For then there will be a time of great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. [Matthew 24: 21]

The world is barreling headlong into some horrible times and people who can anticipate them and see this tribulation bearing down on us are mostly continuing to ignore it. When Jesus Christ Himself says something this significant, everyone should open their eyes and prepare themselves as best they can. The biggest part of that preparation must be to answer the call Jesus makes to every one of us to dedicate their lives to Him and follow His guidance. It’s going to get extremely bad, indescribably bad, for mankind and we need to try and come to terms with it.

Try and imagine, if you can some of the tidings of a great tribulation: some places, probably entire countries will be destitute – lacking the basic necessities for life. Suppose that a nuclear exchange has happened and you are one of the pitiful survivors. Even in the first hours after such a horrific event, you will already envy those who did not survive. Whatever foodstuffs and water that are left will most likely be contaminated with radioactive toxins, but hunger and thirst will eventually drive you to consume whatever you can find – and pay the price. Radiation poisoning will be rampant, the few straggling, injured and burned survivors will all be suffering and violently ill, many to the point where they can’t even get up and walk – resigned to suffer to the horrible end lying on shattered concrete debris beside a puddle of poison black water which will be their end.

There will be no services, no government helicopters swooping in to evacuate the ill and wounded, all avenues of assistance will have been completely destroyed. If there are still places in the country – or the world – that still have any semblance of functioning societies, you can bet they won’t be concerned, they won’t even know of your plight as you lie in agony from the horrific burns all over what was once your functional body. Far away places will never be in contact with your city again. [Revelation 18:2]: “And he (the angel) cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!” Thick, toxic, black smoke will billow from every corner of your destroyed city. You probably won’t even be able to see anything around you except other piteous creatures in conditions similar to your own and such companionship of folks in that condition won’t do anything to encourage or alleviate your suffering.

Left unchecked, all the poisons that have been injected into the atmosphere during the last several years of “climate engineering” might have brought you to a similar situation, but after having breathed such contaminants into your lungs, your body is not able to recover from wounds and sickness as it might have been, so if you are to survive at all, your pathetic condition will linger much longer that it might have otherwise. There will be some few among the ranks of survivors who will be in better condition than you, but most will be in similar trauma, and some worse, but without medical help, none of those will last very much longer.

No birds will be left to fly across the leaden, windless skies, nor to sing their merry songs. The silent darkness of the day will scarcely be bright enough to discern the downtrodden, suffering survivors ambling through the debris-filled streets. They will be going nowhere in particular, like the Hiroshima survivors, there will only be small groups of bedraggled, tortured people, many blind, all burned beyond recognition, leaderless, wandering nowhere. Perhaps they will stop to drink from some dark, poison puddle, no longer caring that the water they consume might be fatal for them. They will be beyond any worry of death by then, in fact they will welcome the comfort of death. Life, as it was known in your city, is over. The following verses describe what is to become of the great city of the modern Babylon, but looks to be a nationwide future, perhaps even for a great nation like the US: [Revelation 18:22-24]: The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. ²³ The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. ²⁴ And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.” There is no other nation in the world that has committed more evil in the eyes of God than the US, so why wouldn’t this prophecy, or at least something similar, be directed at it?

Mighty men, wealthy men, our leaders who we all trusted to do the right things, were contriving precisely this situation for the people of the world whole they were having lavish underground structures built and furnished with survival necessities where they planned to ride this situation out, presumably to emerge and resume their lives of luxury once the air cleared. None of them trusted the word of God, Whose prophets and Jesus Himself warned of the oncoming tribulation, and the wealthy were certainly not excused! Their plight will be especially painful, for when these days come about, the Almighty will have become fully engaged. It’s not going to be pretty for the rich and the mighty as they scurry like rats to get to their holes: [Revelation 6:16]: “¹⁵ And the kings of the earth, the great men, ^[j]the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, ¹⁶ and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! But the Bible also speaks of a great earthquake, a more powerful one than has ever been: [Revelation 16:18]: “And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.” Maybe becoming trapped dozens of feet underground in the darkness with no way out will be the special punishment of the wealthy who brought these events upon the world, who knows? I do know that in the event of an earthquake of this magnitude, underground is the last place I’d want to be.

