Army Guard 'in dire situation'

General: More than two-thirds not combat ready

Tuesday, August 1, 2006; Posted: 8:43 p.m. EDT (00:43 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's 34 brigades are not combat ready, mostly because of equipment shortages that will cost up to $21 billion to correct, the top National Guard general said Tuesday.

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum spoke to a group defense reporters after Army officials, analysts and members of Congress disclosed that two-thirds of the active Army's brigades are not ready for war.

The budget won't allow the military to complete the personnel training and equipment repairs and replacement that must be done when units return home after deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan, they say.

Last week several House Democrats said publicly that two-thirds of the Army brigades are rated not ready for combat, and Army officials have not disputed that figure. On Tuesday, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Connecticut, also declined to be specific, but said the Army is "very much worse off" that it was in late 1999 when the military said two of the 10 Army divisions were ranked at the lowest readiness level, C-4. At the time, two divisions equaled six brigades.

The issue gained political momentum when then-candidate George Bush, during his nominating convention, said the Clinton administration allowed the U.S. military might to erode. Now, as the 2006 elections approach, Democrats are saying the Bush administration is shortchanging the military. - CNN
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How did this happen? Bueller?... Bueller?... Bueller?...Anyone?
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10-23-06, 08:42 PM
cyberlaol
? so with this information What is the combat readiness of the U.S. Military?-if say Russia decided to invade Israel along with some Arab countries(which I believe one day they will) could the American army send a force or would they have to rely on the European Common Market and its armies while America sat that one out???

10-24-06, 08:32 PM
DorianGreyed
While it is a matter of opinion and not something measurable, what evidence that has hit national media indicates that the US would be hard pressed to provide "boots on the ground" for such an invasion. I say this because for the last 6 months or so, it has become obvious to even most of the "the US military isthe best...." crowd that the military is stretched to, and perhaps past, the breaking point. The back-door draft has been a point of contention for a couple of years, with some actually going to court in an attempt to avoid going to Iraq. There are boots on the ground in Iraq that are there for their 4th visit. It is well-known that some of the services have lowered both their recruiting quotas and their requirements. That combination is not a healthy sign. Nor is it a healthy sign that several active military brass (most Guard, I think) have publically stated that they are stretched to the limit. Add to that mix the fact that October may end up with the highest military death total since the invasion. It should go without saying that the increasing violence in Iraq isn't exactly a "death throe." And then we have the increasing violence in Afghanistan. (Remember them? They were the guys who sheltered the guys who attacked us.) The Taliban apparently just took a few years off, and they are back now and in control of much of the country, most of the country when you consider that there are few big cities there, and not all of them are controlled by the government we installed.

Putin knows all this, and maybe more, so he knows that it is unlikely that the US would get involved in that invasion you ask about. That means that Israel would probably have to go it alone. With their own military having been shown to be less than advertised, what might they do if pressed? Putin already knows that, too, and I seriously doubt that he wants that scenario to come to pass.

10-29-06, 07:03 AM
cyberlaol
Putin not do anything? Hmm well he may never do it but I have heard a lot of people say over the years that if Israel ever got invaded it would be a combination of war on several fronts and yes Russia was in that equation along with Iran, Egypt and Libya-the most widely read person with his views on the subject and it has been said often that it sold 10 million copies in the 1970's is Hal Lindsey's book

The Late Great Planet Earth


it is well known that Russia like any country wants oil and being friendly with any nation that hates Israel and to bleed your troops for that country would only strengthen any weakness in relationships-even if Islam and Communism hate each other-a common enemy would be a rallying point


I think Iraq is showing Americans want they don't want anymore-another Vietnam where they do not win and after Iraq their opinion I am willing to guess will be -That is your problem-America has bled enough

10-29-06, 09:46 AM
DorianGreyed
But there's one place -- Russia -- where reserve estimates just seem to go up and up. In its annual statistical survey of world energy, BP PLC (BP ) has recently revised its estimates of Russia's total proven oil reserves to 69.1 billion barrels, 6% of the world's total, up from 45 billion bbl. in 2001. But according to auditors with a worm's-eye view of what's actually going on in the depths of Siberia, such estimates may just scratch the surface of Russia's real potential. According to a recent study by Dallas-based energy reserve auditors DeGolyer & MacNaughton, whose clients include leading Russian energy companies such as Gazprom and Yukos, Russia's true recoverable reserves are between 150 billion bbl. and 200 billion bbl. That's up from industry estimates of 100 billion bbl. a few years ago.

