No, not my ebook; Joel C. Roserberg’s
Here are parts of his introduction to it on his blog: Read it all
nuclear weapons
Karen in Burma
OK, the Karen — not my sister. As far as I know, she’s in Woodburn, not Rangoon.
“It seems like the Burmese government is getting ready for a huge offensive action against a lot of people,” he says.
Klein believes he knows the target. “From what my contacts are saying from inside, they’re now trying to get rid of anybody who is opposed to the government. Everybody wants freedom. They want it to open up. They do not like this government, but they feel hopeless.
“Yesterday, we told you about the thousands of tribal people who have been forced out of Burma or killed. Klein says it’s nothing short of genocide. The question is: Why won’t the United Nations do something about it? Klein says, “The reason the UN Security Council won’t do anything is because China and Russia are backing the military government.”
Klein says there could be a “huge genocide before the election in October. They’re going to slaughter a whole bunch more people. They’ve been killing the Karen, and more and more of the tribals are being killed now. I’m just concerned that there are going to be millions of people slaughtered — is the world going to ignore and act like it’s not our problem?”
While the world ignores what’s going on, Vision Beyond Borders isn’t. Klein says, “People have lost all confidence in their government. Even people are turning away from Buddhism. They’re looking for hope. They’re turning to Jesus Christ. There are some Bibles getting into the country, and there is a tremendous need for more Scriptures because people are open to the Gospel now.”
Rwanda, Congo, Orissa, Burma — with a shrug, the world sweeps them under the rug.
The Deepening Iran Crisis
OK, so I’m a little slow…. In his article dated October 5, 2009, George Friedman of Strategic Forecasting reports:
Two major leaks occurred this weekend over the Iran matter.
In the first, The New York Times published an article reporting that staff at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear oversight group, had produced an unreleased report saying that Iran was much more advanced in its nuclear program than the IAEA had thought previously. According to the report, Iran now has all the data needed to design a nuclear weapon. The New York Times article added that U.S. intelligence was re-examining the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of 2007, which had stated that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.
The second leak occurred in the British paper The Sunday Times, which reported that the purpose of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s highly publicized secret visit to Moscow on Sept. 7 was to provide the Russians with a list of Russian scientists and engineers working on Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
[…]
If Netanyahu went to Moscow to deliver this intelligence to the Russians, the only surprise would have been the degree to which the Israelis had penetrated the program, not that the Russians were there. The Russian intelligence services are superbly competent, and keep track of stray nuclear scientists carefully. They would not be surprised by the charge, only by Israel’s knowledge of it.
[…]
Two conclusions can be drawn. First, the Israelis no longer need to add to their knowledge of Russian involvement; they know what they need to know. And second, the Israelis do not expect Iranian development to continue much longer; otherwise, maintaining the intelligence capability would take precedence over anything else.
It follows from this that the use of this intelligence in diplomatic confrontations with Russians and in a British newspaper serves a greater purpose than the integrity of the source system. And that means that the Israelis expect a resolution in the very near future — the only reason they would have blown their penetration of the Russian-Iranian system.
[…]
The least that can be said about this is that the Obama administration and Israel are trying to reshape the negotiations with the Iranians and Russians. The most that can be said is that the Americans and Israelis are preparing the public for war. Polls now indicate that more than 60 percent of the U.S. public now favors military action against Iran. From a political point of view, it has become easier for U.S. President Barack Obama to act than to not act. This, too, is being transmitted to the Iranians and Russians.
It is not clear to us that the Russians or Iranians are getting the message yet. They have convinced themselves that Obama is unlikely to act because he is weak at home and already has too many issues to juggle. This is a case where a reputation for being conciliatory actually increases the chances for war. But the leaks this weekend have strikingly limited the options and timelines of the United States and Israel. They also have put the spotlight on Obama at a time when he already is struggling with health care and Afghanistan. History is rarely considerate of presidential plans, and in this case, the leaks have started to force Obama’s hand.
So there you are.
If that’s going to keep you awake, you just as well read the full article, eh? Here you are: Two Leaks and the Deepening Iran Crisis
“Mark my words,
it will not be six months
before the world tests Barack Obama
like they did John Kennedy.”
—Joe Biden
it will not be six months
before the world tests Barack Obama
like they did John Kennedy.”
—Joe Biden
Make It Rocky Road
No, not ice cream.
The not-so-distant future here in the United States, as forecast by a Chuck Baldwin (whoever he is):
It is no hyperbole to say that the U.S. federal government has been on a “Ban God” bandwagon for the past 50 years. Whether it kicks prayer and Bible reading out of school, bars military chaplains from praying in Jesus’ name, burns Bibles in Iraq, removes state supreme court chief justices from their positions for posting the Ten Commandments, or threatens high school principals with jail for asking the blessing, the federal government has invoked the judgment of Heaven upon our country as surely as did Old Testament Israel.
Although the comfortable, sports-crazed, TV addicts probably aren’t paying attention, this country is on the verge of an implosion like you cannot believe. For anyone who cares to notice, the signs are everywhere.
