FINAL STATUS TALKS ON FASTRACK

1-WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS.2-Earthquake felt in Ohio. 3-Fifty die as snow blankets Kashmir, rains pound northern India. 4-Rains pound southwestern B.C. 5-The Nation's Weather. 6-Orange County fire 80% contained, fire officials say. 7-King City breaks 84-year heat record. 8-Record Breaking Temperatures 9-Israel cautiously open to Arab peace plan. 10-Hamas Re-Assures Al Qaeda It Wants to Destroy Israel. 11-Explanation of Iraq War. 12-Bowing to Washington, Olmert agrees to go directly and unconditionally to final-status talks with Palestinians

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

WORLD QUAKES LAST 2 DAYS (USGS)

Update time = Wed Mar 14 12:00 AM EDT

MAR 13,07
MAP 5.0 NORTHERN PERU
MAP 2.6 BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO
MAP 3.0 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 2.8 GULF OF ALASKA
MAP 5.5 SUMBAWA REGION, INDONESIA
MAP 3.0 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 5.3 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 5.4 KEPULAUAN TALAUD, INDONESIA
MAP 3.4 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.7 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 6.0 GULF OF CALIFORNIA
MAP 5.2 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 2.7 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.5 CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

MAR 12,07
MAP 4.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.6 OHIO
MAP 5.6 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 4.5 OFFSHORE GUATEMALA
MAP 5.1 BABUYAN ISLANDS REGION, PHILIPPINES
MAP 2.6 HAWAII REGION, HAWAII
MAP 2.9 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.8 RAT ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.7 TAJIKISTAN
MAP 4.8 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION
MAP 2.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 5.8 SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS
MAP 4.6 COLOMBIA
MAP 5.5 SOUTHEAST INDIAN RIDGE
MAP 4.9 MOLUCCA SEA
MAP 3.0 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 2.9 CHANNEL ISLANDS REGION, CALIFORNIA
MAP 3.0 UNIMAK ISLAND REGION, ALASKA
MAP 4.5 TONGA
MAP 2.6 NEVADA
MAP 4.7 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION
MAP 5.6 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION

MAR 11,07
MAP 2.5 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
MAP 2.7 FOX ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN ISLANDS, ALASKA
MAP 4.5 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS
MAP 4.9 TONGA
MAP 5.0 LIBERTADOR O'HIGGINS, CHILE
MAP 2.7 PUERTO RICO
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 4.9 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.9 MOUNT ST. HELENS AREA, WASHINGTON
MAP 3.0 PUERTO RICO
MAP 2.7 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 5.8 KURIL ISLANDS
MAP 2.6 SOUTHERN ALASKA
MAP 3.1 ALASKA PENINSULA
MAP 3.7 ANDREANOF ISLANDS, ALEUTIAN IS., ALASKA
MAP 2.5 NEW YORK
MAP 3.6 PUERTO RICO REGION
MAP 4.9 IZU ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
MAP 3.4 BERING SEA

Earthquake felt in Ohio Mon Mar 12, 10:40 PM ET

TWINSBURG, Ohio - A rare northeast Ohio earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 3.6, was felt near the epicenter but caused no major damage. The quake was recorded at 7:18 p.m. outside Twinsburg, which is about 16 miles southeast of Cleveland. Most reports from people who felt the quake came from Twinsburg and nearby Stow and Aurora, said Michael Hansen, coordinator of the Ohio Seismic Network.

This isn't an area where we commonly have earthquakes, he said.Other than a television knocked off its stand, there were no reports of damage.Ohio's largest recorded earthquake registered 5.4 in 1937 in Shelby County, a rural area between Toledo and Dayton.

STORMS HURRICANES-TORNADOES

LUKE 21:25-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity;(MASS CONFUSION) the sea and the waves roaring;(FIERCE WINDS)
26 Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

Fifty die as snow blankets Kashmir, rains pound northern India MAR 13,07

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) - At least 50 people were killed as snow engulfed Kashmir and torrential rains pounded the rest of northern India, officials said Tuesday. Some 28 people were killed and 25 others received burn injuries in separate lightning strikes in Uttar Pradesh as rains crippled life in the populous northern Indian state, they said.Seventeen people, including two children and a soldier died in landslides, cold and floods in Indian Kashmir and its summer capital Srinagar reported its heaviest March snowfall in 15 years, weather officials said.Five other weather-related casualties were reported from other parts of northern India, lashed by rains since Friday.In Kashmir, five Hindu pilgrims trekking to a snowbound shrine high in the Himalayas froze to death.