Why such a big gap in the estimates? Because it's one thing to be sitting on oil reserves, another to be able to exploit them commercially. In Russia's main oil-producing region in western Siberia, proven reserves represent just 18% to 24% of all oil in the ground, in contrast to about 45% in Western oil-producing regions such as Alaska and the North Sea. But as Russian oil companies adopt technologies, such as horizontal wells and computerized reservoir management systems, the estimated recovery rates are being revised. Thanks to new techniques, which make it possible to obtain oil even from apparently depleted fields, Russian oil companies already have managed to boost their output by 50% since 1998. "The biggest thing is the [new] technology being deployed in western Siberia. The results are beginning to show," says Martin Wiewiorowski, senior vice-president of DeGolyer & MacNaughton in Moscow.
- Business Week
Note that Saudi Arabia's oil reserves are no more than 270 million barrels, and some experts think it is much less. The entire Middle East may have only 50% of the world's oil reserves rather than the 70+% that is claimed.
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Lindey sold a great deal of books. Good for him. However, his record as an accurate predictor of future events is less than stellar.

From Wikipedia -

The Late, Great Planet Earth is the title of a 1970 book and later a movie narrated by Orson Welles co-authored by Hal Lindsey and C. C. Carlson. Whether the book's central thesis originated with Lindsey or with Carlson is not clear, since Carlson is a ghost writer who has co-authored many books with others, mostly with a religious theme.

While some suggest that this book is an example of pre-millennialist, dispensationalist Christian Zionist literature, the book is predated by works such as the 1956 work by Herbert W. Armstrong called 1975 in Prophecy!. The Late, Great Planet Earth was first published by Zondervan.
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The main difference between the Armstrong and Lindsey/Carlson accounts is that Armstrong claimed that his followers would go to a place of physical safety (identified by him as Petra in Jordan) until the second coming of Jesus Christ, while the Lindsey and Carlson version substitued that idea with the theory of the Rapture. In most other aspects the claims are the same.

Lindsey and Carlson interpreted history in the context of Biblical scripture, stating that the events of history, specifically the Cold War, fulfilled Biblical prophecy. For example, they pointed (as did Armstrong), to the restoration of Israel as a state in 1948 as the literal restoration of Israel prophesied in the Bible. The central thesis of the book was the belief that Russia was Gog, the invader of the North prophesied by Ezekiel. This is also an echo of Armstrong's earlier works, which also drew upon speculative ideas published by British Biblical literalists of the 19th century. Unfortunately for Lindsey-Carlson and Armstong, none of their predictions have come to pass in the order and manner and timeframe that their respective storylines predicted and adds these works to piles of failed prophecies of the past.

Lindsey and Carlson wrote that current events [citation needed] point to a near future 7-year Tribulation which will include the biblical plagues, wars, and famines. Jesus will rapture true believers to himself [citation needed] just prior to this. Following the Tribulation, Jesus will [citation needed] return to establish his 1000-year millennial Kingdom on earth. This scenario is also identical to the earlier works of Armstrong.

Although Lindsey and Carlson did not claim to know the dates of future events with any certainty, in one passage they suggested that Matthew 24:32-34 indicated that Jesus' return would be within "one generation" of the rebirth of the state of Israel, and asserted that "in the Bible" one generation is forty years. Some readers took this as an indication that the Tribulation or the Rapture would occur no later than 1988.
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Some of Kindsey's predictions, again from Wikipedia -

However, it is possible that Jesus is dating the beginning of the generation from 1967, when Jerusalem was again under Israeli control for the first time since 587 B.C. We don't know for sure which year acturally marks the beginning of the last generation." (pages 35, 36). This same viewpoint was published by the popular Pastor Hal Lindsey in his widely published book entitled The Late Great Planet Earth (see page 43).
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1980s

