Now that it’s evident the United States under Barack Obama’s leadership lacks the will to put down Iran, and is even helping Iran go nuclear, someone is going to have to fill in the void.
If you’ve been following the Fourth Reich and European Army category, and watching the Iran situation, you will have seen this a long time ago.
Enter the King of the North (See also HERE)
From 2013 with relevancy today:
How Germany is building a European army
“Berlin will not be able to overwhelm Iran in the near future unless it is working on a special strategy right now,” wrote Gerald Flurry in last month’s Trumpet.
That is a dramatic statement from one of the most dramatic articles we have published. For over two decades the Trumpet has been warning that the next world war would begin with German-led Europe attacking Iran. Last month Mr. Flurry exposed how Germany is planning for that very confrontation right now.
Some of this German strategy is well known. For example, the German press often writes about “the Merkel Doctrine”—Chancellor Angela Merkel’s attempt to create an anti-Iran alliance by selling weapons to Iran’s enemies. Mr. Flurry also explained that Germany is already surrounding Iran, establishing deployments and making deals across the Middle East.
But there’s more. European military planners are getting the Continent ready for a clash with Iran.
A Bold Report
The European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) is an official EU agency responsible for analyzing defense and security issues. In May, it published a report titled, “Enabling the future—European military capabilities 2013-2025: challenges and avenue,” with examples of threats it believes the EU needs to prepare to deal with. This is scenario number six (emphasis added throughout):
Aggressive regime in the Middle East
Risk/threat: An unpredictable but increasingly powerful regime in the wider Middle East conducts its first atomic test. A year later, the regime demonstrates that it has a working and deliverable nuclear capability to a range of 2,500 km: European territory could be directly threatened. The regime, feeling safe under its newfound atomic umbrella, becomes increasingly aggressive, harrying commercial vessels in the Gulf and supporting terrorist jihadi organizations throughout the Levant. The situation escalates when the country mounts incursions into a smaller pro-Western neighbor, whose freedom is deemed critical for the security of world energy supply.
Response: Given the severity of the situation and the potential number of actors implicated, any response would likely be international in character. Europeans, however, would be expected to provide a substantial force component for large-scale expeditionary warfare, which would need to be backed up with tactical and strategic ballistic missile defenses.
The “unpredictable but increasingly powerful regime” is clearly Iran. The EUISS sees that Iran may have to be dealt with, and it is recommending that Europe change its military in order to do so.
Think back to the early ’90s, when the Trumpet first began forecasting Europe’s clash with Iran. Iraq was the big worry. Germany had only just reunited. The euro was years away and the European Union was even more divided than it is today.
Two decades later, an official EU report is saying, We need a plan for confronting Iran!
Making predictions based on Bible prophecy is not fashionable, especially as so many other groups have gotten it so wrong. But have any other forecasters been this accurate? Our predictions were based on the last part of Daniel 11. Now you can see both sides preparing for that confrontation.
More Surprises
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The report argued that the EU needs to be willing and able to defend “zones of EU privileged interests”—areas around the EU such as the Mediterranean Sea or Indo-Pacific region. In an intelligence brief on May 8, Joe de Courcy wrote, “The use of such terminology is eye-catching not just because it is so unfashionable but because its very employment reveals the scope of the EU’s ambition to become, and to be seen as, a global power. This is the vocabulary of major sovereign powers, not trading blocs.”
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One final, notable fact about this report is its authors. When putting the report together, the EUISS says it sought out “a small task force of young experts—those who are likely to shape future debates.” These experts came from France, Germany, Belgium and Slovakia. You would think it would have wanted some input from the EU’s biggest military spender (based on 2012 data) and one of the EU’s only two nuclear powers, but no expert from Britain was invited. Europe’s military planners don’t care what Britain thinks. They are moving on with their agenda regardless.
A Military Union
Many of the components for a pan-European military that the EUISS recommends are already in place, and have been for some time.
In an emergency, Eurocorps can deploy French, German, Belgian, Spanish and Luxembourg forces under a single command. Although in theory Eurocorps could command up to 60,000 soldiers, in practice no more than a few thousand have ever been mobilized at one time. At the heart of Eurocorps is a Franco-German brigade, over 5,000 strong, with the French and Germans sharing leadership positions.
Other multinational forces include the I. German/Dutch Corps, made up of one Dutch and one German division, acting as NATO’s “High Readiness Force Headquarters” and serving in Afghanistan. The corps is a land force designed to deploy within 20 to 30 days. Brussels also has EU Battlegroups—a set of forces, each at least 1,500 strong and made up of multinational coalitions. Two are ready for deployment at any one time; they are designed to deploy within five to ten days.