A police patrol discovered the five bodies huddled together Monday in a shelter built to protect travellers to the Vaishno Devi shrine.All five pilgrims died of hypothermia as they weren't wearing enough clothes and heavy snow had brought down temperatures, said Puneet Kumar, a senior official at the shrine.Another 13 people suffered hypothermia injuries. Nine were in critical condition but were recovering fast in hospital, the official said.The dead were all from Uttar Pradesh, and officials said they had underestimated the cold at that time of year in Kashmir where the mercury regularly falls below zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit).Ten more people died due to hypothermia, landslides and caving in of structures across the state, a police officer said while rescue officials reported another two deaths in the snowbound region.

Snowstorms have paralysed life in revolt-hit Kashmir, shutting schools, knocking out power and telephone lines and closing the region's main highway, police said.The main highway has been shut due to heavy snow and nearly 800 vehicles are stranded, police officer Abdul Hameed told AFP.

Labourers were using bulldozers, snow removal machines and shovels to open up the 300-kilometre (186-mile) highway, the main route for supplies to the Kashmir valley from state winter capital Jammu and the rest of the subcontinent.It may take us a few days to restore power supply in the valley, senior engineer Nissar Ahmed said.Offices in the region were still open but many people were late as they had to walk through the thick blanket of snow.Earlier this month, India's air force airlifted to safety more than 5,000 people stranded for days in sub-zerotemperatures on the main highway by avalanches and landslides.The Indian army has a strong presence in Kashmir where it is fighting to suppress a deadly Islamic separatist insurgency that has raged since 1989.

Rains pound southwestern B.C.
Last Updated: Monday, March 12, 2007 CBC News

Roads were flooded and rivers were threatening to overflow their banks in parts of southwestern British Columbia Monday following a weekend downpour.

The rain caused a temporary storm sewer pipe on Cambie Street to back up between Broadway and 10th avenues in Vancouver Sunday, flooding the Canada Line rapid-transit project excavation trench, washing out a steel beam and utility supports. Heavy rain caused flooding in downtown Vancouver.(CBC) The water also flooded the nearby Best Thai restaurant.Crews closed Cambie Street, northbound and southbound, with traffic being rerouted around the washout. The street was expected to reopen Monday.A spokeswoman for the rapid-transit project said construction was not expected to be delayed significantly.The rain also caused a couple of mudslides across the rail tracks in the Crescent Beach area of White Rock.

Flood warning

Environment Canada issued a flood warning for the Coquitlam and Nicomeckl rivers. More than 170 millimetres of rain was recorded at the Coquitlam Dam Forebay over the weekend.While the rain ended overnight, Surrey RCMP said driving was hazardous in low-lying areas, warning that water-filled ditches could flood roads.A number of roads were closed, including Highway 10 in the Cloverdale area of Surrey and the Maryhill bypass in Port Coquitlam.The downpour was also blamed for a mudslide that closed the Trans-Canada Highway from Rosedale to Hope and east of Hope to Jackass Mountain because of falling rock.On Vancouver Island, a flood watch was in effect as water levels in the Cowichan, Chemainus and Englishman rivers rose.As the rain let up, a wind warning was issued for much of B.C.'s South Coast. That order was lifted Monday morning.

The Nation's Weather By WEATHER UNDERGROUND, For The Associated Press
Tue Mar 13, 6:00 AM ET

Unseasonably warm and dry air settled across most of the nation early Tuesday, although rain and thunderstorms whipped across the southern Plains and Mississippi Delta. In the Northeast, temperatures were expected to rise well above normal, with highs in the 60s expected in New York and New Jersey, and the upper 70s for the mid-Atlantic and Southeast.The heat also will continue out West, with temperatures in Southern California remaining in the upper 80s and low 90s, which combined with continued dry weather and gusty winds will set the stage for another day of dangerous fire weather.The largest threat for strong storms exists from central Texas south and east to the Gulf Coast as warm afternoon temperatures and humid air provide the conditions ripe for storm development.In the Northwest, showers and high elevation snow showers were to continue, and, late in the day, light rain or snow could start up in the northern Plains.Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Monday ranged from a low of 8 degrees at Whitefield, N.H., to a high of 98 degrees at Riverside, Calif.

