Just to set the scene for why Christians along with all humanity should be troubled by the way the world is this day in this year in this century, Archbishop Cranmer posts about horrible, terrible treatment of faithful Christians in Aleppo. (The post is here, it is disturbing, you may not want to read it and just rely on the preceding sentence). There is a reason why Assad is fighting so malevolently with Putin's aid against the rebels in Aleppo. It is not pretty. It is humanity at its second worst but there is a plausible argument that if the rebels win we will see humanity at its worst.
Who knows how this may all turn out. We have an election in America which may or may not significantly steer the geopolitical calculations. Europe is something of a powder keg. It is no longer rocket science to contemplate World War Three is either round the corner or even has just begun. Today, however, because talk of WW3 seems not to be in the central vocabulary of the MSM, I am intrigued to open our local Christchurch Press and read a reprinted article from the Washington Post, titled "Are the Russians really preparing for war?"
As a reader I am, to be honest, suspicious that the Press is printing the article as a slightly amusing insight into how a slightly deranged society is thinking, i.e. it is not printed for the good citizens of Christchurch/Canterbury to be in any way disturbed or terrified.
But shouldn't we be just a little bit worried (humanly speaking - God has everything in hand as Lord of history)?
Also in my reading this morning, an article about Terry Eagleton's take on the conflict between religion and the "new atheism." That is disturbing reading, IMHO! We are in the mess we are in, both politically and theologically/philosophically because we in the West have stuffed up!
36 comments:
Hi Shawn
I appreciate that Obama is no friend of persecuted Christians etc but I think we had better re-word a couple of your descriptions of him in the comment below. I have no wish to be sued ...!
"I don't believe Russia is preparing for war against the US or the West. Both sides know there would be no winners in that conflict.
Hillary's insane approach and rhetoric with regards to relations with Russia are not helping, but while she would be bad for Russian and US relations, very bad, the generals know what a war with Russia would mean, and it is not outside the realm of possibility that if she went too far down that track there would be a military coup.
We, and I mean both Russia and the West, have no choice but to fight ISIS, and that has not been and will not be pretty. But the alternative would be far worse.
Obama could not care less about Christians in the ME, or anywhere else. The man is [seemingly without a care] for Christianity and Western civilization. His church going and use of Biblical rhetoric is [arguably] a con job. That is why he has allowed very few Christian refugees from the ME into the US, and has even deported them, but is taking in Muslims by the thousands, despite ongoing terror attacks within the US by Muslim immigrants or their children.
'Obama Throws Christian Refugees to Lions'
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6564/obama-christian-refugees
'27 Iraqi Christians face deportation in U.S. while Obama offers asylum to thousands of Muslims from Syria'
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/27.iraqi.christians.face.deportation.in.u.s.while.obama.offers.asylum.to.thousands.of.muslims.from.syria/71278.htm
"We are in the mess we are in, both politically and theologically/philosophically because we in the West have stuffed up!"
Liberalism wedded to cultural Marxism has become a civilization suicide cult.
"
Fair enough Peter, I'm happy with your changes. However there is zero chance of you actually being sued for what I did say. Much worse is said on blogs about him here in NZ and in the US all the time, and nobody has ever been sued as a result.
Then again, if Hillary becomes President...... :)
Pre war maybe 20% of Aleppo's population was Christian and they supported Assad
I think WW3 is coming, the train has left the station and we await the spark that will allow us to admit the conflict is real
I think there are elements within the American Foreign Policy establishment and Military establishments that actively want it and will do things to force the course of events.