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And Berlin is pushing for much more.
Intensifying European Militarization
The EUISS report drew attention to the way the eurozone has been forced to work together following the economic crash, calling for similar structures to be put in place for the military. But this is where, at first glance, Germany disagrees with the experts at the EUISS. In his speech at the start of the 2013 Munich Security Conference in February, German Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière told the world’s foremost military leaders that Europe does not need “the vision of a joint European army.”
Why the difference? Not because of any fundamental disagreement. Germany is simply impatient. Grand agreements between EU nations on things like military cooperation take time, especially when Britain is doing all it can to slam on the brakes. Germany wants to take action now, and isn’t waiting for the EU to get its act together.
“Germany is driving the integration of European defense,” Deutsche Welle reported in May. “Germany is Europe’s biggest partner in military cooperation.” Berlin offers to do the jobs that smaller militaries can no longer afford, it said.
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A separate development indicates that the Dutch may continue to serve under Germany in Afghanistan. “The Netherlands will again opt to be active under German command in any NATO mission in Afghanistan after 2014, should the decision for the Netherlands to participate be made,” wrote the General Dutch Press Agency, citing NATO diplomats in Brussels. “In the current, soon-to-expire mission, Dutch soldiers also operated under German command” (June 10).
Also in May, de Maizière signed a memorandum of understanding with his Polish counterpart, Thomasz Siemoniak, for closer cooperation between the two countries’ navies. The agreement paves the way for 28 joint projects between Germany and Poland, including joint monitoring of the Baltic Sea, combined training missions and possible cooperation in shipbuilding. A statement on the Polish Navy’s website said it was the largest cooperation “by far” between the two navies.
Berlin and Warsaw are already working out the details for more concrete joint projects. Watch for German-Polish naval cooperation to continue along similar lines to the Dutch-German relationship.
Follow the Money
What could persuade one nation to sign over thousands of its troops to another? Money, or the lack thereof. The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf revealed that drastic cuts to the Dutch military budget were partially responsible for the merger. Even before the agreement, the Dutch were sending their tank units to train in Germany because they couldn’t afford to do so at home.
The Poles were also driven by finance. “Together we are stronger for sure,” Siemoniak said, adding that together the two nations could “better spend our taxpayers’ money on defense.”
But why did the Dutch give the Germans command of their soldiers? We have no way of knowing what went on in those negotiations, but why didn’t they copy one of the many other European joint-command structures? Is money that tight for the Dutch?
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German diplomats are undoubtedly forging similar relationships with other countries. If Germany can prove that integration can work with the Netherlands and Poland—and they can save a lot of money doing so—other nations will want in. Once Berlin brings a few more countries online, this project will gain critical mass.
The result would be an EU army, or a very closely coordinated group of armies, centered on Germany.
This unified force will become a greater and greater priority for Germany as the confrontation with Iran becomes more urgent. France has got to be a key target for German strategists. Germany has roughly 500 soldiers stationed around North Africa. France has nearly 7,000, as well as several air bases. Those would be invaluable assets in confronting radical Islam’s spread across North Africa.
A New Military Power
Germany has proven adept at controlling the EU behind the scenes. But trying to negotiate a unified army through the European Union would be difficult. It would be hard to stop countries like France from gaining some control over a force formed through EU politics. Instead, by building the army itself, Germany gets to be the undisputed leader.
Of course, when Britain quits the EU and the whole system shrinks to 10 nations or groups of nations—as the Trumpet has forecast for years—Germany would not oppose a grand sweeping plan to create an EU army. It would probably lead the charge. But in the meantime, it will work on forming its own alliances, arrangements that will give the nation extra clout if the EU creates a new force.
Details of how this force will be created remain indefinite, but the Bible tells us what we can expect. It describes this power as a “beast” that will be made up of 10 kings ruling over 10 kingdoms. It says that these kings “have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (Revelation 17:13). They will give their armies over to this beast power.
That is what the Netherlands is doing right now. More nations will follow—your Bible guarantees it.
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The bad news that the Trumpet has forecast is coming to pass. But that means that the good news is on its way too. The same scriptures that forecast this European-Iranian clash also prophesy that Christ will return soon afterward. The first part of the prophecy is beginning to be fulfilled. The second part is not far away. ▪
Full article: Under Construction (The Trumpet)
Global Geopolitics 