War and Virtual War

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - War and Virtual War


A very well-informed buddy sent me this article. I present it to you for your consideration.



The Telegraph - Aug 11, 2008

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2539157/Georgia-Russia-conducting-cyber-war.html

Georgia: Russia 'conducting cyber war'Russia has been accused of attacking Georgian government websites in a cyber war to accompany their military bombardment.





By Jon SwaineLast Updated: 11:53AM BST 11 Aug 2008
The official website of Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian President, was been under external control since shortly before Russia's armed intervention


Several Georgian state computer servers have been under external control since shortly before Russia's armed intervention into the state commenced on Friday, leaving its online presence in dissaray.While the official website of Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian President, has become available again, the central government site, as well as the homepages for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence , remain down. Some commercial websites have also been hijacked.




The Georgian Government said that the disruption was caused by attacks carried out by Russia as part of the ongoing conflict between the two states over the Georgian province of South Ossetia.In a statement released via a replacement website built on Google's blog-hosting service, the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: "A cyber warfare campaign by Russia is seriously disrupting many Georgian websites, including that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."Barack Obama, the Democratic US Presidential candidate, has demanded Moscow halt the internet attacks as well as observing a ceasefire on the ground.

Last April the computer systems of the Estonian Government came under attack in a co-ordinated three-week assault widely credited to state-sponsored Russian hackers. The wave of attacks came after a row erupted over the removal of the Bronze Soldier Soviet war memorial in Tallinn, the Estonian capital. The websites of government departments, political parties, banks and newspapers were all targeted.

Analysts have immediately accused the Russian Business Network (RBN), a network of criminal hackers with close links to the Russian mafia and government, of the Georgian attacks.Jart Armin, a researcher who runs a website tracking the activity of the RBN, has released data claiming to show that visits to Georgian sites had been re-routed through servers in Russia and Turkey, where the traffic was blocked. Armin said the servers "are well known to be under the control of RBN and influenced by the Russian Government.

"Mr Armin said that administrators in Germany had intervened at the weekend, temporarily making the Georgian sites available by re-routing their traffic through German servers run by Deutsche Telekom. Within hours, however, control over the traffic had been wrested back, this time to servers based in Moscow.

As in the barrage against Estonian websites last year, the Georgian sites are being bombarded by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, in which hackers direct their computers to simultaneously flood a site with thousands of visits in order to overload it and bring it offline.The Shadowserver Foundation, which tracks serious hacking, confirmed:"We are now seeing new attacks against .ge sites - http://www.parliament.ge/ and president.gov.ge are currently being hit with http floods.

"Mr Armin warned that official Georgian sites that did appear online may have been hijacked and be displaying bogus content. He said in a post on his site: "Use caution with any web sites that appear of a Georgia official source but are without any recent news ... as these may be fraudulent."




The Baltic Business News website reported that Estonia has offered to send a specialist online security team to Georgia.However a spokesman from Estonia's Development Centre of State Information Systems said Georgia had not made a formal request. "This will be decided by the government," he said.


Additional Resources:

RBN Analysis

RBN .PDF

Corpse Spy

Spamhaus




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Those New Russian Sonsabitches

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - Those New Russian Sonsabitches

This time the Russian bear is not in a fight with a bunch of small, helpless states supported by vague promises from the British Empire. This time the Ruskies are not in a fight with the Germans. This time they aren't poisoning men in secret under the table and trying to usurp governments by slipping toxins in their wine and employing the subterfuge of old women. This time you Russian sonsabitches are in a fight with a bunch of little states who know what you are, and are supported by the United States of America and NATO. You're not fooling anybody.

This time old toothless and worn out bear you fight with people who are free, who are gonna stay that way, and who are friends with nations who can do more than just beat you in a fight. We can wipe out your very reason for existing as government.