I think the USA military sabotaged the ceasefire by bombing SAA troops, which helped ISIS BTW, in order to undermine Obama and John Kerry. It was a fait accompli - I also think the aid convoy destroyed in Aleppo a few days later was done to distract from the American crime - Russia and Syria were blamed of course but what did they have to gain from doing this? Cui bono
As we speak East Aleppo is being secured by the Assad Government and the USA does not want this, that is clear
Last week the French put up a resolution to stop the Syrians and the Russians from flying - it was vetoed of course by the Russians and Chinese as it would be - we heard all about this of course
But another resolution was also vetoed last week that we didn't hear about - this one from Russia called for the rebels aka terorists in East Aleppo be given safe conduct from East Aleppo with UN monitoring and this resolution was vetoed by you know who
Despite that this seems to be happening or the Syrians, Russians and the UN seem to be trying to make it happen and if it does the battle for Aleppo is over
More and more weapons and troops are being put into Eastern Europe including missiles in Poland and Romania - what are Russian people supposed to think? There is also a military build underway in East Ukraine
Russia is being blamed for everything including the leak of Emails embarrassing to you know who without a shred of evidence but if it is politically expedient to blame Russians do it regardless of the consequences
Patriarch Kirill has an audience with the Queen tomorrow maybe that will help
Here is VVP opening a Mosque in Moscow last year - you will never see him like this in the Western Media
Hi Peter
I suspect historians will conclude that in 2016 WW3 had already begun, not in a traditional 'Army A vs Army B' sense, but in a low level asymmetric intifada kind of way, of the sort we have seen in Paris, Brussels and Germany over the past 12 months.
The question I have been reflecting upon, is this: When it comes to riots in the streets, and what may eventually be recognised as a full blown civil war, whose side will the soldiers in (say) the French army be on? The 'indigenous' population, or the insurgents? Perhaps the answer will depend somewhat on the demographic make up of the armed services.
This morning I have expanded on these thoughts here:
http://brendanslongblog.blogspot.co.nz/2016/10/a-lament-for-paris-and-all-of-western.html
Hi Glen
Let's spell Barack Obama's name properly from now on ...
Corrected your comment is:
"The TRUTH is being hidden from US citizens as well as the rest of us in the West by those pushing the One World Government platform. On Sept.20th 2016
Obama made a speech at the UN.;where he stated that it was only by giving over much of each state's governing powers, to a single body as the UN.,would the fight against terrorism be successful.And yet UNESCO,a branch of the UN. has just moved a motion claiming that the Jews have no historical connection to the MOUNT.
Clinton will just be a continuation of all the flawed Obama policies.Putin has said that "a vote for Clinton is a vote for WAR and a vote for Trump is a vote for PEACE." Even the Pope favors Trump over Clinton.Clinton and Kaine will attempt to eradicate conservative Orthodox Christianity from America. Obama has already made it impossible for the Orthodox Conservative to live and earn their livings according to their God driven consciences and religious beliefs.The American Church of Rome has already been put "PUT ON NOTICE",that if it refuses to comply with the US. "HUMAN RIGHTS LAWS"; it will face Government condemnation. TEC is of course okay, because it can no longer be considered Christian.
"
Hi Glen.
You might find this book interesting. It's called 'Babylon' and it's by Peter Herder who works with the International House of Prayer, and Benji Nolot, who is a founder of Exodus Cry, an organization that fights human trafficking and slavery. Its about globalism, the dissolving of national sovereignty, and the move by elites in the West and the UN to create a world government. It also deals with the movement within Progressive "Christianity" to create a single global religion.
It's available at Amazon.com
".Putin has said that "a vote for Clinton is a vote for WAR and a vote for Trump is a vote for PEACE."
No he hasn't said this at all - He has said he will work with whoever wins the election and has said this on several occasions when pressed
Various pundits have said this though - most notably Vladimir Zhirinovsky who leads the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia which lost seats in the Duma in the last election.
If we want to avoid the unthinkable it is important that we do not ascribe positions to people who haven't taken them
I think Vladimir Zhirinovsky is right though - Hillary Clinton is a gender warrior and VVP is an alpha male which is a bad combination. She will want to prove how tough she is by standing up to him- we might not get to the next election though - the war party in the USA might push things along to tie the hands of the new incumbant.
The USA is not only bombing in Libya and Syria they are also bombing Somalia where they also have boots on the ground and yesterday hit Yemen with cruise missiles - allegedly after the Houthis attacked ineffectually their ships with missiles (c.f. the Gulf of Tonkin incident - which justified the Vietnam war which left 2 million Vietnamese dead, the collapse of Cambodia and Laos and cost 57,000 American soldiers (cannon fodder) their lives )
"The USA is not only bombing in Libya and Syria they are also bombing Somalia where they also have boots on the ground"
They are fighting Al-Shabab, an al Qaeda affiliate, so that is justifiable.
