ARMAGEDDOM LOOMS LARGE
Armageddon looms large - WorldNetDaily.com - Hal Lindsey - www.hallindsey.com
The "War to End All Wars" concluded with the 1919 signing of the Treaty of Versailles. One of its provisions was the establishment of an international "League of Nations" that was created to provide international oversight to ensure the First World War really would be the war to end all wars.
The League was set up by the victorious Allied powers under the terms of a document known as "The Covenant." It outlined the League's mission: "To promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security."
The League was the brainchild of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who won the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in setting it up. But the U.S. was never a member. The Senate refused to ratify membership, correctly concluding that membership would subordinate U.S. sovereignty to the League.
In 1931, Imperial Japan invaded Manchuria, set up a puppet republic called Manchukuo, and, when the League of Nations objected, Tokyo resigned from the League. The League of Nations blustered and fumed and sent many letters of protest, which Japan ignored until the League tired of sending them.
Four years later, Benito Mussolini, noting the League's ineffective response to Japanese aggression, invaded Ethiopia. The League condemned Italy, sent many letters of protest and threatened sanctions. In 1936, Mussolini's forces occupied Addis Ababa and Ethiopia became part of Italy.
Hitler watched this response carefully and took notes. This encouraged Hitler to further test the League's resolve in 1938. He threatened to invade Czechoslovakia unless Britain and France agreed to German occupation of the Sudetenland. Had the West and the League of Nations truly stood strong against this outrageous demand, Hitler probably would not have gone on to start World War II.
Emboldened by his success at facing down the entire free world, Hitler demanded that he be given Czechoslovakia in exchange for a promise to British Foreign Minister Chamberlain that there would be not further demands and there would be peace. Chamberlain, representing the "toothless" League of Nations, gave Hitler Czechoslovakia without even consulting the Czechs.
This capitulation by the League virtually assured Hitler's next move. When Hitler's storm troopers marched across the Rhine to claim the Ruhr as German territory, the League did not even bother to protest. This set the stage for the second "war to end all wars" between the Allied Forces and the Axis Powers of Japan, Italy and Germany. Hitler's audacity and boldness had so succeeded that it quieted every voice of reason left in Germany.
Sept. 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War II had begun. The enormous tragedy of it all is that it could probably have been prevented if the League of Nations had boldly stood against Hitler and backed him down at the beginning.
World War II concluded with the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations, whose purpose was to prevent, through international cooperation, another war to end all wars.
The historical parallels between the 1930s and the 1990s are unmistakable. Throughout the 1990s, what President George W. Bush aptly dubbed the "Axis of Evil" took turns testing U.N. resolve and noting the reaction of the global community.
First, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and survived the U.N.-led war to push his troops back across the Iraqi border. His Axis counterparts watched as he defied the U.N.'s repeated resolutions with impunity. (When Saddam's Iraq finally fell 12 years later, it was at the hands of the United States-led coalition over the vociferous objections of the United Nations Saddam had so blatantly defied.)
After observing the U.N.'s response to Iraqi aggression, Kim Jong-Il pushed the envelope still further with the first North Korean nuclear standoff in 1994. That resulted in the international community bribing Pyongyang not to develop nuclear weapons. President Clinton gave him all sorts of "goodies" to get him to back off his nuke program.
Like any good extortionist, Kim Jong-Il took the bribe but ignored the terms. He got away with it for eight years while the U.N. blustered and threatened him with letters of diplomatic protest. He learned that he could get all kinds of rewards for rattling missiles and then getting the U.N. nations to bribe him to stop.
Meanwhile, an even more dangerous aggressor was taking note. Iran's mad mullahs carefully observed the U.N.'s response. Iran, the third member of the Axis of Evil, began testing the U.N. in 1998 when its own nuclear program was uncovered. It has managed to hold the international community at bay by creating the diplomatic equivalent to a Mexican standoff, thanks to its ideological links with Islamofacism and the threat of escalating the war. Now, Iran is only a few months, if that, from nuclear capability.
Now we have the North Korean missile launch tests, coming in open defiance of the United Nations. And to add insult and to intensify the provocation, the launch was timed to coincide with both our Fourth of July and the launch of the space shuttle Discovery.
The North Korean launch was deemed a failure by the U.S. because it exploded some 40 seconds after launch at an undetermined altitude.
But it is worth nothing that a 1998 Iranian missile test – based on the same North Korean missile design – also failed, detonating some 40 seconds after launch after reaching an altitude of 180 miles. It is also worth noting that a nuclear weapon detonated 180 miles above the United States would generate an EMP pulse that experts say would instantly plunge half the country into the technological 1890s.
As I write this column, North Korea is preparing several more missiles for "test" launch.
The United Nations is in a dither. Diplomatic letters of protest are flying like confetti. Military and intelligence analysts warn darkly of all the important lessons learned by Pyongyang, even though the test itself was considered a failure.
Maybe it wasn't Pyongyang that the July 4th missile tests were intended to educate. If the Axis of Evil analogy holds true to its historical template, the lessons were really intended for the mad mullahs in Tehran.
It's now their turn to move.
History teaches us that only the aggressors learn from history. The appeasers never learn from it. But the stakes today are far more dangerous than ever before. Now Armageddon looms large before us.
