal and total chaos reigns supreme around Damascus, Syria.

This surreal chaos was captured its best and rawest form through a video which was obviously recorded by anti-Assad jihadist rebels of the assault that occurred on the western slopes of Mount Qasioun, the slopes that are on the far side from Damascus, facing Hezbollah and Iranian controlled central Lebanon.

In this video, posted in its raw form on YouTube, the rebels are heard in the audio track whispering and then shouting the Islamic takbir "Allah-hu Akhbar" (Allah is Greater!) as Israeli Air Force F-16I Sufa strike aircraft fire rockets and drop very large ordnance that erupts in tremendous explosions, thunders, pops and a massive fireball which turned night into day and whose shock-wave registered a 4 on the Richter scale for seismic activity. This same video was replayed endlessly on US evening news reports Monday night but without the accompanying Islamic jihadist soundtrack.

What can possibly emerge out of such utter chaos than a more unprecedented chaotic result? I think we all know the answer to this, but we're all still holding our collective breath less we speak the unspeakable horror that will result from a fulfillment of Isaiah 17 in the next few days. I am only reminded and reassured of Jesus' prophetic words concerning these very wars and rumors of wars: "See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet." (Matthew 24:6 NKJV)

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UPDATE 05  May 2013: The missiles that Israel has struck in Syria between Friday and early this morning is the subject of the update to this SITREP.  These missiles, according to most main stream media reports are Fateh-110's that were allegedly struck in a warehouse at Damascus International Airport, and which also reportedly would constitute a "game changer" have been in Hezbollah's possession since January 2010 in Lebanon according to Israeli media report (Naharnet) that was confirmed by the IDF. These same missiles, which are also known by a different name (M-600) were transferred to Hezbollah from Syria and made operational three years ago.

This advanced missile transfer wasn't a "game changer" three years ago, but it is today? Sorry, but I'm not buying that story - there is something much bigger going on that would suddenly get Israel to do what it did this past January, and again this past Friday morning in Damascus, and - based upon new information - a third massive attack has just occurred in the same Qudssaya area west of Damascus that was hit in January. I was going to update this SITREP with the new info, but how do you update something that was news from my perspective on this blog three years ago? Just because the MSM wasn't paying detailed attention to those critical events is not something I'm going to worry about now.

So, for the bulk of this update to the current situation I must first direct your attention "back to the future," to the report I researched and posted here on Eschatology Today three years ago:

The Syrian Missile Crisis: Threat of War Very Real : Friday, May 14, 2010 

So what could the "something much bigger" be that has caused Israel to determine it had collected, analyzed and decided it must now act upon as a "red line" too far?  I believe that Israel, perhaps with American assistance or perhaps not, but certainly with American concurrence, has determined that Iran, through their Hezbollah/IRGC forces in Lebanon had made final preparations to attack Israel's Dimona Nuclear Power Plant with the missiles and advanced warheads that are being struck in their staging areas around Damascus.

I think the key part of the intelligence assessment that made the determination were the two Iranian drones which were shot down, the first as it flew across the Negev Desert towards the Dimona NPP complex on October 6, 2012, and the second just 9 days ago as it flew south along Israel's Mediterranean coastline off Haifa. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the time of the second Iranian drone shoot-down that he viewed the situation with the "utmost gravity." This morning that gravity appears to be pulling Israel and Syria towards the full-scale war I believed "The Syrian Missile Crisis" was going to provoke three years ago. What Syria does in the next few hours or days may well determine if we will be witness to the fulfillment the prophecy concerning Damascus, the rest of Syria, the cities of northern Jordan and northern Israel found in Isaiah 17.

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04 May 2013: The Israel Air Force appears to have launched another precision strike package against an anti-aircraft missile depot located somewhere in western Syria. However, the IAF has suddenly changed its tactics in launching a strike inside Syria by using only stand-off, 'fire and forget" air-to-ground missiles. No IAF strike aircraft actually entered Syrian airspace on this mission flown very early Friday morning. The F-16I Sufa strike package apparently launched their missiles from the skies over northern Israel and Lebanon at the distant targets.

As reported in Global SITREP A9-13: 

"Speaking of steroids, the GBU-39A/B is a flechette-on-steroids of high precision, high lethality, low-to-no-collateral damage aerial weapons. A dart of a bunker buster, if you will. This is the state-of-the-art weapon Israel could immediately deploy on its F-16I Sufa strike aircraft to hit nuclear related bunkers or human targets in downtown Tehran and barely disturb the person sleeping in the building next door. The US has had these weapons since 2008, and now, just five years later, Israel will get the GBU-39A/B too.

The GBU-39A/B is light, only 285 pounds - but it has a high explosive (blast velocity = 5 miles per second) warhead that weighs 205 pounds. This bomb is more than 2/3rds high explosives. Makes a bad day for the bad guy his last day on earth no matter where he is hiding from a launch point that is 60 miles away - and that is well outside the range of most point air defense systems Iran or Syria possess. Additionally, this weapon's guidance system cannot be jammed or spoofed."