First of all, Israel and Iran are on the verge of war. And right now, I’m not concentrating on the “why” or “who’s right or wrong” of the equation. I’m simply telling you, war between Israel and Iran could break out at any time. And when it does, the chances that it will not become nuclear and not become global are miniscule. Yes, I am saying it: the prospects for nuclear war have never been greater. […]
Secondly, America is on the verge of total financial collapse. By the end of this year, America’s budget deficit will stand at around $2 trillion. The debt gap is many trillions more than that. But the nail in the coffin for America’s fiscal health will be the decision by China to dump the U.S. dollar. Ladies and gentlemen, this will be the death knell for our financial stability and a painful lesson in sowing and reaping.
[…]
Third, the paranoia regarding the Swine Flu being demonstrated by both government and media spokesmen begs a giant push for some type of “government solution.”
[…]
Exactly how and when all of the above will actually materialize is yet to be seen. There is no doubt in my mind, however, that within the next few months, the world that we know today is going to vanish. And most Americans are totally unprepared for what’s coming.
If you are able to get out of debt, do it. If you need to scale down your lifestyle in order to be better prepared for difficult days, do it. If you don’t have guns and ammo, buy them.
Somehow, I don’t think he has FAFA solely in mind with that last sentence. If I’m right, I disagree with him. Vigorously. Biblically, in my view. (For the record, I do not agree 100% with Chuck Badlwin’s rhetoric and so forth. Not even close. I reference this article to expand your world view a bit — perhaps — but certainly not to endorse Mr. Baldwin or his theology.)
Anyway, you can read the full article here: It Is Going To Be A Rocky Road — it might do you some good.
Oh, you’re wondering what FAFA is, I suppose.
Firearm-Assisted Food Acquisition — another acronym of my very own arrangement and a PC-friendly way of saying hunting — Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! 🙄
Oh, having disclaimed Mr. Baldwin, allow me to claim Jesus and His Word:
“In the last days,
perilous times
shall come.”
2 Timothy 3:1
perilous times
shall come.”
2 Timothy 3:1
Persian Pickles
A pickle isn’t just something to eat. A pickle is also something to try to get out of. A problem, in other words. A dilemma.
And of course you know Iran is ancient Persia.
So here you go, straight from the folks at Stratfor:
Misreading the Iranian Situation
After the last round of meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama, the Israelis announced that the United States had agreed that in the event of a failure in negotiations, the United States would demand — and get — crippling sanctions against Iran, code for a gasoline cutoff. In return, the Israelis indicated that any plans for a unilateral Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be put off. The Israelis specifically said that the Americans had agreed on the September U.N. talks as the hard deadline for a decision on — and implementation of — sanctions.
[…]
Obama’s assurances notwithstanding, there accordingly is no evidence of any force or process that would cause the Iranians to change their minds about their nuclear program. With that, the advantage to Israel of delaying a military strike evaporates.
Here are a few more isolated statements from the above article:
- Moreover, the Israelis have Obama in a box.
- If that’s true, then the current crisis is more dangerous than it appears.
- Given that, the United States might as well do the attacking.
- It isn’t clear that Obama can do that, however.
- That consensus causes foreign leaders to take risks; it also causes Obama to have an interest in demonstrating that they have misread him.
- We get the sense that everyone is misreading everyone else.
Then, at the end (where you would expect to find it), the closing paragraph:
The current situation is not as dangerous as the Cuban Missile Crisis was, but it has this in common: Everyone thinks we are on a known roadmap, when in reality, one of the players — Israel — has the ability and interest to redraw the roadmap. Netanyahu has been signaling in many ways that he intends to do just this. Everyone seems to believe he won’t. We aren’t so sure.
I wonder what Joel C. Rosenberg has to say about this whole mess. OK, I just peeked. There’s this and this and this.
Bomb. Bunker. Both.
Just so you know: Israel’s Iran choices narrow.
The orchestrated roar of air force exercises designed to signal Israel’s readiness to attack Iranian nuclear facilities are belied, perhaps, by a far quieter project deep beneath the western Jerusalem hills.
Dubbed “Nation’s Tunnel” by the media and screened from view by government guards, it is a bunker network that would shelter Israeli leaders in an atomic war — earth-bound repudiation of the Jewish state’s vow to deny its foes the bomb at all costs.
Lash out or dig in? The quandary Israelis call existential seems close to decision-point. Iran’s uranium enrichment has already produced enough raw fuel for one nuclear weapon, U.N. inspectors say, though Tehran denies having military designs. Next month’s international good-faith talks offer no clear relief to Israel, which wants world powers to be prepared to penalise Iran’s vulnerable energy imports but sees Russia and China blocking any such resolution at the U.N. Security Council.
That the Obama administration signed on to negotiating without preconditions — a potential disavowal of the United States’s past demand for an enrichment halt — may only crank up Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ticking clock.
[…]
“There are three clocks at work here: technical, in terms of Iran’s advances; operational, in terms of our capabilities and their precautions; and diplomatic,” Eiland said.
“The questions is when and how these clocks might become synchronised for a ‘window’ in which Israel would act.”
Sleep well.
Iran’s Progress
Every so often I rare back…and give this drum a light tap.
As the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s nuclear program makes clear, at its present rate of uranium enrichment, Iran will have sufficient quantities of enriched uranium to build two atomic bombs by February.
[…]
What is most notable about this IAEA finding is that it comes in a report that does everything possible to cover up Iran’s progress and intentions.
Reminder: If Iran does acquire nuclear weapons, those will not be the world’s first Islamic nukes. Pakistan beat them to that punch.