[Below is the summary of this article, which gives a nice summary of recent world events and where we find ourselves on this side of the Tribulation]
Here is what is happening in the world as of today.
- Barack Obama and his top foreign policy advisors are expected to meet tomorrow to consider military options in Syria. Some Obama Administration officials argue that the US must act forcefully in Syria to confront Russia over Moscow’s support of President Assad and the relentless bombing of US-backed Islamic militants in Aleppo.
- An unnamed White House source told Reuters that one option under consideration is direct US military strikes on Syrian military bases, munitions depots, radar installations, and anti-aircraft bases. Because Russian military personnel are assisting the Syrian army and air force, any US military attack risks killing Russian troops. Another option to be presented to Obama tomorrow is to provide the Islamic radicals such as the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra with shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. The missiles would be used to shoot down Syrian and Russian jet fighters.
- TASS news agency reported that Russia will not allow any country to jeopardize the lives of its servicemen in Syria. The warning was intended for Western nations that are contemplating arming Islamic jihadists with shoulder-fired rockets to shoot down Russian warplanes over Syria.
- The Times of London reported that Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Air Force are prepared to shoot down Russian warplanes over Syria. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the highest ecclesiastical official in the Russian Orthodox Church, will meet privately with Queen Elizabeth next week. The Orthodox Church patriarch arrives in London on Sunday.
- Vladimir Putin told a French TV network that the suffering and carnage in the Middle East is the fault of Western nations. He said, “Remember how everyone rushed to support the Arab Spring? Where is that optimism now? How did it all end? Remember what Libya and Iraq looked like before these countries were destroyed as states by our western partners’ forces?” Mr. Putin also expressed skepticism that the US-led coalition is really working to destroy ISIS.
- In another sign that a world war is ready to erupt, Iran dispatched two warships to the Gulf of Aden to establish a naval presence in the waters off Yemen where the US navy launched cruise missile strikes on Iranian-supported forces in Yemen.
- It appears that Barack Obama has lost the Philippines as a US ally. Philippine President Duterte called Mr. Obama a fool and warned he would humiliate him. The US has criticized the Philippine President’s ruthless crackdown on drug cartels. Over 2,000 drug dealers have been shot dead in the streets since June 30. The 71-year-old leader has an approval rating of 90% in the public opinion polls in the Philippines. He told Mr. Obama, “I’ll play with you. I’m very sure they cannot be brighter than me. I will ask five questions that will humiliate you. Watch out for that, it will be a spectacle.” Although Mr. Duterte did not name the five questions he will ask Mr. Obama, most likely he will expose the involvement of powerful, wealthy American individuals and agencies in international drug and child sex trafficking.
- You can check off India too as a former US ally thanks to Obama and Clinton. Russia signed a deal to sell its S-400 air defense system to India.
- And if you still aren’t convinced we’re rushing to nuclear war, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Lee Sun-jin is in Washington meeting with the highest military officials in the Pentagon. Yesterday the South Korean commander was given a tour of American B-52 and B2 nuclear bombers.
With diplomatic relations between Moscow and Washington at their lowest point since the Cold War, one could be forgiven for being alarmed by recent Russian news broadcasts. For the past month, Russian media outlets have been punctuated with reports asking people whether they are ready for nuclear war.
“If it should one day happen, every one of you should know where the nearest bomb shelter is. It’s best to find out now,” according to one particularly fevered report on the Russian state-owned channel, NTV.
Russia’s main current affairs show, hosted by a presenter known by critics as the country’s propagandist-in-chief, recently spent two hours warning that Russia would defend itself with nuclear arms.
“We’ve had it with American scolding over Syria,” the show’s host, Evgeny Kiselyov, told his audience. "Impudent behavior,” from the U.S. he said, can take on “nuclear dimensions."
Even more bluntly, Russia announced this week it was moving nuclear-capable ballistic missiles into its Northern European exclave, Kaliningrad, putting them within striking distance of Western capitals.
Such moves have further raised the temperature with the West, already exceptionally high with the U.S. accusing Moscow of trying to interfere in its presidential elections and Russia accusing the U.S. of supporting terrorists in Syria. Relations were already at a low since the Ukraine crisis broke out in 2014, and the renewed clash over Moscow's military campaign in Syria has sent them to fresh depths.
The blood-curdling statements and military posturing, however, do not herald imminent war, analysts said.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Aleksander Baunov, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. “It’s not preparation for war.”
He said the civil defense drills and the heated programming on television were directed more at the U.S., to deter it from interfering with Russia’s military campaign in Syria or responding too strongly to suspected Russian efforts to interfere with the U.S. elections.
The chances of a real military confrontation between Russia and the U.S. have risen dramatically since Washington indicated it was considering launching airstrikes against the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after a cease-fire brokered by Moscow and Washington was abandoned and Assad and Russian aircraft unleashed a devastating bombardment on the city of Aleppo. Russia’s Defense Ministry has bluntly warned the U.S. not to intervene, threatening to shoot down any aircraft targeting Assad’s forces.
President Obama has announced he will meet Friday with his top foreign policy advisers to deliberate wether the United States will use military force to intervene in Syria against Russia.
- Top officials: United States must act more forcefully in Syria or risk losing what influence it still has over ISIS, its affiliates, and the America’s Arab, Kurdish and Turkish allies.
- One set of options includes direct U.S. military action such as air strikes on Syrian military bases, munitions depots or radar and anti-aircraft bases.
- One danger of such action is that Russian and Syrian forces are often co-mingled, raising the possibility of a direct confrontation with Russia that Obama has been at pains to avoid.
- One alternative is allowing allies to provide “U.S.-vetted rebels” with more sophisticated weapons, although not shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, which Washington fears could be used against Western airliners.
- U.S. officials voiced little hope for success in upcoming peace talks in Lausanne, Switzerland with Russia, and possibly counterparts from Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
- Anthony Cordesman, Center for Strategic and International Studies: "There is only so long you can ignore your options before you don’t have any.”
It is being reported that Iran has now dispatched two warships to Yemen in response to the US Navy blowing up three radar sites on the coast of Yemen in the past 24 hours. Iran claims the ships were dispatched to the vital shipping route in the Gulf of Aden “to protect trade vessels from piracy.” The US claims it has intelligence proving Iran is funding Yemen’s Shiite rebels and they were provoking America. The US, as many readers know, is underwriting the Sunni agenda headquartered in “ally” Saudi Arabia.
It’s another step in the march toward world war which the Pentagon seems to be heading straight toward by the hour.
Video below published on the official US Navy YouTube earlier today reportedly shows the US striking three coastal radar sites in Yemen with Tomahawk cruise missiles in retaliation for what an unnamed official confirmed to Fox News were Shiite rebels firing missiles at US military ships twice, and missing both times, over the last four days.
Then again, we only know what we’re being told by our establishment media and their always unnamed officials. Average American citizens have no idea what’s really going on over there. They said similar things about The Gulf of Tonkin incident to launch us into a bigger war in Vietnam and that turned out to be completely fabricated.
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