" the Gulf of Tonkin incident - which justified the Vietnam war which left 2 million Vietnamese dead"
Fighting Communism was entirely justified. And don't forget who was financing and backing the NV communists, Russia.
I'm opposed to wars or military actions that are not in the national interest, but fighting communism during the cold war, and Islamic terrorists today, certainly qualifies as such.
I'm not going to relitigate the Vietnam war Shawn but history tells us that after 11 years of war and three nations heavily bombed the end result was...
And no matter how much you twist in the wind the net result of the so called "War on Terror" 15 years after its declaration is a trail of failed states infested with Salafist Terrorists where they had never been before and a refugee crisis on a scale unseen for seventy years
This war is costing the USA more than billion dollars a day while their cities are falling into disrepair and decay and is going nowhere except the chaos that has been created is spreading.
You are right the Salafist ideology has to be defeated but the USA is the last country in the world that can do it - they cannot defeat it because they helped nurture it in the first place and their strongest ally in the ME, Saudi Arabia, is the heartland for this ideology
I think this major war, WW3 will come because the USA has bankrupted itself with the biggest military machine the world has ever seen and one it cannot afford but rather than admit they are not the "exceptional nation" and work with others they will lash out in their death throes
Because whether you like it or not the USA is collapsing just like the Soviet Union did before it
The current Presidential campaign is a symptom of this collapse
"I'm not going to relitigate the Vietnam war Shawn"
Bit late on that front. Even with the loss, the war proved US resolve and helped stop communism spreading further.
"And no matter how much you twist in the wind the net result of the so called "War on Terror" 15 years after its declaration is a trail of failed states infested with Salafist Terrorists where they had never been before and a refugee crisis on a scale unseen for seventy years"
It was always going to be a long war, that's why Bush called it the long war. That does not mean we are losing, or that we will lose, or that we must not fight it. Things looked pretty bleak in WW2 after Dunkirk as well, with the Nazis in control of most of Western Europe. We still won.
"You are right the Salafist ideology has to be defeated but the USA is the last country in the world that can do it"
We are the only country that can do it. No other nation on Earth has the military power with the global reach to do it.
"because they helped nurture it in the first"
Al Qaeda was the result of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Yes our relation with SA is a serious problem, but sanity on that front will sooner or later prevail, and meanwhile it does not prevent us from fighting.
"Because whether you like it or not the USA is collapsing just like the Soviet Union did before it"
It's in some serious trouble after eight years of Obama, but it's far from collapsing. Europeans claimed it was collapsing during the US civil war, and again during the great depression. But Americans, especially heartland Americans, are fiercely resilient and always capable of coming back from any setback.
"The current Presidential campaign is a symptom of this collapse"
Trump's campaign, win or lose, is a symptom of the strength and health of the nation and it's people.
As I have said before, I don't think your perception of the US or it's current challenges is reasonable or accurate.
Something very serious has happened in Ukraine
A cowardly assassination no doubt instigated by the crazies in Washington to enrage the people and set the country aflame
And as usual they will blame Russia when the explosion comes which I'm sure it will within a day or two
I presume you mean this, Andrei: https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/donbass-commander-assassinated-ukrainian-special-forces/
Yes Peter - with Aleppo being within days of being secured and thus disappearing from the News a major problem will be created for Russia in Ukraine
This is how the warmongers work
Of course the Battle for Mosul has begun - begun with airstrikes by the USAF
Mosul is the big prize, a city of million people
Do you think the citizens of Mosul will not suffer as the people of Aleppo?
There will be no images from this battle of children being pulled from the rubble - it will all be sanitized
Hi Peter; although the link to Archbishop Cranmer was sickening, it does put current western notions of injustice into perspective. Particularly striking is the Christlike motivation of those who have deliberately endangered themselves by staying in Aleppo. These brothers and sisters have been concerned for the souls of those who kill them. Such selflessness is a lesson on what love really is.
Nick
What does this remind you of?
"What does this remind you of?"
It's Joe Biden responding to Russian cyber attacks on Baltic and Western nations with the threat of retaliatory cyber attacks. It certainly wasn't Biden declaring war on Russia.