I got nothing against the Russian people (as a matter of fact I got a real affection for the Russian people going way back to the Soviet Union), nothing even against the Russian troops (used to know some Soviet troops and officers, corresponded with and liked em), but 'ware your asses Russian leaders. Cause if you don't then we'll be wearing your asses. I got no love for you animals and neither do a lot of folks, including those that surround ya, and where I come from we hang high sonasbitches like you, and we wear pelts made out of bears who think they are matches for men. We got a whole continent full of bear-rugs to prove it. You're not nearly as tough as you think you are, and your hide is not nearly as thick as you've deluded yourself into thinking. A thousand little bees all around you and your hairy hide is stung and crippled. A single determined, screaming, fighting eagle in your face and you're blind and helpless. We don't forget our friends, and we don't start fights with punk ass bullies, but we sure as hell finish em.

We got time, we're patient, and we know how to cripple and kill and skin wild beasts like you.

So, your day is coming grizzly men.
Your day is coming.

And when that day comes, we're gonna finish you for good this time, and your people are gonna turn and eat what ever is left. And then we're gonna set them free too.

Until then sleep well in the knowledge that we're out there waiting for bear.
Cause we are.

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You Say Hello, and I Say Goodbye...

Signal, Sygnet and Sigil - You Say Hello, and I Say Goodbye...

Well, well... This couldn't have come at a sweeter time.

Hello New World, same as the Old World.

Thanks Ruskies.
We owe you one.

Georgia says Russian tanks mean 'war' in South Ossetia

Philippe Naughton Video:

Russia-Georgia standoff

Russia sent troops and dozens of tanks into the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia today, throwing the two former Soviet neighbours into a sudden yet undeclared state of war. In the most serious regional crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, at least 50 tanks – and possibly many more – rumbled through the Roki tunnel, which cuts through the Caucasus mountains separating South Ossetia from the Russian province of North Ossetia.

"One hundred and fifty Russian tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles have entered South Ossetia,” President Saakashvili of Georgia told reporters in Tbilisi. “This is a clear intrusion on another country’s territory. We have Russian tanks on our territory, jets on our territory in broad daylight."

Mr Saakashvili added that Georgian forces had downed two Russian jet fighters over Georgian territory. Georgia mobilised its reservists yesterday and launched a military offensive to regain control over South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia after it gained independence. Fighting raged today around the city of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, as Georgian troops backed by tanks and warplanes pounded separatist forces, who are mostly Russian citizens backed by Moscow. This afternoon as the Russian tanks rolled in, Georgian officials declared that they had secured the city...

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Tuesday Science and Technology Abstract 8/7/07

Tuesday Science and Technology Abstract

Casimir Effect

The Balsa Planet

Wetworks

The Evil Vomit Light - I have always enjoyed working on, with, and developing new non-lethal weaponry. I like where this is going because combined with other types of wave-based NLWs, including sub-sonic I believe this could lead to something very like a phaser (not as a stunning weapon, but as a sensory and orientation incapacitator). The trick now will be to adapt the same basic principles to sonic and tactile weapons so that this type of weapon can incapacitate almost instantly and by use of light, sound, and by producing feeling within the body of the target. You would want it to be multi functional and be able to incapacitate in a number of different ways in order to be most effective and so it could not be easily defended against.

Advanced Concept Nuclear Shield - But I like Bruce Willis

Global Bugging

Going Under to Go Off - when I was younger and contemplated becoming an astronaut I have to admit that at the same time I was simultaneously captivated by the thought of deep sea exploration. Best of both worlds here.

What the Ruskies Have

Good Luck - Hope you do better with this than you do with your food industry.




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Pastor to Russia

Karpas - Pastor to Russia

My pastor and some deacons from my church are traveling to Russia on a Missions and Relief project. They intend to do some Mission Work as well as deliver much needed supplies and relief to some impoverished children.

Prayers for their safety and the success of their trip are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jack.



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Monday Political and Business Appraisal 1/8/07

Monday Political and Business Appraisal

Crossroads - "Do, or do not. There is no try."

Inhalable Flu Vaccine - I've often wondered why more vaccines are created to be delivered along the same vectoring path by which a disease organism usually penetrates the host organism. It makes absolute common, medical and scientific sense, but then again that which makes the most sense is usually the last avenue pursued by most modern scientists.

Who Gives a Crap - Who cares if Russia slams US sanctions on Russian military firms? Become an actual ally, then we'll talk.