You don’t even have to be a Christian to see all of this coming, and you can believe what you will, but the words at the beginning of this post came from the mouth of the Savior Himself, Jesus Christ in the flesh. These things are what lies in store for disregarding what Jesus said about who He is and it will be painful for those who rejected Him as God’s Son at the final Judgement. Those who claim no religion at all and especially those (who are building demonic data centers) in avowed service to Satan (Molech, Baal, Remphan, etc.) will get the worst of it all. The godless world will indeed drink of the cup of the wrath of God, and it’s not going to go well for them.

Get right with God and commit the time you have left to serve Jesus Christ. Nothing else is worthy of your time now. Jesus is the answer to all of the problems upon us, and the spiritually blind will suffer for rejecting the Son of God because they chose to be blind.

May the blessings of the Almighty find and keep us.

MK

The world is running out of fresh water. We find ourselves rapidly approaching one of – if not the most seminal of situations in which we will finally plumb the depths of the abyss, a measure that, among other things, will demonstrate just how great the influence of vast pecuniary wealth proves to be when the world’s population grows thirsty. How dedicated will the proprietors’ security apparatus engage a public faced with one of – if not the most primal needs of biological existence. Will the billionaire’s whimsical pursuit of data centers or such wasteful consumption of the last fresh water overcome the desiccated hordes who desperately need water to survive? Do we watch our children slowly succumb to the ravages drying up their very metabolism by allowing thoughtless servants of Satan to use their binary (thus imaginary) digital wealth to accumulate what’s left of our planet’s most precious resource for their pet projects?

I’ve written before about the necessity of employing the use of eminent domain to acquire, for the greater good, of course, whatever wealth might be necessary to begin construction of the necessary desalination plants to alleviate our impending water scarcity, and we need politicians with sufficient understanding of this imminent disaster (and willingness to fix it) to start making some decisions that would doubtless offend the bank accounts of wealthy people. Asset seizure of financial assets is not a new idea – the authorities do it all the time and prior to now, it has always been directed at the segment of the population whose standing with the capitalist leadership is less than that of the group this new effort would necessarily affect.

If John Q. Billionaire has assets worth hundreds of billions of dollars, why should the authorities not avail themselves of some of that wealth like, say the working farmer whose property gets confiscated by eminent domain for the construction of a new airport? We need desalination no less than some airport or highway, and we need to get started on it as soon as possible to stave off an environmental catastrophe. One cannot imagine how many new jobs such a massive undertaking would necessitate. And think about the manufacturing, transportation and logistics chains that would be created overnight. What a boon to the economy it would be to all of a sudden have hundreds of thousands of construction and maintenance workers building hundreds of desalination plants up and down the coasts and around the Gulf of Mexico! Yes, The Gulf of MEXICO!

I’m surprised what with all the rivers and aquifers around the world that other countries haven’t already begun massive desalination efforts, and there are gulf monarchies in the middle east that have in fact done so, but those nations are trying to build civilizations in places nature did not intend for people to inhabit; what the US needs is to try and sustain the country already in place. Europe could certainly benefit from desalination with rivers over there going dry for the first time in recorded history. The point is that if the effort was undertaken on the scale that would be required, not only would the thirst of the world – the US in particular – be quenched, but economies of the participating countries would literally explode! Think of the tax revenue that could be created for a nation with a huge national debt – like one in particular that comes to mind.

