THE HARBINGER - 21

By Luke

2011 Will this be ...

The saddest Christmas Day?

"Neither the United States nor Russia would have concentrated two

powerful fleets in the proximity of Syria and Iran unless they were

certain a military conflagration was imminent. While any of the prime

movers, Washington, Moscow, Tehran, Israel or Bashar Assad, may at

the last moment step back from the brink of a regional war, at the

moment, there is no sign of this happening." (See Full News Article

below)

"The world is so wrong" John Lennon said in his 70's song "So this

is Christmas", lamenting the unspeakable suffering the

innocent victims of war endure the world over. While being interviewed

by the American media John stated, "War is a game that's gone too

far....it's like we've all just woken up one morning and thought, is it a

dream, is it a nightmare, what's been going on, and we're all

just trying to make the next day a bit better. We specifically did the

"War is Over" poster event around the world for Christmas to try and

get at least one plug-in forpeace on earth at Christmas because

that's what it's about, and Happy Birthday Christ, ya know, is what it's

about."

In 1980 John Lennon was martyred for the activist stand he took

for world peace, and many believe he was assassinated by a CIA

proxy, as was John F Kennedy, and so many others. The CIA was

also the ground support for NATO's war criminals who executed

Gaddafi as well. Anyone perceived as a threat to their agenda it seems

must be eliminated. It shouldn't be surprising then to hear of their

activities on the ground in Syria and Iran.

Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the

children of God". Where are the voices of protest to these unjust wars

to be heard? And why are those who claim to be the followers of Christ

silent, and secluded in their blessings? We don't see or hear of very

many Christian "peacemakers" in the world. Strange isn't it? To the

contrary the vast majority of evangelical Christians are some of the

most dedicated "cheerleaders" in support of the American military

industrial complex, and their sponsored wars of regime change and

nation building. Isn't there something wrong with this picture? Would

Christ himself support these wars? Why do so many Christians simply

turn a blind eye to the suffering inflicted on the poor of this world by

their government, so long as their Church and the American

lifestyle are preserved?

The entire world will soon celebrate a

truly happy Christmas when Christ

returns.

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat

upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth

judge and make war." (Rev 19:11)

"And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people:

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into

pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall

they learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:4)

"On the Eve of 2012"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS0m-TBBOyM

"Updating the original Eve of Destruction video and looking at the world

as it is today."

"The millennium prayer"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA5QJS3paAo

"The only prayer the Lord taught his disciples to pray."

Israel and Syria brace for regional war between mid-Dec. 2011 and

mid-Jan 2012

http://www.debka.com/article/21543/

Dec 5, 2011

The actions and words of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu

and Syrian ruler Bashar Assad in the last 72 hours indicate they are

poised for a regional war, including an attack on Iran, for some time

between December 2011 and January 2012.

In their different ways, both have posted road signs to the fast-approaching conflict as debkafile's Middle East sources disclose:

1. Saturday, Dec. 3, Syria staged a large-scale military exercise in the eastern town of Palmyra, which was interpreted by Western and Israeli pundits as notice to its neighbors, primarily Turkey and Israel, that the uprising against the Assad regime had not fractured its sophisticated missile capabilities.

debkafile's military sources advise attaching more credibility to the official Damascus statement of Sunday, Dec. 4: "The Syrian army has staged a live-fire drill in the eastern part of the country under war-like circumstances with the aim of testing its missile weaponry in confronting any attack." Videotapes of the exercise, briefly carried on the Internet early Monday before they were removed by an unseen hand, support this statement. They showed a four-stage exercise, in which missile fire was a minor feature. Its focus was on the massive firing of self-propelled 120mm cannon, brigade-strength practice of 600mm and 300mm multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), offensive movements of Syrian armored brigades backed by ground-to-ground missiles with short 150-200 kilometer ranges. They drilled tactics for repelling enemy reinforcements rushed to combat arenas. All this added up to is an impressive Syrian demonstration of its ability to ward off an attack on Syrian soil by turning a defensive array into an offensive push for taking the battle over into the aggressor's territory,

whether the Turkish or Israeli armies or a combined Arab League force backed by NATO.

2. Israel made its rejoinder to the Syrian war message 24 hours later.

Addressing a ceremony honoring the memory of for Israel's founding father David Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu recalled how 63 years ago, Ben-Gurion declared the foundation of the State of Israel in defiance of pressures from most of Western leaders and a majority of his own party. They warned him that he would trigger a combined Arab attack to destroy the fledgling state just three years after the end of World War II.

But fortunately for us, said the prime minister, Ben-Gurion stood up to the pressure and went through with his decision, otherwise Israel would not be here today.

"There are times," said Netanyahu, "when a decision may carry a heavy price, but the price for not deciding would be heavier."

"I want to believe," he said, "we will always have the courage and resolve for the right decisions to safeguard our future and security."

Although he did not mention Iran, it was not hard to infer that the prime minister was referring to a decision to exercise Israel's military option against Iran's nuclear program in the face of crushing pressure from Washington and insistent advice of certain Israeli security veterans.

Defense minister Ehud Barak, who was standing behind the prime minister's shoulder, was as tense as a coiled spring.

