Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

Administrative Area

login

password

Daily News

25252

Imagine a scenario where a father, Mr. X lives with his family in their house on a major street. Across the street, opposite to his house lives his sworn enemy, Mr. Y, who is regularly piling up weapons to blow up Mr. X and his family in a surprise night attack. Mr. X knows this, and in fact watches Mr. Y stockpiling explosives daily in preparation to launch the attack as soon as he is ready. Strangely, Mr. X does nothing about it – rather, he reacts by reducing his own supply of defense and attack weapons.

When his wife asks him why he is doing this, he responds by saying that they can’t afford to buy or maintain any weapons for their own defense. He would rather channel the savings into other necessities such as paying off debts and balancing the family budget better, among other urgent needs. Soon enough though, there will be no budgets to worry about for Mr. X, as he and his family will have been blown into smithereens by a delighted Mr. Y who can’t believe just how lucky he can get.

This scenario may sound far-fetched – Mr. X can only be insane or suicidal. However, in quite a similar manner, U.S military budget cuts continue to cause great concern within the military leadership of the U.S, not to mention many Americans and NATO supporters. The reason is simple: in an increasingly dangerous and volatile world that has seen the strength of U.S enemies multiply over time, the U.S seems to be working towards getting militarily weaker and not stronger. At stake is the ability of the U.S to keep its citizens safe from hostile nations and terrorist groups. Yet, it seems that budget cuts will take be given priority over the critical need to ensure military advantages are upheld, especially in electronic and naval warfare systems.

In a recent report by Reuters, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert said the Navy would have to cut forces and reduce its ability to position ships around the world if lawmakers did not ease or reverse the cuts, which are due to resume in fiscal 2016. Greenert and other U.S. officials are said to be urging Congress to end the cuts known as "sequestration", citing growing strains amid increasing threats, including Russia's aggression in the Crimea region, and Islamic State militancy in Iraq and Syria. And according to Admiral James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff: “We aren’t modernizing as fast as we should in a highly competitive, technical landscape. Almost every element of our forced structure is shrinking while potential threats expand." 

On the other hand, there are many who still believe that the threat to the U.S is somewhat exaggerated or is a misplaced priority. Press TV for example, recently reported that analysts say Washington’s interventionist policy has overstretched the US military around the world. In addition, numerous surveys reportedly show that most Americans are significantly more concerned about the country’s economic problems and their dysfunctional government than perceived foreign threats. 

This is precisely the attitude of complacency that is music in the ears of the anti-American world. According to Examiner.com, Russian President Vladimir Putin, for example, recently gave a powerful speech several weeks ago in which he in part declared that Russia would no longer be mistreated by the U.S. nation, and that the West should be aware of the East’s nuclear power.

The same report further states the U.S. State Department confirmed that as of the 2014 autumn season, overall numbers Russian nuclear weapons and atomic arms may very well top U.S. warheads. According to the Inquisitir : “The superiority of modern-day Russia over NATO is even stronger [in the context of] nuclear weapons … To date, NATO countries have only 260 tactical nuclear weapons in the ETO (European Theater of Operations). The United States has 200 bombs with a total capacity of 18 megatons. They are located on six air bases in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey. France has 60 more atomic bombs. That is pretty much it. Russia, according to conservative estimates, has 5,000 pieces of different classes of TNW (Tactical Nuclear Weapons)– from Iskander warheads to torpedo, aerial and artillery warheads! The US has 300 tactical B-61 bombs on its own territory, but this does not change the situation against the backdrop of such imbalance.”

And Russia is certainly also not lacking in motivation when it comes to itching for a fight with the U.S. The Russian economy is currently suffering due to Western sanctions imposed as a result of Crimea’s annexation earlier this 2014. Western strangulation of Russian economic interests is quite naturally not going down well with Putin. It may not be long before tensions escalate to a breaking point. And should it so happen that one or more major military powers such as China or Iran join in to attack the U.S, it would certainly be “game over” for the once great United States of America.