If the billionaire monsters would actually consider doing something beneficial for mankind instead of serving Satan for a change, the financial requirements for such an undertaking might not require arm-twisting, and they could profit immensely from it by supporting it voluntarily, but their sole raison d’ etre is their dedicated service to Satan who made them wealthy to begin with, so it would undoubtedly take some serious persuasion. When one stops to consider the dishonest means these cretins used to gain their wealth, it doesn’t require much departure from moral norms to consider financial asset seizure for the “greater good”. All of them have stolen their wealth (from the citizenry) using some form of financial chicanery or the other. While we are at it, we should stamp out any further notion of data centers – ever – and raze the ones that have been built to the ground! With proper legislative authority, of course, to make it all legal. Congress could pass environmental legislation to make them illegal, which it should have done already. If mayors, governors, city councils, etc. do any shady deals without participation from the citizenry, they should be held accountable. Pressure, people, pressure! Numbers of people trump numbers of dollars! Although it would be a futile effort due to Satan’s immense control, it’s still part of our test here, to see who will stand up and be counted.

The world’s oceans cover three-fourths of the planet’s surface. There’s enough water in the vast seas to supply the needs of everyone on the planet if humanity should decide to capitalize on their potential. This won’t happen of course, due to political corruption in every corner of the globe. The Bible tells us the earth will burn and if one were to look at current events – wildfires everywhere, volcanoes, extreme droughts, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see it coming like a runaway freight train. Although the option of desalination of ocean water is available, it will not be undertaken, because Satan’s goal while he has some time, is to destroy as much of God’s creation as he can, claim as many souls to take with him to hell in the end and disrupt the lives of people who try to remain servants of Jesus Christ. Satan controls the wealthy and the leaders of this world, and they will do as they are bidden, if only to stay in power for the short time they have left, so where does that leave us who see what’s happening and choose to remain loyal to the Lord?

Although this post is full of doom and gloom, we really need to stop concentrating so much on the things that are happening that threaten our lives, at least in this pathetic iteration of it. This period of our time is only a trial. God seeks those who have the dedication to Him and are willing to continue in His work until the very end. The test will conclude for each of us, be it ending with a natural demise, or a worldwide conflagration, it will end, and then the real life will begin – for those who have remained faithful. An unimaginable eternal existence in a Paradise of joy so profound that as humans we can’t even imagine it. [1 Corinthians 2:9]: “But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” And as for the water shortage, [Isaiah 65:13]: “Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, My servants shall eat, But you shall be hungry; Behold, My servants shall drink, But you shall be thirsty; Behold, My servants shall rejoice, But you shall be ashamed;”

The writing is indeed on the wall; it is also in the prophecy for what must take place before the end of this time of trouble – this walk through the valley of death on which we find ourselves. There will be famine and droughts, there will be a time when the very sun will burn men with a horrible fire. [Revelation 16:8,9]: “Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.” The world will dry out and burn up, but Jesus Christ offers us a Way to overcome the evils of this world and become prepared for an eternal life in His presence, which will be far greater than anything we could ever even imagine. It’s high time to listen to Him and take Him up on His offer. He’s building our mansions now [John 14:2,3]: “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

I can’t speak for anyone else, but that’s where I want to end up!

May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us.

MK

Undoubtedly there are issues being considered that most of us aren’t privy to, but from what we can see, we have to call to question why certain actions haven’t been taken or at least recognize that there have to be good reasons for this hesitation. I’m speaking of some of the weapons systems currently possessed by adversaries and potential adversaries of the US. If we’ve learned anything about new military hardware, we should know by now that: a) countries develop new weapons, both offensive and defensive ones, and while they are new or just now being deployed, they are always shrouded in secrecy. b) When these systems are announced to the public, you can bet they have already been deployed for use. c) Adversaries always strive to – and eventually do – develop systems to counter, or defend against these new weapons as well as to copy the “new” technology to upgrade their own weapons. It is the time prior to this c part that explains the “open window”.

Russia, China, and Iran (and likely others in their orbit) have announced that they have – and have used in conflict for a while now – hypersonic missiles. Several types of these weapons have been produced, and notably some of them have maneuverable warheads that can alter their trajectories and approach paths, making them difficult, if not impossible to intercept with any degree of likelihood. Since the US does not have reliable hypersonic technology at this point in time, nor does it have any means of defense against such weapons, it is logical to say the window is open – for a while. The US can be expected to develop both aspects, hypersonic development of their own and interceptors capable of defending against them. History has taught us that this is bound to happen – it’s just a matter of time. A point to consider when discussing military technology as it applies to us and our “adversaries” is that in the capitalist US, making money on military hardware is the top priority, secondary to whether it works or not, but in Russia and China, the utility of the system comes before profit – maybe that’s why they’re getting ahead of us.

