That the world’s most powerful navy lacks willpower isn’t the only prophetic revelation Somalia’s pirates are exposing.
Germany’s response has been almost precisely opposite to America’s. The nation is up in arms. It is charging to the forefront of a European Union move to use piracy to justify dramatically stepping up its naval power.
In December, Europe’s foreign ministers launched the EU’s first-ever naval intervention, called Operation Atalanta. It is a huge step forward for the European Security and Defense Policy, a major instrument in giving Europe a unified military identity distinct from nato. For some time, the German military has wanted to expand its authority to hunt pirates on the high seas, but has been hindered by legal constraints. Operation Atalanta circumvents these legal obstacles, since Germany’s constitution allows for such military activity within the context of a “system of collective security.”
Berlin has approved deploying German warships to support the effort. Still, military officials say Atalanta’s mandate is not broad enough, and they are asking for more: the authority to aggressively pursue pirates. These hawks have plenty of supporters in the German government, as well as among the press and public. “Nearly unanimously, the media [are] calling for the Bundeswehr to operate as ‘robustly’ as possible against the pirates” German-Foreign-Policy.com said (Dec. 10, 2008). The situation is showing just how much the German public has overcome its skittishness about taking military action.
Germany has milked this same stratagem for years. Using a unified Europe as its cloak, and pointing to rising global security needs—some of which have been of its own making—Germany has gradually restored its legitimacy as a military power. This trend will continue, as pretenses for Berlin to expand its armed forces and increase its deployments multiply. The prophetic significance of this development won’t be lost on our regular readers, nor on students of Germany’s military history.
But perhaps more astonishing has been the United Kingdom’s response to the Somalian piracy.
It appears Britain couldn’t be more excited about the prospect of joining Europe’s effort to fight Somali pirates, particularly since a Briton will be captaining it. Rear Adm. Phil Jones, whom the EU tapped to command the action, called it “something of a privilege for the UK to be asked to lead such a milestone operation and it is an important step in reassuring the international shipping community that something is being done to protect our maritime interests.”
Here are a few reasons why that statement is so appalling.
Britain had already been fighting pirates off the coast of Somalia. Its frigate hms Cumberland had been deployed there under the nato umbrella. But it and three other nato vessels have been replaced by the EU’s Operation Atalanta, which includes Britain’s hms Northumberland.
In essence, Britain is exchanging one frigate for another, expressly for the “privilege” of sailing for the first time under an EU flag, subject to EU political control!
In lieu of backing the Atlantic alliance, Britain is supporting the EU’s vainglorious effort to forge its own military identity—one that European leaders have openly stated is intended to check the power of Britain’s strongest ally, the United States.
And Britain can hardly spare an extra ship. hms Northumberland is one of only seven British warships capable of deployment right now. This frigate is actually being diverted for this mission to benefit Germany primarily. It had been slated to head for the South Atlantic—in order to secure the Falkland Islands.
Guess what happened the last time Britain reduced its naval presence there? It withdrew the ice patrol vessel hms Endurance from the seas around the Falklands in 1982. The Argentine military took the opportunity to invade. The Falklands War resulted.
The Falklands are a highly strategic sea gate guarding passage of sea traffic between the South Pacific and southern Atlantic oceans and the Antarctic. Britain has claimed them since 1690 and defended its claim multiple times, in keeping with a prophecy that the end-time nations of Israel, of which Britain is a main one, would “possess the gate of his enemies.” But prophecy also showed that a rebellious Britain would lose those gates (e.g. Deuteronomy 28:52). And so it has, one by one. Consequently, we have been watching for the Falklands to fall for some years.
Now, since the warship that Britain was going to send there will be tied up on an EU mission, it is instead sending a Royal Fleet Auxiliary landing ship with a crew of civilian sailors—easy pickings should anyone decide it’s finally time to pry the Falklands from British hands.
That Britain would choose the German-inspired piracy mission over protecting the Falklands is ghastly. “What on Earth are we doing putting EU flag-waving ahead of our own security priorities?” the Tory shadow defense secretary Liam Fox asked. Excellent question. “It is outrageous that the British government would ever diminish the protection of our strategic interests in order to pay homage to the politics of the EU,” he said (Telegraph.co.uk, Dec. 7, 2008).
How far Britain has fallen from the days of Pax Britannia! The Royal Navy once forged the British Empire—it extended and defined British power around the world. Under Lord Salisbury, the law mandated that it be larger than the world’s next two largest navies combined!
Today’s navy is like that of the past only in name. “The Royal Navy has been pared to the bone,” a senior naval source told the Telegraph. “In any shooting war with a serious enemy the Royal Navy would cease to exist within a few weeks”(ibid.).
That the EU is encouraging and hastening this process, exploiting the resources of the Royal Navy in order to extend its own military footprint, is especially insidious. Is Germany—which is deeply entrenched in Argentina—actually pushing Britain to abandon the Falklands in order to satisfy its own ambitions in South America?
The inevitability of Britain’s severance from the EU is becoming plainer all the time—an event biblical prophecy strongly indicates and which we have spoken of often. It appears Britain could well lose the Falklands while trying to please Europe—only to then lose Europe as well.
Those Somali pirates are only chasing after short-sighted, selfish gain. But their crimes are uncovering so much that biblical prophecy has directed us to watch for—not just a weak-willed America, but also a weakened Britain that will be stripped of its possessions, and a German-led Europe growing in military strength at their expense.