Orange County fire 80% contained, fire officials say
By Janet Wilson, David Haldane and Greg Krikorian, LA Times Staff Writers
8:15 AM PDT, March 12, 2007

Unfriendly fireAided by higher humidity and cooler temperatures, firefighters overnight made dramatic strides in containing an arson fire in Orange and Anaheim Hills, authorities said today.The fire, which had charred 2,000 acres of brush and prompted evacuations of more than 1,200 people on Sunday, was reported as 80% contained, Capt. Stephen Miller of the Orange County Fire Authority said at a news conference broadcast this morning. He estimated the fire would be fully contained by 6 a.m. Tuesday.Everything is looking good in our favor now, he said.Authorities said that evacuations in some areas would remain in effect until later today.

Firefighters were hopeful no setbacks would be suffered from today's weather, which is predicted to again produce record breaking heat and strong winds.The winds in what is shaping up as one of the driest years ever in Southern California fed flames on Sunday that destroyed one structure and damaged three more, including two homes.The blaze was triggered before 8 a.m. by a fire that began in an abandoned car that was stolen and wound up in a roadside ditch, Miller said.

The vehicle was intentionally set on fire, Miller said this morning. This is an arson fire.More than 800 firefighters battled the flames, which at midafternoon darkened the skies over much of north Orange County with towering black columns of smoke.One of the firefighters' key adversaries was Sunday's scorching heat. Temperatures hit record highs for a March 11 at many spots in the Southland, including a midafternoon 97-degree reading in nearby Fullerton, making it the nation's hot spot for the day. Fullerton's previous record high of 84 was set in 1959.A red flag warning, based on the forecast of more brisk winds and single-digit humidity, was issued.This is classic Santa Ana fire season, and it's exacerbated because everything is so crispy because it's been such a dry winter, said William

Patzert, a climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Caada Flintridge. It's definitely scary. The blaze named the Windy Ridge fire quickly scaled the ridge and destroyed dozens of acres near the toll road. By noon, as winds gusted and temperatures steadily rose, the fire was threatening enough for authorities to begin evacuating the residents of more than 500 homes.

By 10 p.m., most of the evacuees were allowed to return to their homes.One of those who fled was Theresa Sears, 51, a longtime resident of Orange Park Acres, an equestrian community at the edge of Orange.I smelled smoke about 8 o'clock in the morning, and we started taking the horses out about 10 in the morning, she said. All my friends came and helped me so I could stay in my house. We loaded up the horses. We loaded up the goats. We loaded up the chickens, the dogs and the cats. Sears stayed put until about 1 p.m. But, with firefighters nearby, she said, They didn't have to tell me to leave. The flames were so severe I knew it was time to go. Her home, however, was coated with foam by firefighters and saved.Most of the people living along Santiago Creek were ordered to evacuate Sunday afternoon, but some stayed home to keep an eye on the fire themselves.Even after authorities had blocked off roads near his Mabury Ranch neighborhood in Orange, defense contractor Vern Green, 58, sneaked behind law enforcement lines to pack up his things.When they tap into the fire hydrant by my house, that's our signal to leave, Green said. Authorities said the two damaged houses appeared to be the only ones in the area with wood-shake roofs. Neither, officials said, was seriously damaged.

But one structure, possibly a corral, was destroyed, and another outbuilding was damaged.Miller said two firefighters, the only people hurt, suffered minor injuries. He offered no prediction as to when the fire would be fully contained.Weather records were being set all over Orange County. Yorba Linda reached 95 degrees, 11 degrees above the record for the day; the Santa Ana fire station near John Wayne Airport reached 92 degrees, versus the normal high of 66 degrees.

