PCG's Germany-is-more-powerful-than-the-US Myth

In Gerald Flurry's article Germany Rules the Balkans he accuses Germany of having greater will to do what it wants than the US. Germany is portrayed as active. The US is portrayed as hopelessly passive and drunkenly meandering to destruction.

Germany was so determined to recognize Croatia! But why would the U.S. support such a move? At first, America did not. But that quickly changed once Germany flexed its political muscle. ... Germany forced the issue and revealed how weak America and the West really are!

If the US is really as weak as it is portrayed by Flurry then why is it that the US invaded Iraq in 2003 over Germany's opposition? Where was Germany's power in 2003?

Why is the US intervening in Libya while Germany has expressed reluctance about this decision? Where is Germany's power?

PCG has a prophetic scenario and they relentlessly push this viewpoint in every Philadelphia Trumpet magazine. Contrary facts be damned.

PCG's Support for Serbia in the Yugoslav Wars

Last Thursday I heard the news that Ratko Mladic has been captured by Serbia and will soon be extradited to the Hague.

This reminds me of PCG's stand concerning the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. PCG has long viewed the Yugoslav Wars as German imperialist bullying of a nation (Serbia) which had been the ally of the USA and Britain in both world wars. Hence PCG has long viewed Western intervention in that conflict very negatively.

This attitude may clear be seen in these articles published in 2002 Germany Rules the Balkans, which discusses the Yugoslav Wars of 1991-5 and The Kosovo Disaster which concerns the Kosovo conflict in 1999. Here Germany and the Vatican are accussed of using NATO and the USA of intervening against Serbia simply to expand Germany's power in the Balkans.

Here's a sample from the second article:

The Serbs fought on our side in two world wars, and Germany fought against us in both of those wars. How strange to see that alliance reversed today....The only real winner in 1999’s war in Yugoslavia was Germany. Time will show that America and Britain were the great losers. The Kosovo conflict made them weaker as Germany grew in power....

Germany recognized these breakaway republics and then supported them with troops and armaments. America (and almost the whole world) strongly opposed Germany’s plans in the beginning. But the U.S. weakened and then even decided to support Germany in its war to control the Balkans!

Now why is it that the West chose to intervene against Serbia then?

It is universally acknowledged that all sides in that war committed atrocities.
However it was the Serbian army which committed more atrocities than any other side. That is why Western opinion was so negative towards the Serbs.

This fact is succinctly expressed by Professor Sumantra Bose.

the overall picture is unmistakable. Bosnia's Muslims, about 45 per cent of the population [of Bosnia], account for two-thirds of the total deaths and - most telling - a staggering 83 per cent of the civilian dead.

There is thus no doubt whatsoever as to which community suffered the most in the Bosnian war, just as there is no doubt that the atrocities committed by the Bosnian Serb army and allied paramilitaries were significantly more widespread and more systematic than those perpetrated by the belligerents of the other two sides [the Croats and Bosnian Muslims].

Moreover, most of the worst atrocities of the war were perpetrated by Bosnian Serbs - the violent uprooting of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims from in and around the north-western Bosnian town of Prijedor in the summer of 1992, the punitive attacks on Sarajevo over more than three years, the Srebrenica killings in the summer of 1995. (The Devolution of Ratko Mladic.)

That is the real reason why Western opinion is so negative concerning the Serb armies and paramilitaries in that war.

But these painful facts are completely absent in Gerald Flurry's Germany Rules the Balkans. Assuming that Germany will become an evil European Empire the PCG leadership chose to ignore the terrible atrocities which Serbian military forces committed and opposed intervention. They chose to oppose supposed German bullying and ignore these terrible events.

As for myself I am very glad that Mladic has been arrested so that he may answer for his alleged crimes. So often I read about the Yugoslav Wars and it was dutifully mentioned that Mladic was still evading justice. It is very good that that fact has been changed and that Mladic will be held accountable for what happened then.

PCG is Blind to the Hopes of the Arab Awakening

PCG has viewed the historic protests in the Arab world very negatively. No doubt this is caused due to the Armstrongite teaching that an Islamic Caliphate will rise up and assume great power, until it provokes the European Empire into conquering it in a blitzkrieg attack. PCG are afraid that these protests will cause the Muslim world to unify into a mighty Caliphate which, according to PCG, is to be dominated by Iran. Therefore PCG are quite negative towards the protests.

I think it is very sad that these persons have chosen to view the extraordinary events in this highly pessimistic manner.

Before the revolution began I was aware that human rights protections were not the strong point of many Arab governments. Before 2011 reading about events in the Middle East was, while very interesting, was also terribly pessimistic. I was aware that torture of prisoners and detainees did not occur just in Iraq but occurred in many Arab countries. I heard about an Egyptian taxi driver suing the police for torturing him. As I read stories about the Middle East I was struck how so often I heard that prisoners are tortured.

No wonder so many of them have chosen to rise up and protest against the many injustices that the people are forced to endure at the hands of dictatorial rulers.

Contrary to what PCG teaches I feel that these protests are very good. It is great that the people of Tunisia decided they had enough of being exploited by the Ben Ali regime. From what I hear it sounds like Tunisia was a hopelessly corrupt society, with a large share of the nation's wealth being cunningly diverted to the well connected while the rest are casually left to rot. No wonder they protested.

But PCG does not care about these things. They are worried that it will lead to an Iranian dominated Caliphate.

From what I hear it sounds like Egypt was also hopelessly corrupt. Police had free license to torture detainees, or even kill people. No wonder the Egyptian people revolted.

But PCG does not care about these things. They fret that the USA 'betrayed' a friend in Hosni Mubarak. What about the over 800 people murdered by security forces to protect Mubarak's hide? Are they are not a good reason for the US to disassociate itself from his regime? Does the blood of 800 count for so little among Gerald Flurry and his close associates?

