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1O SING to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have wrought salvation for Him.
2The Lord has made known His salvation; His righteousness has He openly shown in the sight of the nations.
3He has [earnestly] remembered His mercy and loving-kindness, His truth and His faithfulness toward the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have witnessed the salvation of our God.
4Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy, yes, sing praises!
5Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the voice of melody.
6With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!
7Let the sea roar, and all that fills it, the world, and those who dwell in it!
8Let the rivers clap their hands; together let the hills sing for joy
9Before the Lord, for He is coming to judge [and rule] the earth; with righteousness will He judge [and rule] the world, and the peoples with equity.
1AND YOU, son of man, prophesy against Gog, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince (ruler) of Rosh, of Meshech, and of Tubal.
2And I will turn you about and will lead you on, and will cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north and will lead you against the mountains of Israel;
3And I will smite your bow from your left hand and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.
4You shall fall [dead] upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your hosts and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5You shall fall in the open field, for I have spoken [it], says the Lord God.
6I will send fire on Magog and upon those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].
7And I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name any more; and the nations shall know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
8Behold, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord God; that is the day of which I have spoken.
9And [when you, Gog, are no longer] they who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth and shall set on fire and burn the battle gear, the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, the handspikes or riding whips and the spears; and they shall burn them as fuel for seven years,
10So that My people shall take no firewood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for they shall make their fires of the weapons. And they shall despoil those who despoiled them and plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord God.
11And in that day, I will give to Gog a place for burial there in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east side in front of the [Dead] Sea [the highway between Syria, Petra, and Egypt], and it will delay and stop those who pass through. And there shall they [a]bury Gog and all his multitude, and they shall call it the Valley of Hamon-gog [multitude of Gog].
12For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
13Yes, all the people of the land will bury them, and it shall bring them renown in the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord God.
14And they shall set apart men to work continually who shall pass through the land, men commissioned to bury, with the help of those who are passing by, those bodies that lie unburied on the face of the ground, in order to cleanse the land. After the end of seven months they shall make their search.
15And when these pass through the land and anyone sees a human bone, he shall set up a marker by it as a sign to the buriers, until they have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog or of Gog’s multitude.
16And Hamonah [multitude] shall also be the name of the city [of the dead]. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
17And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Say to the birds of prey of every sort and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves and come, gather from every side to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, even a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel at which you may eat flesh and drink blood.
18You shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, of goats, and of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan [east of the Jordan].
19And you shall eat fat till you are filled and drink blood till you are drunk at the sacrificial feast which I am preparing for you.
20And you shall be filled at My table with horses and riders, with mighty men, and with soldiers of every kind, says the Lord God.
21And I will manifest My honor and glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment and justice [in the punishment] which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them.
22So the house of Israel shall know, understand, and realize beyond all question that I am the Lord their God from that day forward.
23And the nations shall know, understand, and realize positively that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they trespassed against Me; and I hid My face from them. So I gave them into the hand of their enemies and they all fell [into captivity or were slain] by the power of the sword.
24According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them and hid My face from them.
25Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now will I reverse the captivity of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel and will be jealous for My holy name.
26They shall forget their shame and self-reproach and all their treachery and unfaithfulness in which they have transgressed against Me, when they dwell securely in their land and there is none who makes them afraid.
27When I have brought them again from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and My justice and holiness are set apart and vindicated through them in the sight of many nations,
28Then shall they know, understand, and realize positively that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into captivity and exile among the nations and then gathered them to their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations any more [in the latter days].
29Neither will I hide My face any more then from them, when I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God. — Amplified Bible
Footnotes:
Ezekiel 39:11 The number of dead bodies left after the great catastrophe which God will send upon Gog and his hosts would necessarily amount to several millions. Their graves would naturally interfere with traffic on the interstate highway. The dead will not be slain in battle. God will slay them by a great “cosmic catastrophe” (Ezek. 38:18-23). And not just some, but “all” of Gog’s multitude will die then (Ezek. 39:4, 11); before they have had a chance to use their weapons, God will strike them from their hands (Ezek. 39:3). That one-sixth of the horde from the north will be left alive, as the King James Version says (Ezek. 39:2), is without noted exception conceded to be a mistaken translation by all authorities of modern times.
2Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of [a]Magog, the prince of Rosh, of Meshech, and of Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3And say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince (ruler) of Rosh, of Meshech, and of Tubal.
4And I will turn you back and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords–
5Persia, Cush, and Put or Libya with them, all of them with shield and helmet,
6Gomer and all his hordes, the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north and all his hordes–many people are with you.
7You [Gog] be prepared; yes, prepare yourself, you and all your companies that are assembled about you, and you be a guard and a commander for them.
8After many days you shall be visited and mustered [for service]; in the latter years you shall go against the land that is restored from the ravages of the sword, where people are gathered out of many nations upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste; but its [people] are brought forth out of the nations and they shall dwell securely, all of them.
9You shall ascend and come like a storm; you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your hosts and many people with you.
10Thus says the Lord God: At the same time thoughts shall come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan.
11And you will say, I will go up against an open country [the land of unwalled villages]; I will fall upon those who are at rest, who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates,
12To take spoil and prey, to turn your hand upon the desolate places now inhabited and assail the people gathered out of the nations, who have obtained livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth [Palestine].
13Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish, with all their lionlike cubs [or satellite areas], shall say to you, Have you come to take spoil? Have you gathered your hosts to take the prey? To carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take a great spoil?
14Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord God: In that day when My people Israel dwell securely, will you not know it and be aroused?
15And you will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army.
16And you shall come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. In the latter days I will bring you against My land, that the nations may know, understand, and realize Me when My holiness shall be vindicated through you [vindicated and honored in your overwhelming destruction], O Gog, before their eyes.
17Thus says the Lord God: Are you he of whom I have spoken in olden times by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for years that I would bring you [Gog] against them?
18But in that day when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, My wrath shall come up into My nostrils.
19For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I said, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking or cosmic catastrophe in the land of Israel,
20So that the fishes of the sea and the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall tremble and shake at My presence; and the mountains shall be thrown down and the steep places shall fall and every wall [natural or artificial] shall fall to the ground.
21And I will call for a sword against [Gog] throughout all My mountains, says the Lord God, every man’s sword shall be against his brother [over the dividing of booty].
22And with pestilence and with bloodshed will I enter into judgment with [Gog], and I will rain upon him and upon his hordes and upon the many peoples that are with him torrents of rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.
23Thus will I demonstrate My greatness and My holiness, and I will be recognized, understood, and known in the eyes of many nations; yes, they shall know that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service]. — Amplified Bible
Footnotes:
Ezekiel 38:2 Gog is a symbolic name, representing the leader of the world powers antagonistic to God (see also Rev. 20:8). Meshech and Tubal are understood to have been the same as the Moschi and Tibareni of the Greeks–tribes that inhabited regions in the Caucasus. Rosh, which some would identify with Russia, must have designated a land and people somewhere in the same area. And therefore the Gog of Ezekiel must be viewed as in some sense the head of the high regions in the northwest of Asia. (Patrick Fairbairn, The Imperial Bible-dictionary).
18Joshua had waged war a long time [at least five years] with all those kings.
19Not a city made peace with the Israelites except the Hivites, the people of Gibeon; all the others they took in battle.
20For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, that [Israel] might [a]destroy them utterly, and that without favor and mercy, as the Lord commanded Moses. – Amplified Bible
Footnotes:
Joshua 11:20 “Infidels say that it seems wholly inconsistent with what we should suppose to be the merciful character of God that He should thus command whole nations to be destroyed by the sword… [But] when we see juries in our own country bringing in a verdict of guilty, the judge pronouncing the sentence of death, and that sentence executed, we do not complain that there is anything unjust in the act. These Canaanites are proved to have polluted and stained the land with [intolerable] crimes; it was merely the holy Judge [the Lord] pronouncing the sentence on flagrant criminals and [Joshua] the righteous governor executing that sentence to the letter. It was not an act of arbitrary or private revenge, but the execution of the sentence of retributive justice, and as such had perhaps as great mercy to the innocent as justice to the guilty” (John Cumming, cited by James C. Gray and George M. Adams, Bible Commentary).
It was one of the most iconic images that emerged from the smoke and rubble of Ground Zero in New York City after 9/11. Two intersecting steel beams from the once-massive World Trade Center structure survived the collapse of the globe’s most recognizable towers and rose from the ashes as a fitting symbol not just of lives lost, but of the eternal hope of a better life to come.