3. Six hours later, Netanyahu dropped a bombshell on the domestic political scene: He announced his Likud party would hold elections, including primaries, before January 31, 2012 - two years before schedule and a year before Israel's next general election. As head of one of the most stable and long-lived coalition governments ever to have ruled Israel, he is under no pressing domestic need of a demonstration of leadership at this time. 4. In the last two weeks, the Netanyahu government has been subjected to acerbic criticism on the part of one Obama administration official after another. They have presented Israel as having fallen into

the hands of right-wing extremists who are engaged in a mad race to suppress the judiciary and diminish the civil rights of women and children – not to mention Palestinians.

Secretary of State of Hillary Clinton went to unimaginable lengths when she likened Israel to Iran because fringe ultraorthodox group's in a couple of suburbs in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak were fighting for gender segregation on public transport against the government and the courts.

She was clearly aiming to undermine the Netanyahu government's democratic credentials - and therefore his moral legitimacy - for going to war to halt Iran's attainment of a nuclear weapon. 4. The unusually powerful US and Russian naval buildups in the waters around Syria and Iran. Washington sought in late November to give the impression that the George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group was anchored off Marseilles, when it was spotted in the eastern Mediterranean opposite Syria.

Moscowthen rushed to Syria's defense by airlifting 72 anti-ship Yakhont missiles (Western-coded SSN-26) to Damascus. These water-skimming weapons can hit naval targets at a distance of 300 kilometers.

After that the Bush, whose freedom to approach Syrian or Lebanese shores, had been curtailed by the new weapon reaching Syria, departed to an unknown destination, while the USS Carl Vinson strike group took up position opposite Iran.

Moscowis also playing hide and seek with its only air carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. It was announced that the vessel would set sail for the Mediterranean on Dec. 6. But on Nov. 25, it was sighted passing Malta and chugging past Cyprus four days later on its way to join the flotilla of three Russian guided missile destroyers already anchored off Syria.

Neither the United States nor Russia would have concentrated two powerful fleets in the proximity of Syria and Iran unless they were certain a military conflagration was imminent. While any of the prime movers, Washington, Moscow, Tehran, Israel or Bashar Assad, may at the last moment step back from the brink of a regional war, at the moment, there is no sign of this happening.

John Lennon & Yoko Ono: WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZl8XRRGIH4&feature=related

Media interviews with John Lennon concering his involvement in the

peace movement.

Reexamining John Lennon’s “So This Is Christmas (War Is Over)”

http://www.progressive.org/wx122510.html

Dec 25, 2010

I love John Lennon, and I miss his musical and political presence even

after 30 years.

I can’t help but thinking the world would be a better place were he still here.

We get to listen to Lennon on commercial radio a lot this time of year, especially “So This Is Christmas (War Is Over).”

It’s a song I’ve long been ambivalent about.

I admire his affirmation of equality, as he expresses good wishes for “the old and the young…for weak and for strong, for rich and the poor ones…for black and for white, for yellow and red ones.”

I admire his plea for reconciliation: “Let’s stop all the fight.”

I admire his echo of FDR, as Lennon asks for a year “without any fear.”

And I admire his starkness: “The world is so wrong.”

But I’ve always been troubled, oddly, by the “war is over” chorus, not because I disagree with his peaceful sentiments but because I distrust the simplistic conclusion that war can be over “if we want it.”

This is not an idle question as the United States has 100,000 troops fighting in Afghanistan in a war that’s dragged on more than nine years now.

Already, a majority of Americans oppose the war in Afghanistan.

In a Washington Post/ABC News poll earlier this month, Americans by a whopping 60%-34% margin said the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting.

So wanting a war to be over is not enough, not nearly enough, to end a war.

Because “the war party,” as Fighting Bob La Follette named it, calls the shots.

And the war party consists of: the President, who fears looking weak; members of Congress, who too often follow the President blindly into war with bromides about “partisanship stopping at the water’s edge”; the jingoistic media that peddles the pornography of war; the armament companies that profit from war (which La Follette, in his time, said should be nationalized); and the multinational corporate sector that uses the Pentagon and our troops as its global advance team.

La Follette noted that the war party “is not the party of democracy. It is the party of autocracy. It seeks to dominate absolutely. It is commercial, imperialistic, ruthless. It tolerates no opposition.”

This war party and the powerful forces behind it render the mere expression of democratic opposition toothless.

It’s simply not true that “war is over if you want it.”

But Lennon was no fool. He understood power.

And so I reexamine the song.

Perhaps he means more than just merely expressing opposition to war.

Perhaps his song should be understood more as a call to action than as a wishing well.

After all, he asks, “What have we done?”

That connotes both the horrible things we’ve done to the world, and the implicit accusation that we haven’t done enough to right the wrongs, with war being among the most glaring.

And after all, the last word of the song could not be more urgent. That last word is “now.”

John Lennon surely knew that war wouldn’t be over by merely wanting it (or singing about it) but by wanting it badly enough to go do something about it. And to do that now.

It’s a message sadly as relevant today as it was when he wrote the song forty years ago.

eoa