_________________________________________________________________
The "War to End All Wars" concluded with the 1919 signing of the Treaty of Versailles. One of its provisions was the establishment of an international "League of Nations" that was created to provide international oversight to ensure the First World War really would be the war to end all wars.
The League was set up by the victorious Allied powers under the terms of a document known as "The Covenant." It outlined the League's mission: "To promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security."
The League was the brainchild of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who won the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in setting it up. But the U.S. was never a member. The Senate refused to ratify membership, correctly concluding that membership would subordinate U.S. sovereignty to the League.
In 1931, Imperial Japan invaded Manchuria, set up a puppet republic called Manchukuo, and, when the League of Nations objected, Tokyo resigned from the League. The League of Nations blustered and fumed and sent many letters of protest, which Japan ignored until the League tired of sending them.
Four years later, Benito Mussolini, noting the League's ineffective response to Japanese aggression, invaded Ethiopia. The League condemned Italy, sent many letters of protest and threatened sanctions. In 1936, Mussolini's forces occupied Addis Ababa and Ethiopia became part of Italy.
Hitler watched this response carefully and took notes. This encouraged Hitler to further test the League's resolve in 1938. He threatened to invade Czechoslovakia unless Britain and France agreed to German occupation of the Sudetenland. Had the West and the League of Nations truly stood strong against this outrageous demand, Hitler probably would not have gone on to start World War II.
Emboldened by his success at facing down the entire free world, Hitler demanded that he be given Czechoslovakia in exchange for a promise to British Foreign Minister Chamberlain that there would be not further demands and there would be peace. Chamberlain, representing the "toothless" League of Nations, gave Hitler Czechoslovakia without even consulting the Czechs.
This capitulation by the League virtually assured Hitler's next move. When Hitler's storm troopers marched across the Rhine to claim the Ruhr as German territory, the League did not even bother to protest. This set the stage for the second "war to end all wars" between the Allied Forces and the Axis Powers of Japan, Italy and Germany. Hitler's audacity and boldness had so succeeded that it quieted every voice of reason left in Germany.
Sept. 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War II had begun. The enormous tragedy of it all is that it could probably have been prevented if the League of Nations had boldly stood against Hitler and backed him down at the beginning.
World War II concluded with the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations, whose purpose was to prevent, through international cooperation, another war to end all wars.
The historical parallels between the 1930s and the 1990s are unmistakable. Throughout the 1990s, what President George W. Bush aptly dubbed the "Axis of Evil" took turns testing U.N. resolve and noting the reaction of the global community.
First, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and survived the U.N.-led war to push his troops back across the Iraqi border. His Axis counterparts watched as he defied the U.N.'s repeated resolutions with impunity. (When Saddam's Iraq finally fell 12 years later, it was at the hands of the United States-led coalition over the vociferous objections of the United Nations Saddam had so blatantly defied.)
After observing the U.N.'s response to Iraqi aggression, Kim Jong-Il pushed the envelope still further with the first North Korean nuclear standoff in 1994. That resulted in the international community bribing Pyongyang not to develop nuclear weapons. President Clinton gave him all sorts of "goodies" to get him to back off his nuke program.
Like any good extortionist, Kim Jong-Il took the bribe but ignored the terms. He got away with it for eight years while the U.N. blustered and threatened him with letters of diplomatic protest. He learned that he could get all kinds of rewards for rattling missiles and then getting the U.N. nations to bribe him to stop.
Meanwhile, an even more dangerous aggressor was taking note. Iran's mad mullahs carefully observed the U.N.'s response. Iran, the third member of the Axis of Evil, began testing the U.N. in 1998 when its own nuclear program was uncovered. It has managed to hold the international community at bay by creating the diplomatic equivalent to a Mexican standoff, thanks to its ideological links with Islamofacism and the threat of escalating the war. Now, Iran is only a few months, if that, from nuclear capability.
Now we have the North Korean missile launch tests, coming in open defiance of the United Nations. And to add insult and to intensify the provocation, the launch was timed to coincide with both our Fourth of July and the launch of the space shuttle Discovery.
The North Korean launch was deemed a failure by the U.S. because it exploded some 40 seconds after launch at an undetermined altitude.
But it is worth nothing that a 1998 Iranian missile test – based on the same North Korean missile design – also failed, detonating some 40 seconds after launch after reaching an altitude of 180 miles. It is also worth noting that a nuclear weapon detonated 180 miles above the United States would generate an EMP pulse that experts say would instantly plunge half the country into the technological 1890s.
As I write this column, North Korea is preparing several more missiles for "test" launch.
The United Nations is in a dither. Diplomatic letters of protest are flying like confetti. Military and intelligence analysts warn darkly of all the important lessons learned by Pyongyang, even though the test itself was considered a failure.
Maybe it wasn't Pyongyang that the July 4th missile tests were intended to educate. If the Axis of Evil analogy holds true to its historical template, the lessons were really intended for the mad mullahs in Tehran.
It's now their turn to move.
History teaches us that only the aggressors learn from history. The appeasers never learn from it. But the stakes today are far more dangerous than ever before. Now Armageddon looms large before us.
_________________________________________________________________
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