Good Luck Zalmay - You're really gonna need it in that Nest of Vipers

Web 2.0 Business Value Debate - I really like many of the innovations of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. But I'm the first to admit that in many respects the value promised and the value delivered are very different animals, and that many times Web 2.0 efforts deliver little real value at all.

Lifehacker - Personally I like the Lifehacker idea, the approach, and the whole philosophy of the blog. I wish there were far more blogs like this.

Shocked by the Awe? - I've worked on projects like this myself. A few work out as expected, a few do much more poorly than originally envisioned, a few lead to valuable secondary discoveries but most are boondoggles. That's the price you pay for progress I guess.

Global Real Estate

Where the Left left off - An interesting theory.



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Wednesday Religious Assessment 11/29/06

Wednesday Religious Assessment

ECUSA - how to kill your church without really trying, and be Brutally Honest about it.

Mary in Pictures

Burning Six - something doesn't smell right

Pastoral, Not Political

What the Pope Wrote - It ain't the Book of Life but it was Golden.

The Mystery of Mary

Trials in Turkey - Tolerance goes Cold Turkey

God in the Motherland

French Cultural Climax

Monday Political Appraisal 11/27/06

Monday Political Appraisal

We Are All Lying - An excellent Article on American Digest

The Wage Gap - From IT

Africa at War - From the American Thinker

Focus on Fabrications - From the BCB

Pope Benedict's Bravery

Agenda Agitation?

Russian Coma

Litvinenko Case Update

Litvinenko Case Update

Got this from the Blue Crab Boulevard.

If true it is extremely significant.

Polonium 210 Poisoned Litvinenko

Thursday MCW Briefing 11/23/06

Thursday MCW Briefing

Analysis and Collection of Soil Samples

Energy Efficient Weaponry

Army Future Needs

Marine Corp Stretched Thin

Aegis at 20

Red Teaming

Russian Ghost Spook

Nolo NSA

Chinese Collection Efforts

Assassination in Lebanon

Defense Monitor

Terrorist Target Selection Model

SIRENE

Sheepdogs and Frogmen

Serial Killer

Wednesday Religious Assessment 11/22/06

Wednesday Religious Assessment

Prayer in the Air

Muslims questioned for prayer activities in-flight.

Pope Denounces Killing of Lebanese Christian Leader

Protests in Turkey

Mystery of Christ

Christ in Russia

The Fountain - Sounds like a very interesting film from the review. I'll be going to see it.

Beslan School Massacre And Russian Churches

The Desires of Married Women

Haggard's Harrow

Conservative Democrats and the Religious Right

Beginning of the End of the Schism?

Blood Brothers

Stephen Unbound

The Christian Exodus From Israel

My Analysis of the Litvinenko Case

The Glair - My Analysis of the Litvinenko Case

My friends and I have been recently discussing this case.

I've been following this case with great personal interest.

It reminds me of a famous case involving a toxin that mimicked a heart attack in the victim, which was injected into a Soviet defector via the tip of an umbrella. Ricin I believe was the toxic agent in that case. Some of you may be familiar with those events.

Anywho, with the proper analysis they should be able to determine the delivery method of the poison. If it was ingested then that will narrow the suspect list considerably if he survives to testify or give details.

If it was injected into the victim by some other method then that will give strong clues all by itself, assuming secondary testimony and evidence exists, such as videotapes. However given the fact that he was meeting a contact I would imagine a former operative as experienced as he would have swept the area or made sure that the possibilities for observation were extremely limited. His contact and/or attacker would have known that as well, and would likely be just as fastidious about security matters and avoiding direct observation.

Let's assume for a moment that it was not his contact that developed the toxin or was the agent of delivery. That means of course someone else knew of the meeting. There's your vector of overlap right there. (There is always the possibility it was purposely self delivered or accidentally ingested, but those are not very likely probabilities.) However that does not necessarily mean that either the victim or his contact were aware of the third party or that either knew their movements were being observed or their communications intercepted.

There is also the very real and distinct possibility that the contact, not Litvinenko, was the real target. Maybe both were. At this point it is nearly impossible to analyze who was the real intended target without proper background information on the contact.