Single-digit humidity levels compared to a norm of around 40% to 50% this time of year, officials said.Firefighters were also frustrated by winds blowing steadily at 29 mph and gusting up to 49 mph. Authorities at the fire scene said humidity fell to 9%, while weather officials reported that humidity in Fullerton dipped to as low as 4%.In Los Angeles County, temperatures were 20 to 25 degrees above normal. The county's hottest weather was in Long Beach, which reached 94 degrees, surging past the former high of 87 degrees set in 1959. Downtown posted a high of 92, only one degree below its record high.

Elsewhere, Southern California residents who started the morning by fast-forwarding to daylight saving time relished a day that felt more like June than mid-March.In Riverside County near Corona, a Sunday afternoon brush fire flared to 500 acres in the hilly terrain around the wildlife habitat of Lake Mathews Reserve.

It was 25% contained by 9 p.m.One hundred firefighters labored to contain the blaze, dubbed the Sierra fire. No homes were threatened or roads closed, said Capt. Julie Hutchinson of the Riverside County Fire Department.Until we get that line all the way around it, there's still that potential to spread, Hutchinson said.Weather forecasters have said that this unusually long fire season probably will continue, in large part because of the dry conditions.Only about 2.40 inches of rain had fallen on downtown Los Angeles since July 1, and forecasters say no sign of rain is in sight.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's weather models suggest that a La Nina climate pattern an abnormal cooling of water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific is emerging, continuing the drought-like conditions. janet.wilson@latimes.com.david.haldane@latimes.com.greg.krikorian@latimes.com.Times staff writers Stuart Silverstein, William Heisel, Howard Blume, Deborah Schoch, Susannah Rosenblatt and Adrian G. Uribarri contributed to this report

King City breaks 84-year heat record
By SUNITA VIJAYAN The Salinas Californian

Several Monterey County cities today broke decade-old record temperatures, the National Weather Service in Monterey said, and one crested a record set more than 80 years ago.Forecaster Diane Henderson said temperatures in King City hit 93 degrees, breaking the 1923 record of 92 degrees.

Salinas recorded a high of 85 degrees, breaking its 1994 record of 80 degrees.In Monterey, she said, temperatures reached 78 degrees, enough to break its 1993 record of 77 degrees.The highest temperature within the area was in Bradley, with 98 degrees.

Record Breaking Temperatures MAR 12,07

The gusty wind disguised the fact that the mercury was rising, and believe it or not we managed to break some records around Southern Saskatchewan. Environment Canada was calling for a high of 16 degrees Monday, and we surpassed that high and set a new record high beating the old record set March 12th, 1910.

Bob Cormier with Environment Canada. Moose Jaw with a temperature of 17.8 eclipsed the old mark of 14.3. Some of the nearby spots like Swift Current reached 18.4 beating the previous record of 16.1 set back in 1914. Assiniboia made some history, too. They saw the temperature get up to 18.8 which beat the record high of 15.5 set in 1992.

Israel cautiously open to Arab peace plan by Yana Dlugy
Mon Mar 12, 9:36 AM ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israel said on Monday it was cautiously open to an Arab peace initiative, amid reports that secret talks are being held with the aim of jump-starting the stalled Middle East peace process. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the so-called Saudi initiative on a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace deal had some good points, but needed work.There are positive elements in the Saudi initiative, but some of its clauses are contrary to the principle of two states, Livni told Israeli public radio from Washington where she is visiting.Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday that Israel was ready to take seriously the peace plan and hoped an Arab summit on March 28 in Saudi Arabia would bolster its positive elements.We sincerely hope that at the summit of the Arab leaders in Riyadh the positive element in the Saudi initiative will be emphasized and would maybe allow an
opportunity to strengthen the chances for negotiations with the Palestinians on its basis, Olmert said.

The Saudi plan calls for the Arab world to fully normalise its relations with Israel in return for the Jewish state withdrawing from all occupied Arab territory and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.Livni said the initiative contained two additional clauses very problematic for Israel concerning the right of return of Palestinian refugees.One calls for the return of Palestinians who fled or were forced out in 1948, the other rules out their permanent settlement in the Arab states where they or their descendants currently live.Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter told reporters on Monday that a peace agreement with the Palestinians was now much likelier than another cycle of violence.If we did it in 1993, I'm sure there is a strong possibility to repeat it again, he said.