The concern herein is that Russia or China, or both, seeing that successive American government regimes have grown more implacable and unreasonable with each new administration, might just decide to capitalize on their brief window of opportunity and go ahead and use these advanced weapons to extract whatever level of submission from the US that might assure them of eliminating existential threat to themselves. As mentioned earlier, this window will undoubtedly close as US technology catches up, but it’s open for now and from my perspective, they’d be foolish not to act while they have this advantage – they know this.

This supposition takes into consideration the current conflict with Iran, in which Russian and Chinese hypersonic technology has been adequately tested (and demonstrated) to ensure western defensive systems are unable to challenge it. Both countries, along with Iran, have been able to consistently hit targets at various theater ranges with increasing numbers of weapons getting through the available patriot systems, which are actually proving to be a worthless investment especially for our Middle Eastern “allies”.

It seems like Iran and her allies have a discernable edge in drone technology as well, and this is being demonstrated in particular by the Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon. Iran has found that massive swarms of cheap drones are able to overwhelm advanced warships, a fact that has found the US Navy ships operating far from Iranian shores in the Indian Ocean. This advantage creates opportunities for Chinese hypersonic “carrier killers” to approach undetected in a cloud of cheap drones which are occupying US warship’s defensive systems. US adversaries might choose to attack American assets in various corners of the world while this window is open, i.e., before the US develops appreciable defenses against adversaries’ drone technology.

The current administration in the US has shown beyond any semblance of doubt that it cannot be trusted in any “agreement”. The sole ambition of our Zionist-controlled government is total (Zionist) dominance of every corner of the globe using American blood and treasure of course, and they have well-equipped enemies who are onto their scheme. As for the 60 percent or so of American citizens who would like to avoid confrontations with nuclear-powered adversaries, unless we can come together in a big way, we lack standing in our own country to effectively avoid a future conflagration. We are faced with a choice of being controlled by Putin or XI, or Netanyahu. Or if we can get together and act, by American leaders. Considering how Israel treats those whom it dominates, I’d have to vote for either of the former, but in the off-chance that we can regain control of our nation from the Zionist oligarchs, I think most of us would rather be governed by patriotic American leaders, but as the window of which this post addresses looks to be shutting and as the US closes the gap in technology, our adversaries may have other plans, because I don’t think they want to be controlled by Netanyahu either.

Another aspect of this open window idea is that our enemies (the enemies of the American people – not Russia or China) see their own window of opportunity closing and they are going all-out to get the surveillance state under their complete control. Data Canters are being built and put online despite stealing American water and power. The demonic oligarchs who are striving for control are frantic to get these and their ICE army in control of the American public. They are in a big hurry, too. [Revelation 12:12]: “Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

I believe the reason those ICE guys wear masks is that probably the majority of them are IDF and they don’t want patriotic Americans to know that Israel is beginning to treat American citizens like they do the Palestinians. They are pulling out all the stops, taking complete control of America with cameras, highway monitoring, data centers, and all the other accoutrements that inherently come with Zionist domination – if they can get the US under their complete control, they can take the rest of the world – unless Russia and China decide otherwise and take advantage of the open window they have right now. The Israeli Zionists already train almost all American police departments, so it’s pretty easy to ascertain where all the American police brutality comes from. Another open window Americans should close.

Before you get the wrong idea of what this post is about, remember we don’t need to waste what little time we have left hating on Zionist oligarchs or anyone else, for that matter. They work for Satan and are possessed by demons and will all burn in hell – it’s their choice. Patriotic, free Christians do, however, need to start praying fervently for God to give us courage, to take a hand in helping us to get out from under this dark threat by Satan and his synagogue. The window for Russia and China will only be open for a while, and it feels strange to me to be considering to be liberated (or destroyed) by nations who we’ve been deceived into believing were our enemies. Fresh water in the whole world is running on empty. Satan indeed knows he has a short time – such critical things as the country running out of water and Americans awakening and refusing to pay for data center power – Satan’s window of opportunity is closing too.