Of course a careful and detailed analysis of what occurred differently between contact and victim would give good and vital clues as to how delivery was made, when, and by what actual agent.

…… is also quite correct about motivation being open-ended at this stage of the investigation. Since so little hard information is known at this point it is very difficult to resolve the probability aspects related to possible motives.

However personally I think it was politically arranged and/or motivated by reasons related to espionage and national security. I have studied the case involving the assassinated Russian journalist. She was assassinated not because of her criticism of Putin, in my opinion, but because of her recent gathering of information about how close to collapse Russian efforts are in Chechnya. If Chechnya collapses then the entire South Western frontier could follow suit from the example and Chechnya is the Russian Iraq in many respects, but unlike our Iraq Chechnya sits on the border. Making it far more directly dangerous to Moscow and to the Federation. Think of a hostile Southern and South Western Islamic Frontier, a US allied Afghanistan and Eastern Europe, a US Allied Pakistan and a US friendly India, and China as a wild card and Russia is nearly completely surrounded. That's basis for paranoia even among the hyper-paranoid Russians. You can bet dollars to doughnuts some in the Kremlin, some in the military and some in the Services are at least a bit skittery about the likely near term prospects.

I think it quite possible that many people in the Russian government, fearing a collapse of support for Chechnya would lead to abandoning the entire area and therefore exposing Russia to the danger of an indigenous regime, likely Muslim, and openly hostile to Moscow gave at least tactic support for the idea of assassinating the journalist. Therefore someone in the Russian government and/or military decided to use their contacts within the Red Mafia (who also had no love for her) to provide logistical and maybe monetary support to contract the assassination. The police did not find the man because he was an outside contractor or was "washed" by the military and/or Intel services before he could be tracked.

As odd as this may seem she could have also been assassinated by the Chechnyans (I use this term as opposed to Chechen to distinguish the rebels from the Russian backed government). The reason is that apparently her contacts were deep among the rebels. If she had planned on exposing rebel leaders or their operations, or they suspect she were going to, down she would go, and quick. Apparently, and there is no real way to verify this, one of the last stories she was working involving Russian torture of Chechnyan rebels. If that story included operational details of information gained through torture then that kind of information might sit very poorly with both Chechen military leaders and Chechnyan rebels. The rebels have already shown they will kill children; a journalist would be nothing by comparison. Assassins kill Russian journalist on a regular basis. I have yet to discover how much of what she was working at the end was really recovered or if what was apparently recovered and printed was planted. I doubt we'll ever really know.

In any case I suspect that Litvinenko's meeting with his contact did not really involve her assassination, or it would not have been publicly advertised as such. That's cover, and a good one since it is tangential, but likely not instructive. What it more than likely had to do with is either what she had really discovered (the reason or reasons she had been assassinated) and/or information regarding a movement within the Russian military and/or Intel services to abandon Chechnya or something about Chechnya itself which could have been used either against Putin or against the rebels, or both.

Putin would not have had to approve such an operation nor need make overt attempts to be directly aware of it, it could have been a rogue operation, or it could have been Chechnyan. But I agree with Gordievsky, the odds are very good that Putin at least knew the operation was afoot, if it was indeed a Russian operation.

We also have to consider the fact that retired Spooks rarely really retire. Litvinenko was more than likely employed by MI5 or MI6, at least on a freelance or consulting basis. Neither Putin nor the Chechnyans, nor the Chechens for that matter have any real interest in seeing a leak downstream to London, especially with the current situation in Iran and the Middle East. British Intel and Security would not play that data publicly and directly but could use that information as leverage in other respects. The British are already every bit as aware as we are of Red Mafia and official Russian efforts to supply arms to various enemies of ours around the world and to barter for gaining greater influence in the Middle East and Iran.

The British cannot afford to see Russian interests triumph in the region. I am very certain that the British took a positive and up-front interest in this meeting and that they were expecting Litvinenko to pass something of what he discovered. Even if they did not monitor the meeting real-time I cannot imagine they were not expecting "to gather and collect" at a later date.