So moving was the sight that rescue workers and clean-up crews — men and women of various faiths, religious traditions, and backgrounds — left it untouched, cordoning it off and shining spotlights on it through the night as a reminder of the hallowed presence of the Almighty, even there in the valley of the shadow of death.
I remember visiting Ground Zero the first time over a year after the attacks. And amidst the emotions of sorrow and grief that at times seemed overwhelming as I looked at the pictures and tributes left by the family members of victims, that steel cross remained as an inspirational reminder that there is a greater spirit that lives inside the human soul that is unassailable by any act of man, no matter how evil or devastating it is.
Yet what the murderous butchers of 9/11 could not bring down with exploding airliners and crumbling skyscrapers, a rabid group of atheists, bizarrely obsessed with destroying the foundation of the very rights they ceaselessly exploit for the sake of self-aggrandizement, are attempting to bring down with a lawsuit.
The organization American Atheists has filed a legal challenge in state court in New York to halt the permanent display of the World Trade Center cross at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
It’s important to note the distinction that exists between the majority of atheists in the United States and the fanatical anti-God extremists that characterize this militant organization. Most atheists express little if any outright hostility to organized religion, particularly Christianity. Indeed they are thankful to live in a civilization founded upon the Western values derived from the Judeo-Christian worldview — values like tolerance, brotherhood, and doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. They merely seek to exercise their right of conscience (something that they will acknowledge and admit is the product of the country’s Christian foundation) to not believe in a Divine Authority.
But not American Atheists. These are the folks who ignorantly theorize that it is their constitutional right not only to be a non-believer, but to never have to interact with, encounter, or be subjected to the beliefs of anyone else. Therefore, they belligerently proselytize their unbelief, assailing Nativity scenes, the Ten Commandments, candy canes, Christmas carols, public prayers, and now steel beams that form the shape of a cross.
Complaining that “the WTC cross has become a Christian icon,” the group’s president, Dave Silverman, issued a press release stating that the “government enshrinement of the cross was an impermissible mingling of church and state,” and thus violated the Establishment clause of the First Amendment. Hogwash.
Expounding on the true meaning of that clause in January of 1853, Mr. Badger issued the reported findings of congressional investigations into the Founders’ intent in writing it. The Senate committee found that the authors of the First Amendment “had no fear or jealously of religion itself, nor did they wish to see us an irreligious people; they did not intend to prohibit a just expression of religious devotion by the legislators of the nation, even in their public character as legislators.” Therefore, even if American Atheists could prove their accusation that enshrining the 9/11 cross was an intentional expression of religious devotion by lawmakers, it would not run afoul of the First Amendment.
Interestingly, that congressional inquiry went on to state that the Founding Fathers “did not intend to spread over all the public authorities and the whole public action of the nation, the dead and revolting spectacle of atheistical apathy.” And make no mistake, there are no better words to describe a lawsuit to obliterate the 9/11 cross than “revolting spectacle.”
Maybe, in the end, that’s the good that will come of this case. Though equally irrational, when American Atheists sues a graduating senior for mentioning Jesus or attempts to disbar a judge for allowing a municipal Nativity scene display, it flies under the radar of the national conscience. But seeking to dismantle the 9/11 cross is such an egregious overreach of anti-Christian hostility that it offends the entire country’s sensibilities.
Perhaps it will prove to be the wake-up call necessary for people with common sense, be they atheist or Christian, to rise up and finally say to the radical extremists determined to eradicate our nation’s heritage, “Enough.”
America is living under an illusion: the idea that we can expunge God (broadly understood) from our national and public belief system and still operate a moral and accountable government.
C.S. Lewis summed up the problem in The Abolition of Man. ”We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful.” John Adams asserted, “Our Constitution was made for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Our founding fathers laid down a system that demanded conscientious, self-restrained implementation — a government dependent on the character of the people. Ben Franklin, perhaps the most deistic of the founding fathers, famously assured one curious bystander that the Constitutional Conventions had engendered “a Republic, if you can keep it.” How many people today truly understand that America’s health depends on the moral character of its citizens, of their personal “keeping” of our nation?