Also note how the US, Britain and France united together to oppose the murderous Gaddafi regime. I remember during the build up to the Iraq War France and Germany bluntly disagreed with the US's decision to invade Iraq. The COGs taught that this was merely the beginning of further isolation for the US, ending in national conquest. That France and Germany's opposition signaled the beginning of a hostile relationship with the EU that will end in war.

Today, the USA, Britain and France are united together in military operations against Gaddafi. This is yet another false prediction made by Armstrongites that have hopelessly failed.

PCG portrays the Egyptian revolution as an event which will cause Iran to prosper. PCG exploited Iran's support for the Egyptian revolution as a sign that we should be afraid of it. Just a few months afterward the people of Syria rise up against the notoriously despotic Baathist regime of Bashar al-Assad. Even before the revolution I knew of Syria as an austere, dictatorial society. It is ruled by a dictatorial regime dominated by the Baath Party, the same Party of which Saddam Hussein belonged to, although those two regimes hated each other despite their common origins.

Iran is closely allied with Syria. So naturally Iran opposed the Syrian uprising. How do these Syrian protests help create an Islamic Caliphate since Iran oppose them?

My heart just breaks knowing about the terrible things the Assad regime is inflicting upon its people. Especially because at first many were highly skeptical that protests would occur there. I hope that justice is done for the protesters who have lost their lives in the uprising. No wonder so many there are willing to risk everything to protest against these intolerable injustices. May the Assad regime soon fall.

I think it is an act of inexcusable ignorance for the PCG leadership to view these tremendous and historic events as simply a stepping stone in the rise to power of Iran and therefore it must be feared and opposed. It is evidence of the moral blindness of the PCG leadership and further evidence that they must not be listened to.

Tornado in Joplin, Missouri

I heard about the terrible destruction that occurred due to a tornado in Joplin, Missouri which killed about 124 people. It is very sad to know that such things have been happening.

When I heard of this I could not help but remember that this city was where Roderick C. Meredith grew up in. The land of his nativity, so to speak.

I wish all those affected by that terrible tornado the best of wishes and hope that Joplin will revive once again.

Porn Found in bin Laden's Compound

I was quite amused to learn that among the treasure trove of intelligence which US forces took from Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad was a "fairly extensive" collection of pornography.

Reuters broke the story.

Has the Pride of America's Power Been Broken?

I remember after September 11 how the COGs explained this event as simply the start of the fall of the Israelite nations which will lead to the Great Tribulation. The COGs warned us that things will get much, much worse, indeed, the political situation would deteriorate to such an extent that all of humanity would be wiped out, but this would only stop because of Jesus Christ's return.

Roderick C. Meredith mentioned Osama bin Laden near the beginning of his booklet, Who or What is the Antichrist?, which was published around 2002.

Horrifying events are beginning to happen in America and much of the western, professing "Christian" world. The destruction of the Twin Towers in New York, and the devastation of the Pentagon in Washington, DC, focused the minds of millions on Bible prophecy. They now wonder: "What is God's purpose in all of this?"

Indeed, prophesied events are truly speeding up. As Jesus instructed, we all need to "watch and pray." For—within this generation—truly awful, Satan-inspired tragedies will begin to strike much of humanity. The "Antichrist" will be directly behind many of these events!

After September 11, 2001, many began to wonder: is the sinister Osama bin Laden the prophesied end-time "Antichrist"?

(Meredith teaches that the Antichrist is the final Pope, as Herbert Armstrong taught.)

I also recall reading the November 2001 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet published by PCG during those terrible days.

Well the prophetic scenario created by Herbert Armstrong has hopelessly failed many times and now the murderer Osama bin Laden has been killed by US forces.

Does this mean the pride of America's power has not yet been broken as the Armstrongites tell us?

(But it must be remembered that Anglo-Saxons and Celts are not related to Jews as the doctrine of British-Israelism, which Herbert Armstrong plagiarized, falsely teaches.)

I well recall how LCG's so-called Bible Study Course insinuated that Christ would return by 2017. Back in 2000-1 this seemed quite possible to me, especially after 9/11. But it is simply another Armstrongite false prophecy. Looking at that prediction now it is impossible to believe, especially coming from the followers of a man (Herbert Armstrong) who said Christ would return in 1936, then after World War II, then in 1975, then by 2005.

Thoughts On Osama bin Laden's Death

I wish he renounced his terrorism. But that did not happen.

I wish he was captured alive and put on trial and convicted for his crimes. But that did not happen.

I am glad he lived to see the Arab Awakening currently shaking the Arab world.

When I saw the momentous events in Tunisia and Egypt and elsewhere I often thought to myself, "Ha! Take that Al Qaeda! They did not need you to overthrow their oppressors."

The No. 2 man in Al Qaeda, Zawahiri, long strived to overthrow the Mubarak regime. And then in 2011, after 18 days of popular uprisings, Mubarak was overthrown. The Egyptian people did not need Al Qaeda's help.

It is good that those who have suffered because of this evil man have been avenged.

Osama bin Laden was an evil man. He created and embraced and propagated an insane ideology that permitted the murder of innocents. He had no regard for the collateral damage of his terrorist activities directed against civilians. He selfishly believed that his grievances against the USA, against Muslim majority governments he regarded as apostate and compromising, gave him license to kill off anyone, in order to intimidate those he hated. He willfully decided that there are no innocents therefore it is permitted to kill anyone to pursue his objectives. He arbitrarily decided that he had the right to murder anyone in order to pursue his objectives.

It is good that he will no longer harm anyone.

The world is better off without him. I am sorry to speak of a human being in that way, but I will make an exception for him because he was a murderer. He had no fear of taking innocent blood. Such a thing is monstrous.