In any case I'll continue to follow this case with some real interest and fascination.


Litvinenko Case


Addendum: This case just keeps getting more and more interesting.



LONDON — A former Russian spy and fierce critic of the Kremlin who is fighting for his life in a London hospital may have been given a radioactive poison, a doctor said Tuesday.
Col. Alexander Litvinenko, an outspoken former KGB and Federal Security Service agent, "has some symptoms consistent with thallium poisoning and he's also got symptoms consistent with some other type of poisoning, so it's not 100 percent thallium," Dr. John Henry, a clinical toxicologist at University College Hospital, told reporters.

"It could be radioactive thallium," he said, adding that Litvinenko may require a bone marrow transplant.

Thallium is a colorless, odorless and water-soluble heavy metal, and can be deadly in even tiny doses of as little as one gram.

Litvinenko was under armed guard at the London hospital, the victim of what his friends and fellow dissidents called an assassination attempt by the Russian government. The Kremlin and Russia's security agency have strongly denied any involvement.

Link to New Article

The Exchange - A Global Network

The Exchange - A Global Network


Don sent me an email in regards to the post about the B Reader. He had a very interesting suggestion about how to implement the site which I found fascinating and was a sort of indirect confirmation of some ideas I had already been considering. I'm going to write him back along with some of my friends in the military, government, law enforcement, etc. with a formal reply, as well as posting my reply to his comments under the post B Reader. That'll be over the next couple of days. I've had so much work to do I'm pretty bloody exhausted right now.

Don also made some suggestions about the appearance of this blog, about the black background, and so forth. He is of the opinion that I should alter the template to a light background instead of using the black one. I like the black background however one reason for the existence of this blog is so that the readers can easily access it, and part of that is being comfortable with the graphic and design presentation.

So I'm leaving it up to my readers to some extent. If you would like me to change the appearance, template, background and other aspects of this blog then just let me know and I'll consider your opinion. You can either leave your comment here or email me with your suggestions. Also if you have any suggestions as to content you'd like to see explored (and some have made suggestions which I haven't ignored, just haven't found the right way to post those ideas yet) or format changes to make it easier to read and use this blog then let me know. I'll take those suggestions under serious consideration as well.


Now onto other things. In the past few days I've been studying my Site Meter, gathering data about those who visit this site and getting a detailed analysis of my readers. I have discovered that most of my readers are North American of course but a sizeable percentage are from Europe and Asia. I had sorta half expected the European audience, but not the Asian audience. I'm not really sure what it is about this blog that specifically appeals to an Asian audience, but I'm glad to have them.

I'm also very glad to have readers from Russia (specifically Moscow) and from Iran. Especially the repeat visitors from Iran.

I have for a long time wanted to help bring about political changes in Iran, as my friends can tell you, long before it was recently fashionable to do so for domestic political and security reasons.

So I'm gonna tell you readers a little story from my personal background to help explain my interest. When I was a kid the Soviet Union and the United States were rather bitter enemies. Long before Perestroika or Glasnost or Gorbachev my father made a prediction that the Soviet Union would fall and Russia would become a more or less free nation, free of communism anyway. I remember going to school and telling my friends this and we all laughed, we all believed the US and the USSR would fight a war one day, not that Soviet communism would fall from within. (I discounted my father's prediction too, at the time.) Years later one of my best friends and I were on the phone talking with absolute amazement and joy about the fall of the Soviet Union (he was a US Army officer) and how amazing it was and I reminded him about the time I had said at school that communism would fall in Russia by it's own weight, because of my father's prediction.

Before that day, in my twenties I had begun to correspond with people all over the world, Europe, South Africa, various other parts of Africa, South and Central America, Hong Kong, Russia. Back in those days we did it with paper, pen, and by post, this was long before the internet or personal computing had become popular. Some of my contacts and correspondents in Russia were military officers, some regular soldiers, and even one psychology student (at the time I was also studying psychology) at the University of Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad University) with whom I exchanged ideas about new Theories of Personality we were both developing. In most of my correspondences with those in Russia my correspondents complained of the political system, the government, of lack of freedom, or fear and resentment against their system. I always encouraged them to help bring about change if they possibly could without endangering their own lives or the lives of their friends and families. I won't go into details but I feel I helped do my part, in my own small way, to assist with change in Russia and bring about the fall of Soviet communism.