I'd assess that since an anonymous US official announced this strike before an IDF spokesperson did that our guy was in effect taking credit for a strike on advanced anti-aircraft missiles that a joint intelligence operation had determined were destined for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon. As in the 1 February 2013 strike on the Qudssaya military depot in the Western Damascus suburb (see The "Morton Salt Scenario"), perhaps these new anti-aircraft missile systems are intended as payment for the sacrifice Hezbollah and IRGC troops are making for the Al-Assad regime's fight against Jihadist Sunni rebels all over the Syrian countryside. 

With respect to that strike on Qudssaya, after-action analysis of photography issued by the Syrian government itself revealed perhaps a dozen or more completely destroyed Russian-made SA-8 (NATO-Name: Gecko) 9K33 Osa (Wasp) tactical surface-to-air missile systems, an example of which is seen in the image below.

Hezbollah and the IRGC in Lebanon currently have nothing like this very capable and battlefield proven point air defense system in their known inventory. The introduction of this system into the valleys of Lebanon might constitute a tactical "game changer" situation for Israel in the coming war with Hezbollah and the IRGC. Israel appears to have launched two strikes to prevent the transfer of either the Syrian SA-8 systems or WMD materials to the enemy forces in Lebanon. The first was that apparently bottle-necked convoy of SA-8 Gecko systems, and this one a fixed, non-moving target such as a warehouse. There is no information which indicates the GBU-39A/B can strike a moving target like a convoy. As expected the next IAF strike or series of strikes could occur at any time, as could a Syrian or Hezbollah/IRGC response against Israel.  Whatever the case, the war is in progress and we're watching it closely. An update on the actual location of the IAF airstrike will be made when it has been determined.

Global SITREP A9-13 : Prophetic Dominoes All Lined Up!

 U.S. Navy F-35 Lightning II - Israel Air Force "Adir"

28 April 2013: Preparations have continued which were postulated in the Eschatology Today article of 7 March 2009 entitled "Prophetic Dominoes." Global SITREP A9-13 will basically constitute an comprehensive update for that article. Those now four-year old strategic preparations have progressed to a very advanced, ready-to-go, now-or-never stage. Only the back-and-forth in relations between the United States and Israel regarding how to deal with the Iranian nuclear problem over these past fours years has kept a preemptive strike simmering in the interim. At the present time it does appear that a strike will occur before the summer months of 2013 have made their passage from our calendars. 

A very recent weapons agreement between the US and Israel has all the earmarks of being a virtual hardware upgrade reward for Israel's patience with the U.S., E.U. and U.N. diplomatic application of sanctions against Iranian nuclear progress. This is a hardware upgrade of such state-of-the-art American-made weapons being injected into Israel's armory that the total real-world military dominance I believe is made evident in the Lord's prophetic word found Jeremiah 49, Isaiah 17 and Psalm 83 is now completely unambiguous.

One piece of the new hardware is the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike stealth fighter (image above) which Israel will shortly begin building its combat squadrons around in replacing its aging F-16A Hawk models. Traditionally Israel gives its own name to its aircraft and the F-35 will be no different as it has been christened with the Hebrew name Adir meaning Great, but conveying a more 21st century meaning along the lines of Unrivaled Awesomeness,  which is an apt description of this aircraft's capabilities. Air superiority on steroids in other words. 

There is also another bit of hardware that was all but missed. It's so new that the usually weapons savvy Israeli publications like YNET and DEBKAfile didn't even notice it. YNET News.com even reported the exact opposite, headlining that no bunker busters were in this weapon agreement. (Oops, I hate when that happens!)  The New York Times reported it, but they even they played a low-key note in reporting it.  What is "it"?  It is the GBU-39A/B, which true to this weapons true capability passed straight through almost undetected in only being identified as "advanced focused munitions bombs" in the Times article on the arms deal.

Speaking of steroids, the GBU-39A/B is a flechette-on-steroids of high precision, high lethality, low-to-no-collateral damage aerial weapons.A dart of a bunker buster, if you will. This is the state-of-the-art weapon Israel could immediately deploy on its F-16I Sufa strike aircraft to hit nuclear related bunkers or human targets in downtown Tehran and barely disturb the person sleeping in the building next door. The US has had these weapons since 2008, and now, just five years later, Israel will get the GBU-39A/B too. 

The GBU-39A/B is light, only 285 pounds - but it has a high explosive (blast velocity = 5 miles per second) warhead that weighs 205 pounds. This bomb is more than 2/3rds high explosives. Makes a bad day for the bad guy his last day on earth no matter where he is hiding from a launch point that is 60 miles away - and that is well outside the range of most point air defense systems Iran or Syria possess. Additionally, this weapon's guidance system cannot be jammed or spoofed.

It is my own assessment that the North Korean nuclear test of 12 February 2013 was in-fact an Iranian test of a weapon with an HEU fissile core. A possible second test will confirm it.  Global SITREP A7-13 spoke to the strategic implications. More recent news articles have made clear with respect to the North Korean nuclear warhead test, and the new US military assessment regarding a missile-borne delivery system for that warhead, that Israel regards Iran as now having fully taken a stride over the red line it established in consultation with the United States. A strike on Iran looks as imminent as it ever did and Israel is more prepared than ever to deliver that strike.  Add to this the looming WMD situation in Syria and the conditions for a "perfect storm" in the Middle East to accelerate the toppling of prophetic dominoes are all too apparent.