WORLD AT WAR: 11.5.22 - Why Would You Make Such a Thing?

 Why Would You Make Such a Thing? – Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/ For hundreds of years, nations have been seeking out ways that will advance their ability to wage warfare. A great deal of research and development has been in the areas ofconventional, chemical, nuclear, and biological weaponry. It was all fine when mankind was working on making a cannonball fly faster and farther. When we reached the point where we had bombs that could destroy an entire city, weneeded to ask ourselves why are we going down this path. The Cold War arms race was pointless because no side could win in a nuclear war. If the USSR had managed to knock out 90% of the US nuclear bombs in a surprise attack, ourmilitary would still have had enough nukes to devastate the USSR. For decades, each side continued to add more and more nuclear weapons to their stockpile. By 1991, the US and the USSR had 65,000 nuclear bombs. The power of the bombs hasincreased over the years. The atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima had the explosive power of 15,000 tons of TNT. The first hydrogen bomb had the power of 10 million tons of TNT. In 1961, the USSR tested a bomb that had a yield equal to 60million tons of TNT. Luckily, President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev managed to negotiate a massive drawdown with the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Both sides now have around 10,000 nuclearbombs. We’ve gone from being able to destroy the world 100 times over to just 20 times over. The world has spent $5.5 trillion on nukes. Vast areas of the world are contaminated by nuclear tests and the development of bombs. The US government has spent over $40 billionso far just trying to clean up the decommissioned Hanford nuclear production complex in Washington state. We may have fewer nuclear bombs, but the development of nuclear technology goes on. The Russians are constantly upgrading their ability to strike targets. They have just developeda missile that is known as “Satan II.” It can carry up to 15 warheads and has several countermeasures against anti-ballistic missile systems. The biggest concern in nuclear technology is hypersonic weapons. These are missiles and projectiles which travel at between 5 and 25 times the speed of sound – about 1 to5 miles per second. Russia and China claim to have a hypersonic system in the development stage. If deployed, they would be very hard to shoot down, and the reaction time would be greatly reduced because they would avoid radar by flying much lower than a conventionalmissile. Scientists at Boston University recently came under fire for an experiment in which they tinkered with the Covid virus. Breathless headlines claimed they had created a deadlynew strain, and the National Institutes of Health rebuked the university for not seeking the government’s permission. Several liberal media news outlets say the 80% death rate in mice was just clickbait headlines for social media sites and the manipulated virus strain was actually less lethalthan the original. The key word in all news stories about the Boston University virus is “created.” I don’t see why we would want to make a new strain of any virus that causes death. I can seethat knowledge can be gained by seeing how a virus might spread, but research like this carries great risks, foremost among them the chance that an accidental lab leak could create a new pandemic, killing millions of people. It is possible that COVID-19 was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. It would be the crime of the century if it turns out Wuhan was the source of the virus.Over 7 million people died during the pandemic, and the world spent $10 trillion on COVID-19 relief. There are government labs that could have developed a virus that is many times more deadly than COVID-19. The Nazis and the Japanese tested all types of viruses on inmatesduring World War II. Our ability to redesign the workings of the virus ensures that someone will eventually build a bio-weapon. I was shocked at how quickly COVID-19 swept around the world, and it did this three times. President Biden has declared the pandemic to be over, but we could easily see roundfour. China is still fighting the virus. Lockdowns in key port cities have greatly hampered supply chains. President Xi’s zero-Covid policy is putting a massive strain on the Chinese economy. Until Jesus returns to rule with a rod of iron, mankind’s evil nature will compel him to seek to develop weapons of warfare. Once our Lord takes over, no nation will needweapons. The Prince of Peace will make conflict a distant memory for a thousand years. “And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall notlift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4). ------------------------- Russia and Iran, New "Axis of Evil," Emboldened by Biden Administration- by Majid Rafizadeh - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19051/russia-iran-evil-emboldened Thanks to the Biden administration's leadership, or remarkable lack thereof, the ruling mullahs of Iran have become a key player in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Iranianregime and Russia are ratcheting up their military cooperation and adventurism. On March 2, Iran abstained from the United Nations General Assembly Resolution ES-11/1 condemning Russia's invasion and demanding Moscow's withdrawal from Ukraine. Tehranthen voted against UN General Assembly Resolution ES-11/3, which suspended Russia's membership in the UN Human Rights Council. The Biden administration and the European Union, all the same, continued negotiating with the ruling mullahs to revive the toxic Iran "nuclear deal" and lift the sanctionsin place against the Islamic Republic. Russia and Iran, evidently further emboldened and empowered, then organized a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Islamic Republic, where he received huge supportfor Moscow's invasion of Ukraine from the Iranian regime's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. After that visit, Iran's supplying of kamikaze drones to Russia became the first instance seen of military cooperation between Moscow and Tehran. On September 23, the Ukrainian foreign ministry stripped Iran's ambassador in Kyiv of his accreditation and reduced the embassy's diplomatic staff there, according to theUkrainian foreign ministry's press service. Despite this escalation, the European Union would not admit that the Iranian regime was entrenched in the war on Ukraine: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell wanted "proof". "We will look for concrete evidence about the participation [of Iran in the Ukraine war]", he told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourgon October 17. The EU ultimately acknowledged that the Iranian regime was indeed "provid[ing] military support for Russia's unprovoked and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine"via "development and delivery of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Russia". "These cowardly drone strikes," British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly noted in a statement, "are an act of desperation. By enabling these strikes, these individuals anda manufacturer have caused the people of Ukraine untold suffering." Iran's regime, apparently even more emboldened, then began sending troops to Crimea to assist Russia in its attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure and civilian population andto increase the effectiveness of the suicide drones. The White House actually admitted on October 20, 2022 that it had evidence that Iranian troops were "directly engaged on the ground" in Crimea supporting Russian drone attacks."The systems themselves were suffering failures and not performing to the standards that apparently the customers expected," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged. "So the Iranians decided to move in some trainers and some technicalsupport to help the Russians use them with better lethality." Now the Iranian regime, presumably even more emboldened, will be providing ballistic missile to Russia in addition to the drones. Iran's regime has the largest and most diverseballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. "Ukraine currently doesn't have effective air defense systems against ballistic missiles," Ukraine Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat pleaded. "Iran will likely supply those(to Russia), unless the world finds a way to stop it". There is still clearly a need in Ukraine to "close the sky," a request that Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi rejected. Several top Iranian generals are directly involved in the war against Ukraine; they most likely received their orders from the Supreme Leader. Major-General Mohammad HosseinBagheri, who is the Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces and supervises Iran's military Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) program, is a key player in Iran's military cooperation with Moscow. He is "involved in the expansion of Iranian-made UAVs abroad; in thiscapacity, he inaugurated an assembly line in Tajikistan destined for the export of Ababil-2 drones. He also participated in the development of Mohajer-6 drones and their supply to the Russian Federation for their use in the war of aggression against Ukraine." Also Brigadier-General Saeed Aghajani, who is the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps's Aerospace Force Unmanned Aerial Vehicle "oversees and directs the planning,equipment and training for Iran's UAV operations, which include also the supply of drones to international allies of Iran, including the Russian Federation". General Sayed Hojatollah Qureishi, in charge of the Supply, Research, and Industrial Affairs Division at the Iranian Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL),was behind "negotiating the agreement with the Russian Federation in relation to the supply of Iranian-made Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for their use in the war of aggression against Ukraine." So, because of the Biden administration, the new "Axis of Evil," Russia and Iran, are becoming more empowered and emboldened than ever. It is now time to abandon the "nucleardeal" with Iran permanently, "close the sky" over Ukraine, and quickly defeat Putin. At least it will show the other aggressors there is no way they can win. ---------------------------- 3 More Major Wars That Could Suddenly Erupt In 2023 - by MichaelSnyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/3-more-major-wars-that-could-suddenly-erupt-in-2023/ Are we going to see more war in the months ahead? Both sides just continue to escalate the conflict in Ukraine, but it may soon have to share top billing as more wars suddenlyerupt around the globe. Now that it looks like Benjamin Netanyahu will be returning to power in Israel, a major confrontation with Iran is seemingly closer than ever. Meanwhile, tensions between North Korea and South Korea have risen to the highest level inmy entire lifetime. Most people don�t realize this, but the North Koreans are poised to launch an invasion at all times. All they need is an opportunity, and that may come when China invades Taiwan. Chinese President Xi Jinping recently reaffirmed his commitmentto �reunification� with Taiwan, and officials in the western world are warning that this could come sooner rather than later. As I detail in my brand new book entitled �End Times�, we truly are living in a time of �wars and rumors of wars�. Let us hope thatthe potential wars that I just listed can be delayed for as long as possible, because the death and destruction that they would cause would be off the charts. Personally, I am so glad that Yair Lapid has been defeated and that Benjamin Netanyahu will be the next prime minister of Israel. But without a doubt, it also brings war between Israel and Iran much closer. For years, Netanyahu has pledged that he will never allow Iran to develop their own nuclear weapons� �Iran has never given up its quest for nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them,� Netanyahu said. �I will never allow Iran to obtain the nuclear capability to carryout its genocidal goal of elminating Israel.