World News and Trends

An Overview of Conditions Around the World

by John Ross Schroeder and Jerold Aust

• British armed forces in serious straits
• Britain's solution: an EU defense force?
• United States pulling troops and tanks out of Germany
• America and Canada: A potential division?
• Islam versus American democracy: The bigger picture
• Hitler is dead; Hitlerism isn't
• Saudi oil and future geopolitics

British armed forces in serious straits

Britain's armed forces are facing an unprecedented financial crisis, with the prospect of across-the-board cuts that could threaten future military operations." This was the assessment of The Guardian (Oct. 28, 2003). A further report by The Sunday Telegraph revealed that "the Army's armoured regiments had been left crippled by the Iraqi war with only half its battle tanks capable of operational service" (Nov. 30, 2003).

Soon afterwards, in mid-December, the British government, seeking to solve these knotty problems, published a strategic white paper. The government's aim is to restructure the military with one third of British Challenger II tanks to be mothballed along with the jettisoning of certain types of aircraft. Royal Navy equipment also faced curtailment.

But according to noted author/editor Max Hastings, the main troubles do not revolve around Iraq or some notorious equipment distribution problems during the Iraqi campaign and its aftermath. He recently wrote: "The real issues—which amount to a major scandal—concern the continuing funding of the armed forces, amid a grievous current spending gap which the treasury has no intention of filling; and weapons programmes for the next generation, costing tens of billions of pounds.

"The National Audit Office revealed last month that the biggest projects are over £3 billion over budget. Some of these contracts are for systems as relevant as a fleet of dreadnoughts [battleships]. Foremost is the Eurofighter ... This aircraft is a cold war interceptor for which no conceivable rationale any longer exists" (The Spectator, Feb. 7, emphasis added). (Sources: The Independent, The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Spectator [all London].)

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Britain's solution: an EU defense force?

In an underreported but very important declaration, journalist Stephen Castle, filing his report from Brussels, succinctly stated: "Britain, France and Germany finally overcame U.S. objections last night and struck a deal on European Union Defence, ending months of wrangling over whether Europe's new military co-operation will rival NATO. Under the agreement, the EU will be able to have an autonomous military planning capability, but [it] will not become a standing headquarters" (The Independent, Dec. 2, 2003).

Veteran Times columnist Peter Riddell titled his similar piece: "Let's take a risk and let Brussels play with our soldiers." He began the text of his article: "The European Defence Plan is good news for Europe, the United States and for NATO" (Dec. 4, 2003). But is it really? Not if you truly understand how biblical prophecy will ultimately unfold in Central Europe.

EUObserver.com both paraphrased and quoted the EU's military chief Gustav Hägglund, speaking Jan. 18 at a defense conference in Sweden. In urging Europe to carry its defense burden separately from America, he specifically said: "My prediction is that this will happen within the next ten years."

Are these developments intended to be the long-term solution for the decline in British armed forces—to integrate the U.K. army into Europe? If so, the perils that may be ahead could pale even the sufferings of World War II into insignificance. To understand more fully, please request our free booklet Are We Living in the Time of the End? (Sources: The Independent, The Times [both London], EUObserver.com.)

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United States pulling troops and tanks out of Germany

The American military is planning a major restructuring to better meet 21st-century terrorist threats with flexible rapid reaction units. Included in the implementation of this major reassessment, "the United States plans to withdraw its heavy armoured formations [tanks] from Germany next year [2005], in the largest reshaping of the European military landscape since the end of the Cold War" (The Daily Telegraph, Jan. 10).

EUObserver.com adds: "The U.S. is preparing to cut the number of troops stationed in Europe [the vast majority in Germany] by up to a third." American military specialists are scouting sites in Poland, Bulgaria and Romania as potential locations for new land, sea and air bases—which are greatly opposed by Russia.

This American move would leave Britain alone as a foreign power with heavy armor in Germany. And, of course, the United Kingdom still has 23,000 troops in the Fatherland. It might be asked what good will British forces and armament do if eventually integrated into a European Union Army? (Sources: The Daily Telegraph [London], International Herald Tribune, EUObserver.com.)

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America and Canada: A potential division?

In terms of dress, conversation, books, TV programs and movies, foreigners would be hard pressed to tell Americans and Canadians apart. And yet on certain issues like gay marriage, drug use and abuse and even church attendance, according to an International Herald Tribune feature article, "a chasm has opened up on social issues that go to the heart of fundamental values" (Dec. 3, 2003).

Many Canadians are apparently adopting the more liberalized European approach to many current societal problems. Two Canadian provinces have given approval to gay marriage, and the central government in Ottawa is moving in the direction of legalizing marijuana use.

Despite incidents like Canadian refusal to send combat troops to Iraq, political differences between the two countries tend to fade with the passing of administrations in Washington D.C. and Ottawa, but cultural divergence can easily become much more entrenched.

The Tribune article added that "weekly church attendance among Canadians has plummeted since the 1950s while American church attendance has remained virtually constant." Whether these divisive trends will become a permanent fixture or are merely a temporary blip on the graph bears watching.

