Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Why Babylon to be judged: Israel still our "enemy" declares Iraqi parliament

An Iraqi politician has been threatened with prosecution for visiting Israel, a Reuters report from September 14th, 2008 revealed. Iraqi parliamentarians declared Mithal al-Alusi had commited a crime by "visiting a country that Iraq considers an enemy."

While it was unclear what specific law al-Alusi broke, members of parliament, as reported by Reuters, said his visit was a breach of a law that had been in force from the days of dictator Saddam Hussein's reign of terror.

In 1991, during the first Gulf War, Saddam Hussein ordered his military to fire Scud missiles into Israel, hitting Israel's largest city, Tel Aviv, and its main seaport, Haifa, according to the BBC on-line timeline of that war's events. Eight missiles struck Israel on the first night, and then Iraq continued to fire missiles into Israel throughout the course of the first Gulf War.



Israel had threatened to retaliate against Iraq if attacked, but was persuaded to withhold any retaliatory action by the U.S.

According to the Jeremiah 50-51 prophecy in the bible, the calamitous judgments upon Babylon come because she has "engaged in conflict with the LORD" (Jer. 50:24), "for she has become arrogant against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel" (Jer. 50:29) -- "'But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all their evil that they have done in Zion before your eyes,' declares the LORD" (Jer. 51:24), "for the LORD is a God of recompense, he will fully repay" (Jer. 51:56).

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Monday, September 08, 2008

Kurds fear Iraqi arms purchases

This was the headline of an AFP news article published today at afp.google.com, which reported the Kurdish reaction to last week's announcement by the Iraqi government they had interest in buying 36 advanced F-16 fighters from the United States.

Adnan al-Mufti, the speaker of Kurdistan Regional Government's parliment, said today, "We want the Iraqi government to be strong and able to defend the sovereignty of the country but our concern is related to the crisis that has happened in Khanaqin."
Mufti was referring to the surprise raid by the Iraqi military on the town of Khanaqin in the Diyala Province "under the pretext of combating terrorism", as described by KGR President Massoud Barzani, even though KGR Peshmerga forces had been providing security for the area for the last two years. Peshmerga forces pulled out of most parts of the city, but refused Iraqi defense ministry orders to pull out of other Kurdish-populated areas of Diyala province. The Iraqi forces, on orders from Iraqi Prime Minister Mouri al-Maliki, gave the Peshmerga 24 hours to evacuate their posts in the disputed district.
The stand-off between Iraqi government forces and the Kurdistan regional forces has come to be referred to as the Khanaqin crisis in news reports, and typifies the fragile nature of the cooperation between the two governing bodies.
Jeremiah 50-51 describes a coming battle between these two forces: "Consecrate the nations against (the inhabitants of Chaldea), the kings of the Medes [Kurds],... for the destroyers will come to her from the north... And her mighty men will be captured, their bows shattered" (Jer 51:28, 48, 56).
But first comes the fire, then the abandonment, and then the defeat in battle.
And then the flood, and finally, the drought. A complete uninhabitable desolation in our time.

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