Whoever posted the video was careful to edit out the context, and is apparently also into UFO conspiracies.
No Shawn - he is talking about the alleged Russian involvement in the leaks that are damaging to HC and the point is that in his response he comes across as a Mafia Don threatening thuggish retribution not a Statesman or a diplomat
I'd like to propose two keys to come to grips with TE's take on how we got here.
1. Marxism is, as Bertrand Russell opined, a Christian heresy. But then so too has global capitalism morphed way beyond its Protestant ethical roots. Two wrongs cannot make a right.
2. "Why the Rest hates the West." A striking title by Meic Pearse from the ex Balkan stance, which asks the West to consider its proper Christian roots rather than simply confront rage with counter rage...
The Cardinal from Vienna would agree - and that city's history helps his sight as well.
Come on guys!!!! Where is the MORAL OUTRAGE now????? Is a bit of dirty locker-room talk,worse that trading in " Classified STATE SECRETS"'and then lying about their classification???? We also know now that at least one of violent agitators at the Trump rallies, was on the pay roll of the Clinton Foundation.
My fear Glen - and it IS a fear - that if these are the two people the USA throws up as their potential President, then we are truly on a hiding to nowhere - or better, we might be on the way to hell in a handcart ...
" then we are truly on a hiding to nowhere"
That depends on which one wins Bryden. ;)
My real concern,Bryden,goes much deeper than just these two Presidential Candidates????;at it's heart, lies the TRUTH which God revealed to Samuel in Chapter 8 of the Book which bears his name.From that passage I take two points: firstly,the downfall of the Godly Governance v.3 and secondly,the peoples response of wanting to be like the other nation and have a king rule over them instead of God.
How true that terrible warning which God REVEALED to the people, through Samuel, has been and continues to be.With Obama endorsing the UN "Agenda 20/30", and no doubt Clinton will follow suit; sadly the "handcart to hell"
might be powered with a Rolls Royce V 16 motor.
Must watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVT3ysM-5iM
If the USA and the UK attack Syria which it looks like they are about to is all on
Well Shawn; I'm reminded of Josh 5:13-15 ...
Glen; the turbochargers have been indeed in full throttle for a number of years ...
"Glen; the turbochargers have been indeed in full throttle for a number of years "
American political discourse as the Arab world burns
"If you vote for Hillary Clinton, I will give you a blowjob,” “OK? I’m good. I’m not a douche, and I’m not a tool. I take my time.”
“I have a lot of eye contact, and I do swallow.” - 58 year old Madonna 19/10/2016
And truly bizarre Presidential debate between two repulsive candidates
During the American circus a hero in a far off land where they would spread their poisonous culture and reduce the local population to serfdom in own their homeland is laid to rest
The USA is not trying to spread it's culture to the Ukraine, nor reduce the Ukrainians to serfdom. That is Russia's plan, which is why Putin started the civil war, when his puppet was removed from office after ordering the shooting of unarmed protestors.
'Harrowing footage emerges of UNARMED protesters being cut down by sniper fire on a day of violence in Kiev that has brought today's death toll to at least 70'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2563609/Truce-Kiev-collapses-hours-official-day-mourning-28-people-killed-protests-erupts-violence.html
Western Ukrainian nationalists want the right to self-determination and genuine independence, not be reduced, again, to slavery to the Kremlin.
That slavery resulted in one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century, the Holodomor.
http://www.holodomorct.org/history.html
"The term Holodomor refers specifically to the brutal artificial famine imposed by Stalin's regime on Soviet Ukraine and primarily ethnically Ukrainian areas in the Northern Caucasus in 1932-33.
In its broadest sense, it is also used to describe the Ukrainian genocide that began in 1929 with the massive waves of deadly deportations of Ukraine's most successful farmers (kurkuls, or kulaks, in Russian) as well as the deportations and executions of Ukraine's religious, intellectual and cultural leaders, culminating in the devastating forced famine that killed millions more innocent individuals.
The genocide in fact continued for several more years with the further destruction of Ukraine's political leadership, the resettlement of Ukraine's depopulated areas with other ethnic groups, the prosecution of those who dared to speak of the famine publicly, and the consistent blatant denial of famine by the Soviet regime."