The final window will be closed which will essentially lock lost souls out of a chance at eternal life when Jesus returns. It’s not far away, and anyone who has read even a modicum of prophecy knows it’s about to happen. The water is running out, and when it does, so will humanity. The earth, as prophesied, will burn. The fabled data centers will burn. All the volcanoes erupting and wild fires burning in Europe and America, not to mention unprecedented heat waves killing people and evaporating the little water that’s left assures us that our time here is short and growing shorter – don’t let Satan take your chance at a future in Paradise where we will be forever in His indescribably wonderful presence – get to know Jesus Christ now while that window is still open. He’s waiting for you to open the door: [Revelation 3:16]: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Open it – it’s all you have to do – He’ll do the rest.

May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us.

MK

March 27,1977

As Jacob Louis Veldhausen van Zanten moved the thrust levers forward, the four JT9D-7W Pratt & Whitney engines slowly spooled up until they blasted around 92,000 pounds of thrust that began to move the lumbering behemoth that was the Boeing 747-206B of KLM flight 4805 down a foggy runway on the Spanish Island of Tenerife – a takeoff roll which would in only a few moments take 248 souls on a flight to eternity. Another 335 people down the takeoff runway on a different 747 from America, Pan Am flight 1736, would accompany them on their journey to the hereafter.

Earlier that day as both flight KLM 4805 and Pan Am flight 1736 were en route to the nearby Las Palmas airport on the island of Gran Canaria, a terrorist’s bomb exploded at that facility, causing the airport to close as the authorities feared further action. Both flights were diverted to the Las Rodeos airport located on the nearby island of Tenerife. The American plane was nearing the end of a long flight that had originated in Los Angeles with an intermediate stop at JFK in New York City. The Dutch flight was coming from Amsterdam.

The small airport at Tenerife did not normally process jumbo jets, nor did it usually accommodate the large number of other large passenger jets that had to divert there. It was on a Sunday and there were only two controllers on duty who suddenly found themselves attempting to manage an unheard-of crowd of airliners and passengers at their tiny facility. The terminal was not physically large enough to accommodate all of the extra passengers, so the Dutch passengers, who arrived first were allowed to disembark to the terminal facility, but the American passengers had to stay on board the flight 1736 Clipper Victor for what turned out to be a long stay on the tarmac.

The arrangement of the planes found the 1736 flight spotted behind the Dutch 4805 on the tarmac. The captain of the KLM flight was under time pressure due to a company policy that required crews not to fly beyond a certain number of hours without a rest period, and van Zanten was becoming desperate to get back to Amsterdam, but he would still need to make his Las Palmas stop prior to departure back to Holland which would greatly increase the possibility of having to lay over (and KLM would have to pay hotel fees for his passengers). With this in mind, van Zanten opted to take on fuel at Las Rodeos since they were stuck there anyway rather than take the extra time that would be required to do so when they got to Las Palmas.

As luck would have it, they got the all clear from Las Palmas while the Dutch plane was still fueling, but with the KLM plane spotted in front of the Pan Am jet, the American pilots could not maneuver around the fueling KLM, so the Pan Am had to wait for van Zanten to take 55 tons of fuel and clear the taxiway. Then both of the huge jets began their rolls with destiny at the same time. Since there was only one runway at Los Rodeos with a parallel taxiway, and since that taxiway was crowded with jetliners and could not be used for the better part of the necessary taxi to the takeoff spot, both planes were instructed to taxi down the main runway with the KLM plane taxiing all the way to the end and turning a 180 and with the Clipper instructed to go about three fourths of the way down on the main runway and cross over to the taxiway, which this far out was clear of aircraft.