Many people in power have discovered that what Ivan Karamazov said is true: “If God is dead, all is permitted.” They recognize only too well that God has been removed from public life — and with Him, the attendant moral order. In their minds, there is no responsibility because there is no God. Morality, though not always agreed upon, has become a matter of opinion, easily dismissed.
How quaint the phrases of JFK appear to modern ears in his inaugural address: ”the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe — the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.” Unlike most of American history, religious utterances today are considered sectarian, even offensive. For the publicly disgraced, however, take a few years in jail or probation and a good lawyer, and they are home free. Americans forgive, and well they should, but who is left to pick up the pieces and contemplate the risk/reward of bad behavior?
When was the last time an American president prayed aloud in public? It was FDR at the moment of the D-Day invasion. According to preacher Andy Stanley, Americans stopped in traffic and got out of their cars, and major companies sent home their employees to pray for the invasion. Children stopped in school, all to pray. The truth is that for most of our history, Americans have believed that our nation is accountable to God for our behavior and prayed publicly for His guidance and forgiveness. Even when Abraham Lincoln asserted in his Second Inaugural that “[t]he Almighty has His own purposes,” intimating that they are not easily discerned, very few Americans doubted, as Lincoln asserted, that they are “true and righteous altogether.”
Only since prayer was banished from public schools in 1962 and a vocal minority began to consider it their right never to be present in a public place within earshot of a prayer was it that America decided to hang up on the voice of God in the public sphere. But this has not protected us from what Julia Ward Howe called “His terrible swift sword” — i.e., the consequences for our behavior. We are reaping the whirlwind even as we speak.
Many believe that religion should be confined to the private sphere. They want religion, in Francis Schaeffers’s words, “privately important, but publicly irrelevant.” But the truth is that public people living out public lives have always been subject to public oaths and understandings that invoke the name and sanction of God. According to historian David McCullough, George Washington added “so help me God” to the presidential oath, and it has stuck ever since. In the face of communism in the 1950s, Congress added “under God” to the pledge of allegiance and made “One Nation Under God” our national motto. Those who preceded us knew the wisdom of inculcating an understanding of God and the roots of conscience in all Americans — even in public schools. The “lowest common denominator” result of the 1962 school prayer decision was not only foolish constitutionally, but self-destructive nationally. Our public schools have never been the same since.
American history shows that two “Great Awakenings” presaged the two greatest crises in American history. John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield preached through the entire thirteen colonies in the 1740s, preparing the next generation for the challenges and inculcating the self-control needed for revolutionary times. Charles Phinney, Lyman Beecher, and others led the 2nd Great Awakening that formed the backdrop for the Civil War, empowering in the aftermath a greater healing and reconciliation of the nation than might normally have occurred. When the Civil Rights movement reached its critical stage, Martin Luther King, Jr., a clergyman, appeared on government property and invoked both the Bible (the book of Amos) and our founding documents to declare racial prejudice wrong, telling Americans that racism fell short of both God’s laws and America’s founding vision. He knew where freedom came from, proclaiming, “Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last” as he strode from the Lincoln Memorial. Must God be turned to publicly only when America is shaken to the core, or when our values are seriously compromised? Are we not in that position right now?
America is in crisis. Unfortunately, since the 1960s, we have expunged the one Presence from our public life who can truly help us as He has in the past. In his book Who Are We?, Samuel Huntington tells us that America is different from every other nation in the following regard: throughout the world, the more impoverished a nation is, the more time its people spend in religious observance and activities. The only exception — the only one — is America. We are wealthy and we also spend much time in religious observance.
Huntington warns us that we have about fifteen years to preserve what he calls “our Protestant heritage.” Let’s expand that here to include the public presence of God, which can help to enliven the private consciences of all Americans.
What we must face is a simple fact. A morality unhinged from God is not only inadequate for the times, but it will also doom us to a permanent slide into oblivion. Many believe that America will turn publicly to God…eventually. But will it be too late when the time finally comes?
Jay Haug is a freelance writer living in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. You may e-mail him at cjcwguy@gmail.com.
