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courses of action in the "last
days." This means that eventually
Europe is going to get its military
act together.
Now consider another long–
range trend. The United States
cannot go on being Europe's de–
fender forever either. One of these
days Western Europe is going to
see the need to acquire sufficient
weapons of its own to defend
itself!
America spends a higher per–
centage of its gross national prod–
uct on defense than any other
major NATO al ly. Americans are
becoming increasingly impatient
with spending money to defend
allies who are now
more affluent
than they are.
Many see it as ridic–
ulous that the United States sti ll
has a Iarge standing army in Ger–
many 36 years after World War
11.
Moreover, just as many Euro–
peans would prefer to stay out of
the next war and simply Jet Amer–
ican and Soviet missiles fiy over–
head, Americans don't relish the
idea of seeing their own cities
nuked because of a war that
could
be confined to Central Europe. As
the saying goes, what American
President would "push t he but–
ton ," dooming Chicago or S
t.
Louis in order "to save Rotter–
dam"?
Thus, many Amer icans would
like to see Europe have its own
independent defense force.
lt
' s
much cheaper- and, as long as t he
United States and Western Europe
are on friendly terms-no Iess
safe.
What Europe as a whole has yet
todo, France has already done toa
limited degree. France has five mis–
sile submarines, and 18 of its own
medium-range nuclear missi les.
France's submarine-Iaunched mis–
siles theoretically can put a nuclear
warhead 1,800 miles away from
any place in the ocean that its sub–
marines can reach. France also has
' ·
1ts own neutron bomb, and is devel-
oping another medium-range mis–
si le to be mounted on a t ruck.
French forces, including nuclear
submarines, would probably form
the core of an independent Euro–
pean defense.
30
Britain has a nuclear force simi–
lar to that of France's. Bible proph–
ecy would Iead us to believe, how–
ever, British forces will not join any
future independent continental Eu–
ropean force. Britain s imply occu–
pies a different role in the prophet–
ic scheme than continental Europe
(as is demonstrated in our book
The United States and Britain in
Prophecy).
Certain items give credence to
the idea that Bri tish forces will
not be part of Europe's. In the
March-April, 1981, issue of
Europe,
a magazine devoted to
the Common M arket, George
Buis, a retired French general and
director of the lnstitute of
Advanced Study of Defence and
Military Instructions, propases
that Europe acquire "a powerful,
diversified, and credible nuclear
armament." But he also declares
that " Britain must be kept out."
Britain , Buis says , has always
refused to consult with Europe's
other nuclear power, France;
besides "France and Germany
remain, in principie, the only
countries big enough for the
job."
For the time being, of course,
the Europeans, with the exception
of the French, want no part of any
independent military force. The
West Germans, for example, after
agreeing to station Pershing lis and
glickems on its soil, want
no
Ger–
man troops on the launching s ites
and
nothing to do
with the decision
to use those missi les! One West
German diplomat, voicing his
countrymen's sensitivities, said, "In
order not to have it charged that
there is a German finger on the
nuclear trigger, we want the use of
the new weapons int roduced into
NATO to be entirely an American
decision."
Such an attitude simply cannot
last.
lt
is not human nature. People
just don't sit still, indefinitely, for
foreigners having the control over
life-or-death matters!
Given current altitudes, it will
probably be the Americans who
succeed in creating an independent
European defense force. Jack
Anderson, in another investigative
exposé, has uncovered the existence
of a secret Pentagon strategy report
that advocates almost total U.S.
withdrawal from Europe! The
report speaks of an " uñhealthy
dependency" by Europe on the
United States. This very dependen–
cy itself helps erode European will.
The report suggests t hat America
should seek "an autonomous Euro–
pean defense and deterrent capabi l–
ity."
Other military thinkers suggest
that , given Europe's reluctance to
defend itself, about t he only way to
shock it into a greater defense
effort would be t he bold announce–
ment that U .S. troops were going
to be pulled out, period.
So where do we stand? The trou–
bles in Poland and the neutron
bomb may have
bought time.
But
the deep European reluctance
against putting neutron weapons on
their soil- and continued Soviet
superiori ty- sti ll gives Europe in–
centive to build up its own forces.
The American control of European
defense is simply
unnatural
in
human affairs, and cannot go on
forever . Sooner or later, all of
Western Europe will have its own
independent defense. That develop–
ment is one of the most important
specific waysigns in Bible prophecy
before the beginning of the prophe–
sied G reat Tribulation-which will
plunge the whole world into
chaos.
The eleventh chapter of Daniel is
clear in revealing that the final lat–
ter day European political succes–
sors to the a ncient G reek a nd
Roman Empires will mi litarily
move into the Middle East to pro–
tect Middle East lifelines.
Other prophecies, basically from
the book of Revelation, indicate that
this same political power will engage
in much fighti ng around the world in
t he latter days of man's civi lization
just before God intervenes in world
affairs to save man from extinction!
A more detailed outline of these
prophecies is found in our free book
The United States and Britain in
Prophecy.
For the time being, watch
the military situation in Western
Europe very closely. When Europe
becomes a military superpower, the
end of the world as we know it could
be very near.
o
Tite PLAIN TRUTH