Navy and Marines at Sea – YES! Army Ground Divisions – NO!
May 24, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
I do not expect the U.S. to ever recommit Army land divisions into the Middle East after they are withdrawn from Iraq, but large Naval Forces with Marines aboard ship will continue to operate in waters around the shorelines of the Middle East up to the time of Armageddon.
A discussion of how this Navy and Marine force will be deployed just before and during the Battle of Armageddon follows the Jerusalem Post and DEBKAfile Articles.
Begin Jerusalem Post Article (Article 1)
US Navy shows force off Iranian coast
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST
May 23, 2007
The US Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coastline on Wednes day,
sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 US Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf.
The carrier strike groups led by the USS John C. Stennis and USS Nimitz were joined by the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard and its own strike group, which includes landing ships carrying members of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
The Navy said nine US warships passed through the narrow Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Merchant ships passing through the busy strait carry two-fifths of the world’s oil exports.
Aircraft aboard the three carriers and the Bonhomme Richard were to conduct air training while the ships ran submarine, mine and other exercises.
The maneuvers came just two months after a previous exercise in March when two US carrier groups carried out two days of air and sea maneuvers off the Iranian coast.
Before the arrival of the Bonhomme Richard strike group, the Navy maintained around 20,000 US personnel at sea in the Gulf and neighboring waters.
US warships have frequently collided with merchant ships in the busy shipping lanes of the Gulf.
Begin DEBKAfile Article (Article 2)
Nine US military ships enter Persian Gulf Wednesday, assembling off Iran’s coast in largest American naval move since 2003
May 23, 2007, 6:56 PM (GMT+02:00)
They sailed through the Strait of Hormuz by day – according to US Navy officials for training exercises. The vessels carry around 17,000 combat and marine personnel.
They include the two aircraft carriers, USS Nimitz and USS Stennis, as well as the USS Bonhomme Richard LHD 6 Group, the world’s biggest amphibious strike force. Iran was not notified of the planned arrival.
DEBKAfile reports the maneuvers take place less than two weeks after Vice President Dick Cheney visited the region and informed Saudi King Abdullah and fellow Gulf rulers that President George W. Bush has determined that if Iran refuses to waive a nuclear weapon capability, the US will attack its nuclear, military and economic infrastructure before he leaves the White House in Jan.
2009.
(This was first disclosed in DEBKA-Net-Weekly 300 on May 11.)
Our sources also note that the US armada sailed into the Gulf on the day the latest UN Security Council ultimatum expired for Iran to give up uranium enrichment or face a fresh set of sanctions.
Its presence backs up Cheney’s pledge and tells the region and Iran that Washington may not be satisfied with sanctions and the military option
is alive. Washington is also stiffening its posture ahead of its first direct talks with Tehran on Monday, May 28, when US and Iraqi ambassadors meet in Baghdad.
The message to Iran and its ally Syria is that if the Baghdad talks fail, and they refuse to suspend their backing for Iraq’s insurgents and al Qaeda, the US stands ready with a military option.
Tuesday, May 21, a senior US officer in Baghdad accused Iran of orchestrating a summer offensive against US troops in Iraq “linking al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents to its Shiite militia allies.” Our sources add that Iran with Syrian support has also embarked on a summer offensive in other parts of the Middle East, including Lebanon and the Gaza Strip
Rear Admiral Kevin Quinn said maneuvers beginning now are part of a long-planned effort to reassure nearby countries of America’s commitment to regional security. He told reporters before crossing: “There is always the threat of any state or non-state actor deciding to close one of the international straits, and the biggest one is the Strait of Hormuz.”
End DEBKAfile Article
Begin Archive Prophecy Update Number 51
January 18, 2002
Daniel 11:44,45 – But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. [45] And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
Please bear in mind that Daniel does not bring antichrist out of the land of Egypt he has conquered until verse 44, when he heads back for the glorious holy mountain, which is the middle hill of the three hills upon which the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem rests.
It is better known as the Mount of Moriah, where the first three temples sat, and is located between two seas, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Dead Sea.
Before the mighty former Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin arose, some identified this troubling news out of the north as being about Attila the Hun, after him it was about the German Kaiser of WW1, then about Hitler of WW2, and so forth and so on. Before the great communist revolution of Mao brought forth the present huge sleeping giant of Red China, some identified the troubling news out of the east as being about Genghis Khan, the great Mongol conqueror from the east. But modern day exposi tors generally now tend
to make it news concerning Russia in the north and China in the east. I do not believe it is either. When Daniel wrote his book, it was written to the people of his day. So it is important to consider what they knew to be immediately to the north and to the east of Egypt. But before we discuss what was, and still is, immediately north of Egypt, and what was, and still is, immediately east of Egypt, let me advise you why I do not believe it involves Russia or China.
Get out a world map and measure how far it is from Cairo to the borde
rs of China and Russia. The population of Russia today is more than 150 million, and the population of China is more than 1 billion, 300 million.
Do you really think he is going to take them on? And are they not supposed to join forces with him at the final battle of Armageddon? If he were, it would be rank insanity to return to Jerusalem to take them on! And, besides all that, the land we know as China and Russia, for all practical purposes, was perhaps mentioned only in fables in Daniel’s day. Do you really think he will “go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly make away many” from two distant, vast, countries with a combined population of almost one and one-half billion?
So what is immediately north of Egypt? What touches its northern border? The Mediterranean Sea! And what land is immediately east of Egypt? What touches its eastern border? The Negev! And what could possibly be in the Mediterranean Sea that would trouble him? The U.S. Fleet! And what could possibly be in the Negev that would trouble him? Between 1.7 and 1.9 million Israelis! The U.S. Navy & Marine Corps publish periodical “TRANSITIONS” of “All the Ships at Sea.” You will find it amazing how many vessels we routinely have on scheduled patrols in the Mediterranean Sea. We keep a carrier constantly on station patrolling that section of the Mediterranean immediately south of Turkey and north of Egypt. The carriers USS Enterprise and the USS Theodore Roosevelt have often relieved each other on this permanent patrol station, along with other carriers.
There is also a report issued periodically on marine units deployed on the many ships that patrol the seas of the Middle East from the Mediterranean through the Red Sea into the Indian Ocean and up into the Persian Gulf.
It is simply called “All the Marines Deployed.” The U.S. Marines and IDF have been conducting joint operations in the Negev off and on for some 25 years.
So the antichrist has had Israel bottled up in the Negev for more than three years at this future point in time. I believe the news he hears is simply this: the U.S. Marines and IDF are planning to close his rear flank back to the country from which he originally came, Syria. He will have left a strip heavily fortified across Gaza and the northern Sinai, but he will begin to have reservations about the ability of his troops to hold it.
He will then head back for Jerusalem to finally do what he wishes he had previously done, that is, to end the Jewish problem. He will “go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.” He will super fortify the northeast Sinai and Gaza Strip, and head northeast to Jerusalem to prepare for the destruction of Israel in the Negev. In Prophecy Update Number 52, Lord willing, I will define his palace, the tabernacles, and the nations involved.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more detailed information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. You may use material originated by this site. However, if you wish to use any quoted copyrighted material from this site, which did not originate at this site, for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner from which we extracted it.