There was a side story happening at the Los Rodeos airport and no narrative of this tragedy could be complete without a mention of what God did to save the life of one Dutch girl. Her name was Robina von Lanschot and she was a tourist guide travelling with two of her friends on the KLM flight. Robina had a boyfriend who lived on Tenerife, and if the KLM flight had gone as expected, it was her intent to fly from Las Palmas over to Tenerife to stay with him but since they were already (unexpectedly) at Tenerife, she saw no reason to go back to Las Palmas at Gran Canaria and come back again, so she asked one of the KLM stewardesses if she could just stay there, to which the stewardess replied no, she would have to complete the flight to Las Palmas. As mentioned earlier, the Dutch passengers were off the plane and in the concession area of the terminal, so as the passengers were instructed to reboard the KLM jet, Robina sort of melted into the crowd and stayed behind. The friends with whom she was traveling arranged to take care of her luggage at Las Palmas. This decision saved her life as every other passenger on that plane – including Robina’s friends – died in a high-speed crash and horrific explosion – immolated in a huge burst of flames.

As the big jets were trying to get lined up for departure, there were some communication issues. Fog rolled in to the airport, reducing visibility to the extent the controllers couldn’t see either plane and the planes could not see each other. The Dutch plane reached the end of the runway and did its spin preparing for a takeoff roll that would last for eternity but never leave the airport. The American plane crew were busy trying to find the exit point (in the thick fog) they were supposed to take to get clear of the runway. Due to the lack of visibility and poor communication between the tower and the planes, van Zanten flying the KLM plane apparently thought he had takeoff clearance well before the Pan Am plane was clear so he began his takeoff roll and the Dutch plane only became visible to the American crew a matter of seconds later when they suddenly saw it break out of the fog headed at them approaching takeoff speed and far too late for Pan Am to exit the runway. Van Zanten heaved the yoke mightily trying to get the big KLM plane airborne, and without that extra 55 tons of fuel, they might have been able, but instead KLM landing gear crashed into the upper fuselage of the Pan Am at an estimated 160 knots, resulting in the total destruction of both aircraft but the Dutch plane was completely decimated, killing all 248 people on board. The Pan Am plane fared even worse with 335 fatalities but miraculously there were 61 survivors. The cabin crew and a couple of flight attendants on the Pan Am aircraft survived, as did several passengers who were all in the front section of the plane. Dorothy Kelly, one of the flight attendants who survived and went on to relate her incredible story of survival in many interviews and documentaries, had been reassigned from the rear to the front of the plane for this flight (due to the Purser, Francoise de Beaulieu being self-conscious of her own French accent) and had this reassignment not happened, attendant Kelly undoubtedly would not have survived.

Captain Victor Grubbs, First Officer Robert Bragg, and Flight Engineer George Warns of the Pan Am flight survived to a life of interviews and narratives for a curious public about the greatest aviation tragedy in history. The aforementioned Pan Am flight attendant would go on to tell and retell her story of survival. Of the other survivors of the Tenerife tragedy, all would remember with great sadness an early spring day when the world exploded around them on a remote volcanic island off the coast of Africa. Robina van Lanschot chose to keep a low profile after the tragedy, avoiding interviews as much as feasible and her bio has faded into the years since, but she couldn’t possibly forget the day at Los Rodeos airport on the tiny island of Tenerife when decided to break a rule to be with her boyfriend – not knowing at the time that it would save her life.

A few years back I worked with a young fellow who left the job where we worked to go to flight school to become a pilot. I reminded him that every time he started to move the thrust levers to power up for takeoff and his checklists are complete, he should take a second to remember Jacob Veldhausen van Zanten’s final roll and be 100% sure everything is clear. Especially if he can’t see the runway ahead…

The parallels are uncanny. In 9 AD, three Roman legions under the command of one Publius Quinctilius Varus were gadding about in the dark forests of the Central European back country, fully convinced of their unassailable military dominance when to their unimaginable chagrin, one Arminius, a Germanic Cherusci tribesman with a band of barbarians laid claim to what was to become the greatest defeat of the Roman empire until then.