As international efforts to dispose of Moammar Gaddafi escalate, less and less attention is given to the real international threat in the region: Iran. While the Arab Spring has taken out or severely weakened hostile regimes throughout the Middle East, Iran has continued its dangerous buildup of nuclear material. At this point the nuclear ambitions of Iran’s dictatorial regime have become clear: they want a bomb. The regime continues to enrich large amounts of uranium to 20%, far beyond the amount needed for nuclear power and about 90% of the way to nuclear-grade fuel. Just recently Iran began to move nuclear enrichment facilities to deep underground bunkers to avoid the possibility of outside intervention. Finally, it has been often reported that Iran is conducting research on a neutron initiator using uranium deuteride (UD3), the only purpose of which is to trigger a nuclear reaction in a warhead. With Iran’s president — and I use that term loosely — being described by American diplomats as “unbalanced” and “crazy,” this threat can no longer be ignored.
And in many ways it hasn’t. Just this past year Congress passed their strictest set of sanctions ever against Iran’s regime, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010. Unfortunately, as Senators Mark Kirk (R-IL), John Kyl (R-AZ), and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) have noted, the enforcement of these sanctions has been far from effective; “[w]e are deeply concerned with what appear to be sanctionable activities by other entities involving energy investments in Iran, the provision of refined petroleum products to Iran, financial relationships with Iran, as well as the regime’s proliferation activities.”
The American government isn’t the only one concerned about failing international efforts to stop Iran’s nuclear expansions. As leaked diplomatic cables showed last fall, other Middle East governments are equally concerned with the threat a nuclear Iran poses to the region. Shortly after the WikiLeaks scandal broke, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had “frequently exhorted the U.S. to attack Iran to put an end to its nuclear weapons program,” with Abudllah even going as far as saying, “[C]ut the head off the snake.”
Furthermore, Iran is taking the threat of outside intervention seriously, practicing war games and frequently displaying its military might. In response to a question about their quest for longer-range ballistic missiles, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace force, stated, “[T]he range of our missiles has been designed on the basis of the distance to the Zionist regime and the US bases in the Persian Gulf region.” While this may seem like a familiar situation — both sides anxiously preparing for an impending conflict — what seems to be ignored is the fact that Iran has already started the war.
Iran for years has been the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism — funding, arming, and training organizations like Hamas, Hezb’allah, and others that senior Revolutionary Guard officials call “liberation armies.” Leaked diplomatic cables even suggest a strong cooperation between Iran and Al Qaeda is far from dormant. Furthermore, Iran has been accused of financially and militarily supporting rebels fighting American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to a March 2009 report by the Council on Foreign Relations, for years Iranian-made weapons, including the Tehran-designed roadside bomb — the explosively formed penetrator (EFP) — have been used by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, prompting former Defense Secretary Robert Gates in June 2007 to state, “[G]iven the quantities that we’re seeing, it is difficult to believe that it’s associated with smuggling or the drug business or that it’s taking place without the knowledge of the Iranian government.” Recently, reports surfaced of Iranian assistance to rebels fighting American forces in Iraq. In his first visit to Iraq as defense secretary, Leon Panetta stated, “[W]e’re very concerned about Iran and the weapons they’re providing to extremists in Iraq. We cannot sit back and simply allow this to continue.”
Yet thus far the United States and the rest of the world continue to sit back and wait — wait for something to draw us into the inevitable. On October 14, 1962 President John F. Kennedy addressed the world: “It shall be the policy of this nation, to regard any nuclear missile, launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere, as an attack, by the Soviet Union, on the United States.” We can only hope that it will not take a nuclear attack for this country to realize that we are already at war.
As the Congress debates budgetary issues, some liberals are marketing British defense cuts as a model for America, claiming that if the U.K. can afford to reduce its defense budget, so can America.
A close examination of these defense cuts, however, reveals that they will dramatically weaken the British military, make Britain (and America) less safe, save little money in the short term and zero in the long term, and have been implemented as a result of political pressure. Therefore, America should not emulate this policy.
First, the context. The last budget by Gordon Brown’s government included the largest budget deficit in British history. His Cabinet left Britain deep in a debt so large that government spending reductions were necessary (the British people are already taxed too heavily).
But reductions of defense spending are only weakening the British military and making Britain less safe, while saving little money.
