Folks - this is getting interesting..... For the last week, my younger kids and I have been on a most excellent vacation visiting literally all of our friends from all the major stops in life since graduating college. So far, it has been a monumental blast. As hard as we are working with the expectation that things will get bad, I also know that it would be nice to have some butt-kickin' memories before things go south as it will be a long, dreary slog through to our dream state of Millennial rest!
Besides just seeing some awesome people that we are blessed to call our friends, one of my favorite things was to visit the Draper, UT temple and see the new endowment film for the first time. I wept several times. The portrayal of the fundamental elements of the Plan of Salvation were beautifully displayed. I liked the graphics that showed Father and His Son as beings of light immersed in light on a "sea of glass" with the earth as their footstool. All beings of a celestial order will dwell in this sort of glory. The portrayal was technically and doctrinally stupendous. The character that portrayed the adversary to the Plan of Salvation, truly brought out the psychotic nature of that being. He hates all good, all purity, all truth and will say or do anything to lead those who made the right choices to merit a physical body for the next phase of testing, right down the path to misery and self-loathing as they trample on what is good and right; that which will ensure that they feel at peace and to cause their confidence to wax strong in Father's presence. If you have not had the chance to get your temple recommend renewed, please do what it takes to do so. You will be immensely blessed for it. We have been warned to have a current temple recommend in place - so that we are ready for what is coming. We must visit often.
Here is just a taste of what may lead to our troubled future:
Four battleships move within striking range of Syria as President Obama weighs military options after a reported 1,300 are killed in nerve gas attack on Damascus
By Associated Press
- Activists report that a nerve gas attack near Damascus Wednesday killed as many as 1,300
- President Obama is said to be weighing his military options after he warned President Bashar Assad that chemical weapons use would be crossing a 'red line'
- Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the nerve gas attack needs to be verified but that it 'appears to be what happened'
- UN representative Angela Kane arrived in Syria today to ask President Assad to let investigators into the country to look into the claim
- Military officials told the Associated Press that four battleships have been moved within the striking zone of Syria and could be used for a Tomahawk missile attack
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In light of new reports that the Syrian government used nerve gas against it's own citizens, killing at least 213 and as many as 1,300, President Obama is considering military options to respond to an action he previously warned the Assad government was crossing a 'red line'.
U.S. naval forces are moving closer as the president emphasized that a quick intervention in the Syrian civil war was problematic, given the international considerations that should precede a military strike.
The White House said the president would meet Saturday with his national security team to consider possible next steps by the United States.
WARNING: Graphic content
Escalation: Angela Kane, the UN's high representative for disarmament, arrives in Damascus, Syria today to press President Bashar Assad to let UN investigators look into a reported chemical attack in a suburb that reportedly killed as many as 1,300
At the ready: Four battleships have been moved to within striking range of Syria as President Obama weighs his options following a reported use of chemical weapons against citizens Wednesday
Officials say once the facts are clear, Obama will make a decision about how to proceed.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to discuss any specific force movements while saying that Obama had asked the Pentagon to prepare military options for Syria.
U.S. defense officials told The Associated Press that the Navy had sent a fourth warship armed with ballistic missiles into the eastern Mediterranean Sea but without immediate orders for any missile launch into Syria.
U.S. Navy ships are capable of a variety of military actions, including launching Tomahawk cruise missiles, as they did against Libya in 2011 as part of an international action that led to the overthrow of the Libyan government.
'The Defense Department has a responsibility to provide the president with options for contingencies, and that requires positioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options - whatever options the president might choose,' Hagel told reporters traveling with him to Asia.
Hagel said the U.S. is coordinating with the international community to determine 'what exactly did happen' near Damascus earlier this week.
Deadly attack: Activists say that somewhere between 200 and 1,300 were killed in a chemical weapons attack Wednesday near Damascus. Syria has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons of any country
A new low: If the reports are true, the chemical attack Wednesday will have been the largest chemical attack on citizens since Saddam Hussein's gassing on ethnic Kurds in 1988
According to reports, a chemical attack in a suburb of the capital killed at least 100 people.
It would be the most heinous use of chemical weapons since Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of Kurds in the town of Halabja in 1988.
Hagel left little doubt that he thinks the attack in Syria involved chemical weapons, although he stressed there is not yet a final answer.
In discussing the matter, he said, 'it appears to be what happened - use of chemical weapons.'
The United Nations disarmament chief, Angela Kane, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to press the Syrian government to allow U.N. experts to investigate the alleged chemical attacks.
Obama remained cautious about getting involved in a war that has killed more than 100,000 people and now includes Hezbollah and al-Qaida.
He made no mention of the 'red line' of chemical weapons use that he marked out for Syrian President Bashar Assad a year ago and that U.S. intelligence says has been breached at least on a small scale several times since.
'If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it - do we have the coalition to make it work?' Obama said Friday. 'Those are considerations that we have to take into account.'
Obama conceded in an interview on CNN's 'New Day' program that the episode is a 'big event of grave concern' that requires American attention.
American attention: President Obama appeared on CNN's 'New Day' Friday to discuss the alleged attack, saying it was a 'big event of grave concern' that requires American attention
He said any large-scale chemical weapons usage would affect 'core national interests' of the United States and its allies. But nothing he said signaled a shift toward U.S. action.
U.S. defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss ship movements publicly.
But if the U.S. wants to send a message to Assad, the most likely military action would be a Tomahawk missile strike, launched from a ship in the Mediterranean.
For a year now, Obama has threatened to punish Assad's regime if it resorted to its chemical weapons arsenal, among the world's vastest, saying use or even deployment of such weapons of mass destruction constituted a 'red line' for him.
A U.S. intelligence assessment concluded in June chemical weapons have been used in Syria's civil war, but Washington has taken no military action against Assad's forces.
U.S. officials have instead focused on trying to organize a peace conference between the government and opposition.
Obama has authorized weapons deliveries to rebel groups, but none are believed to have been sent so far.
In his first comments on Syria since the alleged chemical attack, Obama said the U.S. is still trying to find out what happened. Hagel said Friday that a determination on the chemical attack should be made swiftly because 'there may be another attack coming,' although he added that 'we don't know' whether that will happen.
After rebels similarly reported chemical attacks in February, U.S. confirmation took more than four months.
In this instance, a U.N. chemical weapons team is already on the ground in Syria.
Assad's government, then as now, has rejected the claims as baseless.
Obama also cited the need for the U.S. to be part of a coalition in dealing with Syria. America's ability by itself to solve the Arab country's sectarian fighting is 'overstated,' he said.
FROM NBC NEWS they appear to move to attack Syria on Thursday...Everything is beginning to line up perfectly for the commencement of World War III.
ReplyDeleteRussia and China warn the USA of catastrophic consequences in the region should the USA intervene.
Iran warns that Israel will suffer should the USA attack. Assad says likewise.
Contamination from Fukushima is getting stronger...
I feel like all of these events that used to happen maybe a month at a time are happening daily, even hourly...