"That slavery resulted in one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century, the Holodomor.
Dear Shawn there was a famine in the Soviet Union 1931/32, it did not only effect Ukraine, but the lands further east all the way to the Volga as well
The reasons for this famine are complex not the simplistic narrative you peddle and Western Ukraine was not even part of the Soviet Union when it occurred
In addition in the exact same period there was a great deal of hunger and malnutrition in the USA and a large displacement of populations as well fleeing hunger and starvation - it is all in the history books. And serious historians rather than propagandists wonder if there is some correlation between the agricultural problems experienced in the USSR and the USA in those times due to some climatic effects though in the USSR the problem was doubtlessly exacerbated through bureaucratic blunders - it was an era of rapid change and massive industrialization
Furthermore over half of the leaders of the Soviet Union during its seventy years of existence were what you would might call ethnic Ukrainians
The lands of the East Slavs suffered greatly in the 20th century, the biggest trauma of all being the Nazi invasion, and in centuries before that as well but always the people have risen to the challenge
Are you denying, Andrei, that neither Lenin nor Stalin were in any way complicit in the organised starvation of peoples under their power?
"The reasons for this famine are complex not the simplistic narrative you peddle"
When I first heard of the Holodomor several years ago I did a fair amount of research on the subject, because it's not well known in the West, and I had not heard of it, and there is no denying that it was a deliberate and a form of ethnic cleansing. It's not my narrative, it's the memory of the Ukrainian people and the research of historians.
And I am intimately familiar with the history of the Great Depression in the USA, and that event does not come remotely close to the millions who were starved to death under Stalin's leadership.
You're narrative seems to be that Russia never does anything wrong, and never has anything to repent of, while using dubious conspiracy theories to accuse the West and the USA of every crime imaginable and in the harshest terms possible. It's hardly surprising that people who may have a more balanced view of history are inclined to question that narrative.
If I may: Malcolm Muggeridge's autobiography is helpful here.
As a convinced socialist from Cambridge in the 1930s, he goes to USSR, writes stuff home ... But then is allowed to travel ... Sees the realities of life under Stalin, notably agriculture ... Becomes seriously disillusioned ... Tells folks back home - who refuse to believe him. Leaves USSR. Even tries to commit suicide ... God slowly intervenes.
The rest is history too! (Even Wikipedia helps!)
Hallelujah!
"Are you denying, Andrei, that neither Lenin nor Stalin were in any way complicit in the organised starvation of peoples under their power?"
I don't believe it was a deliberate policy or a genocide particularly targeting Ukrainians - no I don't
The Ukrainian SSR was run by Ukrainians who also were a big part of the central Government of the USSR and the famine was fairly wide ranging, also seen in the Kuban, North Caucasus and Kazakhstan
And I don't believe the Bengal famine of 1943 which killed 3,000,000 Indians when the British took 60% of India's harvests to feed their home population and their armies was a deliberate policy to kill Indians either and that happened as well
I do believe that over eighty years after this event occurred it is being used to create division and disharmony among people and has been selectively been rewritten to accomplish this
Arseny Pavlov is dead because of an ethnic civil war whose roots go back decades at least, and because Russia chose to interfere in the country when it's preferred leader was ousted by popular revolt. He's not dead because the US government desperately wants the Ukrainians to eat McDonald's and watch reruns of Friends.
And this "hero" seems to have been guilty of war crimes, including torturing and executing captured Ukrainian soldiers.
"n April 2015, the Kyiv Post released a recording in which Pavlov discussed killing fifteen Ukrainian prisoners of war.[18] Amnesty International said it was a "chilling ‘confession’", which alongside other evidence, "highlights the urgent need for an independent investigation into this and all other allegations of abuses".[19] He has been linked to war crimes, namely the execution of captured prisoners of war, a crime he reportedly confessed to in a telephone interview with a Russian reporter in April 2015. Motorola and his battalion are also accused of torturing captured Ukrainian soldiers. After Ukrainian soldier Ihor Branovytsky had been captured near Donetsk and was in custody of Pavlov's group, Pavlov is alleged to have deliberately killed the prisoner on 21 January 2015 with two headshots"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsen_Pavlov#War_crimes
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