Twin Iraq bombings kill 12, injure 31

Hassan Obeidi

July 29, 2011 - 1:39AM

The Sydney Morning Herald - AFP

Twins blasts involving a car bomb and a suicide attack in Saddam Hussein's hometown in central Iraq killed 12 people near a bank and a market, as shoppers stocked up for Ramadan.

Another 31 people were injured in the blasts in Tikrit, officials said, ahead of the holy Muslim fasting period and with just months to go before US forces must withdraw completely from Iraq. [...]

Violence has steadily been rising in the past few months as the 47,000 US troops still stationed in Iraq begin packing up to leave by the end of the year from the country they invaded in 2003 to topple Hussein.

June was the deadliest month so far this year for the number of Iraqis killed, and the bloodiest in three years for US forces, who lost 14 soldiers in attacks.

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If the cities of Iraq burn before the U.S. pullout, inciting a withdrawal based on frustration and resignation that reconstruction has failed, then two more judgments of those prophesied by Jeremiah on the "land of Chaldea" will have come to pass, in sequential order, bringing the number to five out of nine -- 1) invasion by a coalition of many led by "a great nation", 2) capture, 3) punishment of "the arrogant one", 4) burning of the cities and 5) abandonment, followed by 6) war with and defeat by "the Medes", 7) plundering by the victors, 8) flood, and 9) drought, leading to a complete desolation.

U.S. plans possible 10,000-troop Iraq follow-on force

By Laura Rozen | The Envoy – Wed, Jul 6, 2011

The United States is planning for keeping as many as 10,000 U.S. troops in Iraq next year, the Associated Press reports. The decision would require a formal request from the Iraqi government, which as yet has not issued it, though U.S. leaders have dropped numerous hints it might be a good idea.

"Already ... the White House has worked out options to keep 8,500 to 10,000 active-duty troops in Iraq to continue training security forces in 2012, according to senior Obama administration and U.S. military officials," the Associated Press reported, citing foreign diplomats in Baghdad who have also been briefed on the matter.

"We have said for a long time now if the Iraqi government asks us to maintain some level of troops beyond that end of the year deadline, we would consider it," White House spokesman Jay Carney told journalists Tuesday, adding the United States has not yet received such a request.

"Right now there are no plans to keep troops in Iraq beyond" the end of the year, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told the Washington Post Tuesday. He added that an Iraqi request for a follow-on force "would be given serious consideration by this administration."

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If, however, the U.S. pulls all its troops out of Iraq and no burning of the cities has occurred, we can know with certainty that the current events in Iraq are NOT the fulfillment of the Jeremiah 50-51 prophecy of doom on the land of the Chaldeans. That is because the prophecy is clear -- the abandonment of Babylon by the occupiers who had invaded her and punished her "arrogant one" is precipitated by the burning of her cities, so that the foreigners become "exhausted" because of the "fire."

But if the cities burn, so that the leader of the occupying reconstructionists declares, "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven," then we can know with certainty that the events in Iraq today ARE the fulfillment of the nine judgments on Babylon.

Invasion, occupation, punishment, burning, abandonment, civil war, plundering, flooding, drought. Complete desolation in our time.

Iraq begins crackdown on Shiite Militias

From THE NEW YORK TIMES By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

Published: July 1, 2011

BAGHDAD — Against a backdrop of rising violence against American soldiers, Iraqi security forces have unleashed a sweeping crackdown on Iranian-backed Shiite militants responsible for most of the lethal attacks, according to American and Iraqi officials.

The operation has been welcomed by the United States military, which announced the deaths of three Americans in southern Iraq on Thursday, bringing the total of combat-related deaths in June to 14 — the bloodiest month in three years.

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Will the new crackdown bring about the conflagration of the cities of Chaldea, as prophesied by the hebrew prophet Jeremiah 2,600 years ago, which precipitates the abandonment of the nation by the occupying reconstructionists? --

"'I shall set fire to (the) cities (of Babylon), and it will devour all (its) environs'... 'I had dispatched foreigners to Babylon that they would... devastate her land... [Afterward, they will say,] "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; (now) forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven"... [For] the broad wall of Babylon will be completely torn down, and (then) her high gates [i.e., city centers] will be set on fire; so the (foreigners) will have toiled for nothing, and the nations will become exhausted (because of the) fire.'" (Jer 50:32, 51:2,9,58).

If the cities of Iraq burn before the scheduled withdrawal, we will have witnessed the fourth judgment on Babylon out of the nine declared by Jeremiah in chapters 50 through 51 in the hebrew bible, just as we have already witnessed the first three -- invasion (Jer 50:41-46), occupation (Jer 51:14) and punishment of the "arrogant one" (Jer 50:31).

If the military occupiers then abandon Iraq out of frustration at the failure of reconstruction, the fifth judgment will have occurred in sequence, and we can then expect that the remaining four terribly destructive judgments will also occur in their order: civil war with and defeat by the Kurds (Jer 51:27-29); their plundering of Chaldea's treasures after the victory (Jer 50:37); a devastating flood from the "broad river" (Jer 51:42); and a resulting drought (Jer 50:38, 51:43) that makes the land completely desolate and uninhabitable (Jer 51:37,62).