What many Americans and Canadians do not understand is their common heritage and future legacy. To understand more, please write for our free booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. (Source: International Herald Tribune.)

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Islam versus American democracy: The bigger picture

Bernard Lewis, a Princeton University historian who has written more than 20 books on Islam and the Middle East, has a blueprint for America's war against terrorism: confront, defeat and transform. The plan for America and the West is to confront, not retreat from Islamic threats, defeat such threatening forces and transform such societies into fledgling democracies.

In Western societies, it is generally accepted that an adversary respects a nation out of fear, if for no other reason. Such was the case in the Cold War between the Soviets and America. The Soviets not only contained their aggressive designs of world conquest through destabilization because of America's intractable stand (led by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan), but they became demoralized and irretrievably weakened to the point of collapse. Seventy-two years of posturing as unconquerable bullies collapsed almost overnight.

In stark contrast, Arabic Islamic societies appear to neither fear nor respect the West, and America in particular. To them, whether real or perceived, America is the infidel, deserving extinction from the face of the earth. Some Arabs—like the Wahabis in particular—are obsessed with the destruction of the West and America.

Bernard Lewis recounted chatting with some Arab friends in Amman, Jordan, when one of them unthinkingly trotted out a familiar argument common to that corner of the world. "We have time, we can wait. We got rid of the Crusaders. We got rid of the Turks. We'll get rid of the Jews."

Lewis wasn't impressed and decided to clarify his Arabic friend's misunderstanding: "Excuse me, but you've got your history wrong. The Turks got rid of the Crusaders. The British got rid of the Turks. The Jews got rid of the British. I wonder who is coming here next" (The Wall Street Journal, Feb. 3). Mr. Lewis' point indicated that most Islamic countries fail to modernize their societies, which of itself beckons outsiders—most recently the United States and the coalition forces—to intervene. (Source: The Wall Street Journal.)

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Hitler is dead; Hitlerism isn't

Almost six decades after Hitler's death by suicide in a Berlin bunker, the seeds of Hitlerism continue to grow around the world. Why? How?

Omer Bartov, professor of history at Brown University wrote an incisive, soul-searching article on Adolf Hitler entitled "He Meant What He Said" (The New Republic, Feb. 2, p. 25). His analysis is fueled by a major postscript to Hitler's Mein Kampf, written in 1928, Hitler's Second Book: The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf (published by Enigma Books, October 2003).

Dr. Bartov addresses the importance of using hindsight to improve modern foresight: Adolf Hitler said what he meant and meant what he said.

Around the world there exist many groups who teach and preach their hatred of the Jews, as well as those who harbor such groups. Bartov warns in his New Republic article that when fanatics say what they mean, they also mean what they say.

"They belong to the right and the left, to the religious and the secular, to the West and the East, to the rabble and the leaders, to terrorists and intellectuals, students and peasants, pacifists and militants, expansionists and anti-globalization activists. The diplomacy advocated by Hitler is no longer relevant, but his reason for it, his legitimization of his 'worldview,' is alive and kicking, and it may still kick us."

Hitler is dead, but Hitlerism is not. Some liberals, politicians and intellectuals promote the notion that if the state of Israel were removed, that would also remove anti-Semitism. Don't believe it. The language of the fanatics tells us the opposite: They believe that the Jews are everywhere so they must be uprooted everywhere.

Bartov's conclusion is instructive: "Hitler taught humanity an important lesson. It is that when you see a Nazi, a fascist, a bigot, or an anti-Semite, say what you see. If a self-proclaimed liberation organization calls for the extermination of the Jewish state, do not pretend that it is calling for anything else. The absence of clarity is the beginning of complicity."

The Bible has much to say about the Jewish people—that they would be a byword, that they would battle for their lives throughout history and that they would be leaders in the world to come. To learn more, request your free copy of The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. (Source: The New Republic.)

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Saudi oil and future geopolitics

Presently Saudi Arabia is home to the largest oil reserves in the world. Yet Matt Simmons, an energy expert from Houston, Texas (who rightly predicted North America's dwindling natural-gas supplies in the late 1990s), questions whether the Saudis will be able to maintain their role as the global market's greatest oil producer. Simmons thinks that Saudi Arabia's current oil production is fragile at best.

Mr. Simmons bases his concerns on a review of more than 200 analytical papers written by engineers of Aramco, the Saudi state-owned oil company. Mr. Simmons discovered that some of the country's largest oil fields are declining much faster than the world might believe.

Mr. Simmons admits that it's impossible to prove whether it will be a major problem in the future, but he cautioned that it would be catastrophic if the Saudis' oil production declined unexpectedly.

Since World War II, a number of national powers have become dependent on Middle East oil. To be sure, there are other oil reserves throughout the world, but none compare to the rich fields of Saudi Arabia—with Kuwait and Iraq close behind. If the Saudi oil reserves begin to run out, look for even more turmoil in the ever-troubled Middle East. To learn more about the history and future of this region, request your free copy of The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. (Source: The Washington Post ).

 

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