* A United States of Europe forms with its own central government and is in control of its own military and political structures. (Hal Lindsey)

2000

* Battle of Armageddon (Hal Lindsey)
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User comments about the movie from the Internet Movie Database -

The book and film use use scenarios featuring a clash between the united states and NATO vs. Russia and the Warsaw PACT. China also flex's her military muscle and the Arab nations attack Israel. This series of clashes leads up to Armageddon. This is great but the Warsaw pact is disbanded (as of this writing)and Russia is no longer the threat it once was since 1989-1990 with the reunification of Germany. Still Lindsy clings to his suspicion of Russia invading Israel when he speaks on TV and in print. Some weeks it's demons invading as alien grey like beings. The problem with Lindsey is he can't make up his mind.
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One of the dumbest films of all time!

I was a theatre manager when this tripe was released and audiences laughed out loud at the absurd theories and assumptions.

Was Satan's ambassador to earth really Gerald Ford? Probably not. Are we really nearing the end of civilisation? No, movies like this one stopped being made. Does the bible predict the future? No, that would be STAR TREK. The bible is about the past.
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Contrary to what you see in this film, The Mark Of The Beast won't be a biochip implant and there won't be a SUPERCOMPUTER IN BELGIUM controlling anything and everything on the Earth. Granted, i'm sure there are some on this planet that would love a system like that....however, NO ONE IS GOING TO TAKE A MICROCHIP IN THEIR RIGHT HAND OR FOREHEAD.

Mr. Lindsey has set numerous rapture dates over the years and has been well er, WRONG every single time.
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I remember that this crap was released on video in 1984 in my country with the tagline "Don't make plans for 1985 until you have seen...". Well, 17 years have gone since that time and the world is still here.
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Leo, I simply am not going to take seriously what a right-wing religious fundamentalist fanatic says, especially one that seems nuttier than Pat Robertson or Oral Roberts.

Jerry Ford as Satan's ambassador to earth??? If Ford was the best Satan could get, Heaven will indeed be a very crowded place. Ford would trip over the brimstone on his way to talk to his "boss". Al Pacino did a better job as Satan than Ford could as Satan's ambassador.

11-01-06, 01:35 PM
cyberlaol
Hey Dorian I appreciate the info on Russia and Saudi Arabia. I found it to be really informative and I was amazed at the research you put into it...On to another section you mentioned in regards to the Second Coming of Jesus -the scripture often used for the rapture of true believers(Born Again Christians) is the verse found in


I Corinthians 15: 50-59

the refernce for the fact of Jesus returning after the 1000 year imprisonment of satan is Revelation 21

( the actual tribulation period is believed to be only 7 years)

you had such big letters with


"NO ONE IS GOING TO TAKE A MICROCHIP IN THEIR RIGHT HAND OR FOREHEAD"



you were not yelling were you my friend? Big Grin

anyway in response to that I am not sure if you heard of some company in California that has actually -as was reported on the news once that they developed a system to implant a microchip in someone's right hand(even tho they stated " This is not the mark of the Beast!")-guess they read the Bible too?

Anyway they had at one point several hundred people who signed up so if they went into a diabetic coma or a loved one who had Alzheimers that they could be tracked down and some people raved about it


No one will take a Microchip?-hmmm well I have a hunch that even without the Bible's opinion that man will always try to find new ways to make their lives more secure and safer-even ways to track people down whether they are children, aged adults or prisoners.

Now those scripture verses that are in relation to the microchip idea go to

Revelation 13:11-18

Notice verse 16 &17:

" he also forced everyone small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or forehead(17) ...so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name."


Also an equally powerful verse mentioned frequently in churches on this subject is in regards to the idea that no one will take a microchip on their bodies anywhere

Second Thessalonians 2 (especially verse 11)

" For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie"



Now if someone says well cyber I don't believe the Bible and this will never happen as we human beings are not as gullible as you may think?


Well a lot of people believed George Bush( he was sincere but sincerely wrong) and those WMD's and look where that got us all now?