The FY2011/12 defense budget is £40 billion. Under the current government’s plans, it will be reduced to just £33 billion in FY2014/15. That is a 1/6 cut, which is much bigger than what Defense Secretary Liam Fox was originally prepared to tolerate but smaller than what Chancellor George Osborne originally demanded. This £7-billion cut is too small to significantly reduce, let alone eliminate, the budget deficit. But it will significantly weaken a military whose budget is already too small. The U.K.’s GDP is roughly £1.4 trillion (p. 22); the defense budget constitutes only 2.857% of that.
These cuts have been ordered because wishy-washy “Conservatives” like Prime Minister Cameron and the LibDems in the Cabinet, led by Nick Clegg, have demanded them. They don’t care if Britain is safe, and Clegg overtly supports disarmament. Meanwhile, they have “ring-fenced” (i.e., shielded from budget cuts) the bloated Department of Health, including the dysfunctional NHS (which has an internal quango costing £60 billion per year) and the useless foreign aid budget. Indeed, the British government plans to increase both.
So, while the MOD is forced to make drastic cuts, the bloated DOH and the Dept. of International Development are not only shielded from cuts, but even receiving more of taxpayers’ money to waste.
What specific cuts will the MOD have to make?
The RAF’s combat jet fleet will be cut in half, consisting only of Typhoons and a small number of obsolete Tornados. Harriers of the RAF and the RN were retired in late 2010, thus leaving the RN without any attack jets (let alone fleet defense jets — these were retired by Blair in 2006) and thus any conventional long-range-strike capability. The British Army will have to cut their tank and self-propelled howitzer fleets by 40%, even though they’re already too small (even weak countries like Poland have bigger tank fleets) and have proven indispensable in Iraq and Afghanistan. The RN’s frigate fleet will be drastically cut, and the carrier Ark Royal has been retired. In the future, the RN will have only seven Astute class submarines and six DDGs alongside a small number of frigates; back in 2005, the RN had eight attack submarines, eight DDGs, and seventeen frigates. In 1997, under John Major, it had twelve attack subs and 35 surface combatants.
The RN’s future aircraft carriers have been delayed until 2020, and when they are commissioned, possibly only one of them will be fit to operate catapult-launched aircraft such as the F-35C. The other might not be commissioned at all, and if it is, it might be only a helicopter-carrier.
So the one genuine aircraft carrier will not always be available; it will have to undergo a refit from time to time. And when it does, there will be no other aircraft carrier available.
Of course, that’s better than the current situation, wherein the RN has HMS Illustrious and HMS Ocean, two helicopter carriers capable of operating only choppers and STOVL planes like the decommissioned Harriers.
If Argentina invades the Falklands before the first carrier is commissioned (2020), or when it is unavailable, the Royal Navy will have no air cover and might not even try to retake the islands. Daring class vessels, by themselves, will be insufficient to protect the RN against hostile aircraft.
Meanwhile, the British government, enamored of nuclear disarmament like the Obama administration, is cutting the already small and inadequate British nuclear deterrent, which has further been undermined by Obama, who has transferred specific information about it to Russia. The government plans to cut the number of Trident missiles, missile tubes, and nuclear warheads below today’s level of fewer than 200 warheads.
But the most ridiculous cut decided by the government and presented in its rigged “Strategic Defense and Security Review” is the plan to replace its Hercules planes with A400M aircraft, on which the MOD has spent billions of pounds. Instead of purchasing a modern, much more capable variant of the C-130 type — the C-130J Super Hercules — the MOD intends to continue to waste money on an aircraft program that has suffered large cost overruns and delays, and which will yield only a single cargoplane in many years, if ever. France and Germany barely managed to salvage that program in 2009, and the Germans reduced their orders from 73 to 60 aircraft as early as 2003. Yet instead of buying 25 C-130Js for $66 million each, the U.K. intends to buy 25 A400Ms for €136 million each.
Ironically, the Coalition government is implementing cuts even deeper than those which the Conservatives criticized when they were the opposition — cuts implemented by the Labour Party. Consider this, written by Liam Fox MP in 2008:
This Government has conned the Royal Navy into taking cuts that it can barely cope with while still asking it to do more and more.
The path, which has led us to where our Navy is today, has been one of betrayal and contempt by the Government. Time and time again, since the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, our Navy has been blackmailed into accepting cuts to its fleet to ensure the eventual addition of the two new carriers which are so desperately needed.