� Unfortunately, the IAEA says that Iran has now reached a point where they could potentially create their own nukes. So the clock is ticking. One way or another, war between Israel and Iran will happen. That is why any potential provocation should deeply alarm all of us. For example, the following story was in thenews on Wednesday� The United States and Saudi Arabia are on high alert after Saudi intelligence shared with the U.S. indicated that Iran is expected to carry out an attack on targets in SaudiArabia, the Wall Street Journal reported. Officials from both countries reportedly told the Journal about the concern over coming attacks. Saudi officials said that in addition to Saudi Arabia, Iran is also lookingto strike Erbil, Iraq, where U.S. troops are located. The planned attacks are said to be intended as a distraction from protests taking place in Iran against the Islamic nation�s leadership. In addition, the Biden administration is extremely upset that Iran has been sending highly advanced weapons to Russia. In fact, it is being reported that the Iranians areabout to send the Russians a whole bunch more� Iran is preparing to send approximately 1,000 additional weapons, including surface-to-surface short-range ballistic missiles and more attack drones, to Russia to use in itswar against Ukraine, officials from a Western country that closely monitors Iran�s weapons program told CNN. While the precise timing of when the shipment will arrive in Russia is unclear, officials believe the weapons will definitely be delivered before theend of the year. The Biden administration absolutely hates the current Iranian regime, and so do the Saudis. When Israel and Iran finally start going at it, both the U.S. government and the Saudi government will be hoping that the Israelis score a resounding victory. Speaking of sending weapons to Russia, the U.S. is also accusing North Korea of doing this� The US is accusing North Korea of secretly supplying Russia with artillery shells for the Ukraine war by concealing where they are being transported to, according to newlydeclassified intelligence. US officials believe that the surreptitious North Korean shipments � along with drones and other weaponry that Russia has acquired from Iran � are further evidence that evenMoscow�s conventional artillery arsenals have dwindled during eight months of combat. North Korea is trying to hide the shipments by making it appear as if the ammunition is being sent to countries in the Middle East or North Africa, the intelligence says. As more and more countries get involved, the conflict in Ukraine is truly starting to become a �world war�. But the North Koreans aren�t going to get too involved in Ukraine, because a potential war with South Korea is looming. For the very first time since the Korean War, a North Korean missile has flown �over the de facto inter-Korean maritime border�� North Korea fired 25 missiles and around 100 artillery shells over the course of about 11 hours on Wednesday, the South Korean military said. But one North Korean ballistic missile unprecedentedly flew over the de facto inter-Korean maritime border and landed in waters south of the border for the first time sincethe division of the Korean Peninsula. In response, the South Korean military fired three missiles from fighter jets toward the north of the inter-Korean maritime boundary to demonstrate its precision-strike capabilities,denouncing the missile launch as a �direct and very serious provocation.� During the Trump years, it seemed like we were making so much progress with North Korea. But now everything has changed, and the North Koreans are openly threatening to use nuclear weapons against the United States and South Korea� North Korea issued a veiled threat Tuesday to use nuclear weapons to get the U.S. and South Korea to �pay the most horrible price in history,� an escalation of its fiery rhetorictargeting the ongoing large-scale military drills between its rivals. However, I do not believe that North Korea would actually make a move against South Korea unless China invaded Taiwan first. Unfortunately, that day appears to be closer than ever. In fact, the top officer in the U.S. Navy is warning that we are looking at �a 2022 window or potentially a 2023 window� for that to happen� China could invade Taiwan as early as this year, speeding up naval experts� predictions of a 2027 attack, the Navy�s top officer said Wednesday. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday said China�s 20-year track record of delivering �every promise they�ve made earlier than they said� indicated the Communist countrycould try to take Taiwan by force any day now. �It�s how the Chinese behave and what they do,� Gilday said during an Atlantic Council event. �So when we talk about the 2027 window, in my mind, that has to be a 2022 windowor potentially a 2023 window.� Personally, I don�t think that an invasion will take place during the last two months of 2022. But 2023 is another matter entirely. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine continues to escalate. The Russians have been hitting Ukrainian infrastructure night after night, and at this point much of the country could be heading into winter without any power and withoutany running water� Much of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev is without electricity or water, after the latest round of major Russian airstrikes on Monday. The Russian military announced �successful� strikes on multiple of the country�s vital infrastructure facilities. �The Russian Armed Forces continued to launch strikes with high-precision long-range air and sea-based weapons against Ukrainian military and energy facilities,� the DefenseMinistry said. �The goals of the strikes were successful. All assigned objects were hit.� Meanwhile, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal confirmed direct hits on 18 sites � most of which were connected to the nation�s energy supply. These ramped up attackshave created a growing sense of panic with temperatures plunging and winter approaching. At the same time, western powers just continue to get even more deeply involved in the conflict. In fact, the U.S. military is now telling us that U.S. troops are on the ground in Ukraine in a limited supporting role� U.S. military personnel are now on the ground in Ukraine, keeping track of and inspecting weapons the U.S. has shipped to Ukrainian forces, a senior defense official announcedduring a Pentagon background briefing on Monday. These U.S. personnel are some of the first the Pentagon has acknowledged have entered Ukraine since Russia launched its large scale invasion of the country in February. The senior defense official who spoke on background during an official Pentagon event, said, �U.S. personnel have recently resumed on-site inspections to assess weapon stocksin country whenever and wherever the security conditions allow.� The official said �the return of our defense attach� and Office of Defense Cooperation personnel in country has allowed us to resume this critical function.� So the good news is that there are no U.S. military forces on the front lines yet. But will that eventually happen? None of us should want to see U.S. troops and Russian troops directly firing weapons at one another. Because that would put us dangerously close to a nuclear conflict. Unfortunately, leaders all over the world are being exceedingly reckless right now, and that should make all of us very nervous. -----------------------