>> US, allies said to be prepared to ‘rapidly’ intervene if Assad utilizes chemical weapons
UPDATE: “Syria loads chemical weapons into bombs; military awaits Assad’s order,” reads an NBC News headline. Excerpts from the report: “The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday. The military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers, the officials said. As recently as Tuesday, officials had said there was as yet no evidence that the process of mixing the “precursor” chemicals had begun. But Wednesday, they said their worst fears had been confirmed: The nerve agents were locked and loaded inside the bombs. Sarin is an extraordinarily lethal agent. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s forces killed 5,000 Kurds with a single sarin attack on Halabja in 1988.”
ORIGINAL POST: A terrible darkness is settling over the Middle East, and with each day that passes the likelihood of a major war in the Middle East in 2013 that could involve Israel, Iran and Syria appears to grow. The ayatollahs in Iran are continuing to pursue nuclear weapons. They’re preaching that the End of Days has come and that the so-called Islamic messiah known as the Twelfth Imam will be revealed soon to rule the Earth. Neither the U.S. nor the rest of the world seems willing to take decisive action to neutralize the threat. Israel is actively preparing to launch a preemptive military strike. But the world is pressuring Jerusalem not to strike. And Israeli leaders are also weighing the blowback they would receive once such a war began. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in southern Lebanon has tens of thousands of missiles pointed at the Jewish State. A radical Islamic dictator is rising in Egypt. Jihadists have been firing rockets and mortars at Israel from the Sinai Desert. Hamas forces in Gaza just fired more than 1,500 rockets and missiles at Israel and are being resupplied by Iran.
That said, senior Israeli intelligence sources are now saying the border with Syria could become “the hottest border in Israel” in 2013. We’re currently witnessing the slaughter of more than 40,000 innocent civilians by the bloodthirsty regime in Damascus. Israeli and Western intelligence agencies increasingly fear the Assad regime will use of weapons of mass destruction against Israel, and/or against their own people, and/or the Assad regime will fall and jihadist forces will gain control of Syria’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and then focus on a War of Annihilation against Israel. The U.S. and Israeli governments are warning the regime in Damascus not to use WMD as this is a red line. “I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command — the world is watching,” President Barack Obama said during a speech at the National Defense University in Washington on Monday. The use of weapons of mass destruction by Syria “is and would be totally unacceptable,” the President said, adding, “And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable.”
Recent trends in the Middle East — notably the intensifying threat of Syria using weapons of mass destruction in combination with the growing Iranian nuclear threat — echo the plot of my forthcoming political thriller, Damascus Countdown, which will release nationwide on March 5, 2013.
What my novels do is ask what everyone is asking: What if all Hell breaks loose? What if these dark trends spin out of control? What would it look like if Israel does, in fact, launch a massive preemptive military strike against Iran? What would the retaliation look like if Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas fire back with tens of thousands of missiles raining down on Israel? And is it possible that such a horrific war could inadvertently set into motion End Times Bible prophecies, such as the prophecies in Isaiah and Jeremiah that indicate the city of Damascus will one day be utterly and completely wiped off the face of the earth?
In Damascus Countdown, all eyes are on the Middle East. Israel has successfully launched a first strike on Iran, taking out all of their nuclear sites and six of their nuclear warheads—and causing the Twelfth Imam to order a full-scale retaliation. U.S. President William Jackson threatens to support a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Jewish State for unprovoked and unwarranted acts of aggression. Meanwhile, CIA operative David Shirazi has infiltrated the Iranian regime and intercepted information indicating that two Iranian nuclear warheads survived the attach and have been moved to a secure and undisclosed location. In danger not only from the ongoing missile strikes on Iran but also from the increasingly hostile and suspicious governments of multiple countries, David and his team are in a race against time to find the remaining nuclear warheads before disaster strikes. And suddenly the city of Damascus becomes a strange and unexpected actor in the drama.
Will the prophecies regarding the future of Damascus come true in our lifetime? Are current events in Syria foreshadowing prophetic events?
Damascus Countdown will be the third and final novel in the trilogy that began with The Twelfth Imam and The Tehran Initiative. It can now be pre-ordered on the websites of Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Christian Book Distributors, and many other Christian and general market bookstores.
————————————
- Come to Israel in 2013 with The Joshua Fund to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus, and to attend the next Epicenter Conference — click here for more details
- Please prayerfully consider helping The Joshua Fund care for the poor and needy in Israel, care for people affected by Operation Pillar of Defense, teach the Word of God in the epicenter, educate and mobilize Christians around the world to bless poor and needy Israelis, train pastors and ministry leaders in Egypt, strengthen the believers in Syria, and prepare for the next major war in the Middle East — would you make a generous, tax deductible financial contribution to The Joshua Fund?
- New e-book – Israel At War: Inside The Nuclear Showdown With Iran — now available on Kindle, Nook, other formats (includes sneak preview of material from forthcoming Damascus Countdown novel)
- Follow Joel on Twitter — @joelcrosenberg
You must be logged in to post a comment.