The Israeli statements come amid reports that Livni has been holding secret talks with the Palestinians aimed at breathing life into a peace process that has been largely dormant since 2003.

Palestinian sources told AFP on Sunday that Livni has in recent weeks met twice with Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and Salam Fayyad, a former Palestinian finance minister.The secret talks have touched on the thorniest issues between the two sides, including the final borders of the Palestinians' promised state and the fate of refugees and Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, the sources said.A Livni aide told AFP that secret contacts were under way with the Palestinians, but denied they were being used as a separate channel for negotiations.

There are occasional exchanges, but they are not continuous, so there are no negotiations, he said. Abbas has on several occasions said that he favoured a parallel channel of talks with Israel, like the secret talks that resulted in the 1993 Oslo accords that paved the way for limited Palestinian autonomy.The liberal Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel's top ally the United States which has
increased its diplomatic efforts in the region in recent months was holding separate talks with the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia ahead of the Riyadh summit.

It said, without providing a source, that Saudi National Security Advisor Prince Bandar bin Sultan met Olmert in Jordan last year and was currently in Washington at the same time as Livni. In December, Israeli media reported that Olmert had met a senior Saudi official in Jordan, a report both Riyadh and Amman branded as false. Olmert told reporters at the time: We have decided that on this subject, I am going to deliver a denial but you don't have to believe it... On other matters, believe all my denials.Progress on the Palestinian front would provide a vital lifeline to Olmert, whose ratings have sunk to unprecedented lows following last summer's inconclusive war in Lebanon and corruption allegations just two percent of Israelis now say they trust him.

Hamas Re-Assures Al Qaeda It Wants to Destroy Israel
22 Adar 5767, March 12, '07

(IsraelNN.com) Hamas officials have reassured Al Qaeda that it wants to destroy Israel. Hamas spokesmen reacted to a statement, made on Sunday by Ayman al-Zawahri, second-in-command in the Al Qaeda terrorist network, accusing Hamas of surrendering to American interests by agreeing to sit with the Fatah in a Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government.

We will not betray promises we made to G-d to continue the path of Jihad and resistance until the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine, Hamas said in a statement. Al Zawahri charged that the agreement hammered out in Mecca for a unity government was an American scheme to hit the Islamic jihadist resistance against the Crusader-Zionist campaign. He added that Hamas has ditched the movement of martyrdom operations ... for a government that plays with words in palace halls.Hamas terrorists have killed approximately 300 Israelis in 58 suicide bombings since the Oslo War broke out in 2000. Hamas replied to Al Qaeda that it continues to be a movement of resistance, seekers of martyrdom. The statement added, So be assured doctor Ayman, and all those who love Palestine like yourself, that Hamas is still the group you knew when it was founded and it will never abandon its path.

Explanation of Iraq War.
MAR 13,07 Raymond S Kraft

SOME OF YOU ARE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT NEARLY EVERY FAMILY IN AMERICA WAS GROSSLY AFFECTED BY WW II . MOST OF YOU DON'T REMEMBER THE RATIONING OF MEAT, SHOES, GASOLINE, AND SUGAR. NO TIRES FOR OUR AUTOMOBILES, AND A SPEED LIMIT OF 35 MILES AN HOUR ON THE ROAD, NOT TO MENTION, NO NEW AUTOMOBILES. READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT HOW WE WOULD REACT TO BEING TAKEN OVER BY FOREIGNERS IN 2007.

This is an EXCELLENT essay. Well thought out and presented.

Historical Significance

Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials.

At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us . It was a dicey thing We had few allies . France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers . Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia.

Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe.America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with tank painted on the doors because they didn't have real tanks A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).

Actually, Belgium surrendered on one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could.Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later.

Hitler, first turned his attention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England was on the verge of collapse.

Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany.Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone . . . 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiersHad Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war.All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world .

The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs they believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel , and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra. (goal).

There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East for the most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists. If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US , European, and Asian economies. The techno-industrialeconomies will be at the mercy of OPEC not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins. If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.