Such was the hubris of all things Rome, Varus had been appointed as governor (thus military leader) of this area even though his was a purely political background (and being married to a relative of Augustus helped him along) – he knew almost nothing of warfare – a lack of professional military experience that brings to mind the current US DOD secretary. Varus’ only military experience had been his tenure as governor of Syria, which proved to be sadly lacking when he was faced with a determined enemy who was familiar with Roman military tactics – a situation comparable to Hegseth’s minimal tactical aptitude. Rome had been in the business of annexing places far and wide in order to avail the empire of resources and tax income from places the empire did not know very well. After all, that’s what empires did and still do to this day.

As Rome flourished, building a vast network of roads and aqueducts, similar to but much more useful than today’s data centers being built all around the current empire, the leadership, in a similar vein of arrogance, (Augustus) apparently felt that if he personally liked someone, that was all the necessary requirement for a fit into any governmental position, so there was the invariable posting of unqualified people in positions that should have required a great deal of expertise. Sound familiar? This lack of military prowess on the part of Varus came back to haunt Rome in a big way. This should be expected when an unqualified military group, depleted of experienced generals and admirals, led by a political hack who had very little military experience in leadership position starts a war against a very capable enemy who has spent years studying strategy in anticipation of such an attack.

Varus manned up his three legions went on a march across Europe, supposedly to consolidate Roman rule in Germania and remind the barbarian tribes of the taxes they were supposed to be paying to Rome, but by that time Arminius had deftly planned his strategy by having visited all the affected tribal leaders in order to bring them under the same rebellious umbrella. Arminius had also served for a time in the Roman army, so he had acquired some degree of familiarity with Roman battle tactics. None of the Iranian military leaders have served in the US or Israeli militaries, but with today’s communications and intelligence capabilities, familiarity with US and Israeli tactics has doubtless been gained as much or more than Armenius did with his service to Rome. Not everyone is aware that when those great armies marched across the countryside, they invariably amassed a following of all kinds of civilians, men and women who followed the legions to aid the armies by providing food and other logistics from which they might receive some profit, so there were probably as many civilians following along as there were legionnaires. All in all it was a big circus, designed to instill awe in any potential rebellious groups by show of arms and soldiers, and simply from their presence, the implied support of the populace.

Arminius had developed a plan of attack, but for it to work, he needed to lure Varus into taking a route through the Teutoburg Forest that he hadn’t planned on taking. Armenius planted a rumor of a Germanic uprising in the area that got to Varus, along with an urgent suggestion that Varus take his armies and go there to quell it, which he did. In their turn, Iran developed a plan in which they identified critical targets on American bases in the Middle East which were to be attacked, starting with the expensive and crucial radar systems that would prohibit Iranian missile attacks, or at least would no longer be able to give warning of their launches. The point here is that a determined enemy of an overconfident empire expended enormous effort developing unexpected strategies with which they might defeat their vastly superior foes.

Without going into a lot of detail, suffice it to say that using tactics studied over the years and superior knowledge of the terrain, Arminius’ barbarian tribes soundly defeated the armies of the Roman empire at Teutoburg, much like the Iranians with their missile and drone arsenals and superior planning did to the American military with its depleted ranks of generals. So far it seems that the US Centcom commander, this Cooper guy is at least as inept as his boss Hegseth and his boss Trump. Well, at least in everything but lying, but unfortunately lying does not win wars. Just as Arminius’ and his barbarian hordes did to an empire many centuries ago, the IRGC has thoroughly trounced a vastly outmatched today’s army of empire, the biggest difference is that as opposed to Rome, the US empire’s leadership is taking much longer to understand it has been whipped and so continues to lose assets. But with all the good flag officers gone, what can be expected? Stalin, anyone?

So a great military power prowls far away from home and an inferior foe with inexpensive but effective weaponry painstakingly develops a plan to defeat them. The battle of Teutoburg Forest proved to be a decisive defeat for Rome at the hands of an underequipped (but strategically superior) group of barbarians, and the much-hyped and ballyhooed US military got slapped by a brave and determined Iranian military. In both cases the army of empire chose battle in a place where they should not have been and went up against a lesser equipped, but far more motivated enemy. We Americans wonder now what it’s going to take for the leadership to pack up and go home.

Pray for peace.

MK