Faulty information and lies and we all believed it- So while I do thank you my friend for your reply I would like to say one thing more

Keep this reply so that if by chance I should die before you(cancer seems to be a problem in my family as I mentione in an earlier post on Illness)

...so that you will recall these Scripture
verses Wink as the future is yet to be decided and as regards Linnsey while I have been told by others that Jesus will return before the 7 year tribulation period(Pre-tribs)

or in the middle of it(Mid-Trib)

or after the world has gone through hell(Post Tribs)

I have always maintained a Pan Trib view-" it will pan out the way God wants it to pan out" Big Grin



but the Bible is clear about ceratin things-whether anyone believes it or not is really your own choice

11-01-06, 01:37 PM
cyberlaol
I must slow down when I type-all those typos I apologize for

11-05-06, 02:07 AM
DorianGreyed
Your typos were not a problem.

Leo, the "all caps" were part of a quote from a user on imdb.com. I see now that I didn't give a link/reference to that page, as I usually do. Sorry.

11-05-06, 09:45 AM
juanruiz
Hal Lindseed has to be one of the great snake oil salesmen of all time. How his books still sell is a mystery to me. While he told people to quit their jobs and hunker down for the end, he was busy collecting classic Corvettes.

11-05-06, 12:36 PM
juanruiz

quote:
but the Bible is clear about ceratin things-whether anyone believes it or not is really your own choice



Problem is, Jesus and Paul both believed the end would come soon, and nothing happened. People quit working and the European economy went into the toilet when people thought the year 1000 was the time. JWs essentially based much of their religion on an impending Parousia in 1914. But we're all still around, despite the nonsense from a con man like Lindseed.

11-06-06, 10:20 PM
honilov

quote:
but the Bible is clear about ceratin things-whether anyone believes it or not is really your own choice


That's what makes it so great. No one can blame the other, whether good or bad. Smile

11-06-06, 10:33 PM
juanruiz
The problem is, the Bible isn't clear. If it were, you wouldn't have nearly 2 millenia of generations of Christians insisting that the end would come in their lifetime. Perhaps if they read these apocalypse stories within the historical context in which they were written, they would see that they reflect the times in which the writers lived, not some future disaster.

11-06-06, 10:56 PM
honilov
Juan, when you say the 'Bible isn't clear', do you mean clear with understanding or clear with truths?

Dorian, I'm sorry this thread has gotten off topic, but I couldn't pass it up. Smile

11-07-06, 06:34 AM
juanruiz

quote:
Originally posted by honilov:
Juan, when you say the 'Bible isn't clear', do you mean clear with understanding or clear with truths?

Dorian, I'm sorry this thread has gotten off topic, but I couldn't pass it up. Smile



First, I am referring specifically to the clarity, or lack of it, as regards endtimes. I have seen how a guy like Jack Van Impe plucks isolated verses from the OT and NT and come up with the year 2016. The two prinicipal sources, Daniel and Revelation, were written during a period of persecution (Seleucid in the former, Roman in the latter), and the messsage of "keeping the faith" and "misery for oppressors" is aimed at the readers then.

I don't see any of this as being off topic.

11-07-06, 03:52 PM
honilov

quote:
I don't see any of this as being off topic.


I guess it seems off topic to me because it's a far cry from having anything to do with 'military equipment shortages'

In regards to truths, I was only gonna ask you how do you explain the foreseeable mark/microchip spoken in Revelations if the Bible aren't true. Smile

Maybe that's a horse of a different color (meaning, a topic in a different thread). Smile

11-07-06, 04:02 PM
juanruiz
My view is that bringing Lindseed into the discussion was at least tangential. Others picked up on it before you and I contributed to it. For me, off topic means no attempt whatsoever to post something germaine to the thread. btw, how's the weather there? Wink

11-07-06, 04:12 PM
juanruiz

quote:
In regards to truths, I was only gonna ask you how do you explain the foreseeable mark/microchip spoken in Revelations if the Bible aren't true.



This whole mark/microchip is an attempt to extrapolate modern technology from a text 1900 years old. It is a reference to the historical context of the writer, not the 21st century, when in order to do business in the Empire, you needed Roman permission. The anti-Christ is Rome for Pete's sake.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DorianGreyed,