We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a time and place of our choosing . . . . . . . . in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things.

(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades Saddam is a terrorist! Saddam is, or was, a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians.

(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there we won't have to get here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed .

WW II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a whimper in 1928 It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before the US joined it.

It officially ended in 1945 a 17 year war and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own a gain a 27 year war.WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have been unimaginably greater -- a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.

The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it.If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world. The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons. Unless some body prevents them from getting them.

We have four options:

1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.

2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).

3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.

OR

4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.

If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today. The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.Remember, perspective is every thing, and America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years! Europe spent the first half of the
19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!

World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation, and the US still has troops in Germany and Japan World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.

The US has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.In WW II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.The stakes are at least as high . . A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . . or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.

Peace Activists always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe.Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran , Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed! The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc . , but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.

Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy!

Raymond S. Kraft is a writer living in Northern California that has studied the Middle Eastern culture and religion.

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Bowing to Washington, Olmert agrees to go directly and unconditionally to final-status talks with Palestinians March 11, 2007, 11:45 PM (GMT+02:00)

Prime minister Ehud Olmert conceded key Israeli policy points in his talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem Sunday, March 11, according to DEBKAfile’s Middle East and Washington sources – contrary to advance statements from his office that the meeting was only a formality. Last week, Bush administration officials notified Olmert’s senor aides Yoram Turbovitch and Shalom Turjman in Washington that the wait for the Palestinians to comply with roadmap conditions to recognize Israel and renounce violence was at an end. Whether a Palestinian government was led by Hamas or shared with Fatah, they were told, Israel must now initiate final settlement talks with Abbas. Saudi and Jordanian leaders had won President George W. Bush over on this point as leverage for cooperation on the Iraq and Iranian issues..

At the Sunday cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, the prime minister therefore announced he was seriously considering accepting the 2002 Saudi peace plan. He already knew the Saudis had informed the White House that the plan would not be revised at the coming Arab summit in Riyadh on March 28. This means that Olmert has agreed to rescind the road map’s conditions for peace talks in favor of the tough Saudi peace plan. It was left to Abbas to run down for Olmert’s benefit the steps expected from Israel, now that the road map’s provisions were out of the way:

1. The Israeli government must pledge unconditionally that the IDF will refrain from attacking the Gaza Strip. Abbas called this a mutual ceasefire although he offered no guarantee for the Palestinian termination of missile fire or other terrorist attacks emanating form the Gaza Strip.After the Olmert-Abbas talks, Israeli officials spread reports of an Israel military alert in the area around the Gaza Strip in an effort to lay a smokescreen to conceal the prime minister’s concession.

2. Abbas said he would do his best to obtain the release of Hamas hostage Gilead Shalit, but offered no promises.

3. The mutual ceasefire is the first step to fast-track Israel-Palestinian negotiations on its extension to the West Bank. DEBKAfile reports that Israeli military and intelligence chiefs are trying to impress on the prime minister that the cessation of Israel’s intense counter-terror operations on the West Bank will result in an eruption of a fresh wave of Palestinian suicide bombings inside Israel and the transfer of Palestinian missiles and rockets to launching positions opposite central Israel, including its main cities.

4. Security restrictions on Palestinian movements in the West Bank must be further relaxed.

5. In May or June of 2007, Israel will enter into direct negotiations with the Palestinians on a final-status framework. Since the road map was formulated, Abbas has lobbied hard to skip the document’s prior condition for an end to Palestinian violence as the sine qua non for talks on a final settlement. Now the Palestinian leader has got is way.

6. Abbas voiced the hope that Israel’s flexibility in negotiating with the Palestinians would be rewarded by the willingness of moderate Arab and Muslim nations, like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, to establish diplomatic and open economic relations with the Jewish state.

DEBKAfile’s sources note that the Olmert-Abbas conversation did not discuss the role to be played by Hamas in the diplomatic process dictated the Israeli government, when it heads the Palestinian government. Also left up in the air was the framework in which the moderate Arab and Muslim governments would normalize their relations with Israel. This would call for amendments of the Saudi peace plan. However, Riyadh has informed Washington that no such amendments would be tabled at the coming Arab summit.