That same Liam Fox is now implementing even deeper cuts than what he protested against. But now that Conservatives are running the country, they’re singing a different tune. And because they’re in a coalition with the LibDems, they’ve slavishly agreed to these deeper defense cuts.
Britain’s defense cuts are bad news for her and the U.S., because they mean the U.S. will lose its only real large-scale military partner. America should not emulate this policy.
Boko Haram demands the establishment of an Islamic state governed only by Sharia law. Accordingly, their attacks have focused on practices (non-Islamic worship as well as the use of alcohol, and playing card games) and institutions (police, military, legislative, and tribal) that get in the way. The group will see…
They’re playing by the book: “When you meet the unbelievers in battle, strike at their necks…” — Qur’an 47:4 “Islamic militants beheaded Philippine troops: navy,” from Agence France-Presse, July 29: MANILA – Islamist militants in the southern Philippines beheaded two marines in a brutal knife attack during a major clash…
If the shoe were on the other foot and Ahmadis got off easy for committing some crime against Muslims, it would be an outrage. Something would have to be done about it. But the light sentences the murderers got and the lukewarm reaction by officials are all the more proof…
Starting in Holland, “the suspect had planned to travel to Syria to join the al-Qaida network. From there, he would possible travel to Iraq or the West Bank or Gaza.” With apologies again to Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the places you’ll ‘misunderstand’ Islam!” “Dutch police reportedly arrest al-Qaida-linked suspect,” from MSNBC,…
A story from today’s New York Times describes a riot and savage beating of a 17 year old Afghan teenage male, who had the infernal gall to fall in love with and attempt to run off with another 17 year old. With one person already dead from the ensuing riot,…
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” — Mahatma Gandhi We moved from the first stage to the second in the last year or so, and from the second stage to the third in the last week. We have no money….
This guy was actively calling upon Muslims to commit violence against members of Parliament. Once again, Pamela Geller said it best: “I anxiously await the same intense and extensive mainstream media coverage and obsession that we witnessed immediately after and in the ensuing days of the Norway massacre to determine…
Wow. Most guys just save the henna for the beard…. The “Sharia zones” continue to advance, more or less unchallenged. The lack of a response rewards the Islamic supremacists’ behavior, encouraging and guaranteeing much more of it. An update on this story. “‘No porn or prostitution’: Islamic extremists set…
Bilal Zaheer Ahmad Update. As quoted below, in response to Roshonara Choudhry’s stabbing of a member of Parliament, he said: “This sister has put us men to shame. We should be doing this” (his own capitalization). “Radical Muslim jailed for calling for jihad against MPs,” by Caroline Davies for the…
Daily Mail headline: ‘We could have another Timothy McVeigh’: U.S. authorities warned against anti-Islamic terrorism after Norway shooter ‘inspired’ by Robert Spencer and Unabomber Look at that headline. Named in it are three mass murderers and me. In my work I have never called for, approved of, endorsed, or advocated…
Last year, Abdo said that he wanted to fight “Islamophobia” and “put a good positive spin out there that Islam is a good, peaceful religion.” “Accused Fort Hood plotter got bombmaking recipe from Al Qaeda,” by Warren Richey for the Christian Science Monitor, July 29: A soldier suspected of plotting…
“President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombings as brutal and inhumane and said they ‘cannot be justified by any religious faith.’” Yet the Taliban, which Karzai has threatened to join, constantly invoke Islam to justify their actions. This recalls the fact that last year, U.S. Muslim soldier Naser Abdo condemned the…
This kind of mass murder has become so commonplace in some Islamic countries that it is hardly even noticed. And certainly no one care to explore its motivations. Sunni/Shi’ite Jihad Update: “Gunmen kill 11 Shiite Muslims in SW Pakistan,” from The Associated Press, July 30: QUETTA, Pakistan—Gunmen opened fire on…
Koşaner was a hardline secularist. Traditionally the military has been the guardian of Kemalist secularism. But now several military officers have been arresting for plotting to overthrow the government. Erdogan has won, and Turkey is on its way to becoming an Islamic state. “Necdet Özel becomes acting Chief of General…
In Malaysia, antisemitism is not just the characteristic of former prime ministers. Nor does it characterize solely the government, or the (unholy) Leftist-Islamist political opposition. No, Jew hatred is a defining feature of Islam as a whole, and hence is characteristic of many if not most Malaysians in general. This…
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