I'd like to help do the same in Iran, to help the Iranians, especially the youth of Iran to bring about a peaceful transition away from the mullahs and ayatollahs and towards a true Iranian Republic. So I am honored and gratified to have Iranian readers and if my Iranian readers would like to spread the news about this blog then I'd be happy to get far more Iranian readers. I have no desire at all to see the US and Iran go to war or to fight any more than I had a desire to see the US fight Iraq, though I did and do still support the Iraq War and intend to see a free and peaceful Iraq, and to assist in that endeavor in any way I can. It may eventually be necessary for the US and Iran to go to war but if it can be avoided, then I'd much rather see an internal revolution in Iran, and a peaceful one at that. I don't want to see a bloody Iranian Civil War any more than I want to see a US-Iranian War. Instead I want to see the youth of Iran succeed and bring about a peaceful transition to a free government, and to see them build a true Republic there. So I want my Iranian readers to know that I keep them in my prayers and I'll do what I can from here to help any of them, and if I can ever assist you in some beneficial way then just let me know. Otherwise you can consider this blog a source of information and sometimes even intelligence about the outside world, and you can consider me your friend. God bless you, your nation will be entirely free one day, and have courage. Godspeed and good luck to a free Iran and I encourage you to do what you can to make it that way, short of endangering your own lives and those of your family and friends. You have allies here, in the US, many of them. Pray, work, prepare, and hopefully we will both live to see a free and peaceful Iran that became that way through peaceful means.

I would like to reiterate the same hopes for China. One day I hope very much to see a truly free, and not merely prosperous, Republic in China. I have great respect for and love for both Iran and China as nations and for their peoples. I keep both nations in my prayers, will do what I can to assist both nations in becoming truly free, want to see both succeed, and will be happy to help when and where I can to those ends. So to readers in China and Iran, you are welcome here. Same for my readers in Moscow. I have never forgotten Russia, the contacts I have there, or the nation.

I'd also be more than happy to gain readers in Afghanistan, Pakistan (I have a few friends there, mainly soldiers and police), and Iraq. I'd be pleased to have you as readers, as contacts and possibly even friends.


As for my other readers, in other parts of the world - You are all welcome. I am glad to have you all, and I hope this blog will be of interest to you. Think of me as a contact and a friend. I will present to you what I can in interesting information and content, and you're welcome to send me anything and everything you think might be of interest to me and the other readers of this blog.

I guess what I'm saying is that all of my readers are free to think of this blog as a means of communication, and contact, and intelligence, and information, and you can all think of me as a contact with whom you can share whatever interest you have, personal or professional, or think will be of value to me and my readers. In this way we can together build a world-wide network of contacts and this blog can be far more than just a mere entertainment, it can also be a valuable tool for all those who make use of it.

As for my readers from the US and North America, you are my fellow countrymen and my fellow Americans. I owe you a special debt of gratitude and am glad to have you as readers and patrons. I can't put it much better, or more earnestly than that.


Now for my analysis of the information I gleaned from my Site Meter thus far and to this date:

Visitors by Location:

Portugal
Ecuador
United Arab Emirates
Singapore
Iran
Belgium
India
Romania
United Kingdom
Philippines
Brazil
Russia, Moscow
New Zealand - I know who that is
Germany - I know who that probably is
Australia
France


Visitors By Continent: (as a percentage)

North America - 83%
Europe - 8%
Asia - 7%
South America - 2%
Unknown - such as Iran, Middle East, Australia, etc. - 1%


By Country: (as a percentage)

US - 80%
Singapore - 3%
Portugal - 2%
Iran - 2%
UK - 2%
Germany - 2%
Canada - 2%
All other nations - 1%


Well, that's about it for this entry. I've been working recently 7 days a week most weeks and about 12 to 16 hours a day to get as much done as possible. I didn't even go to church today just watched a Mass and some religious programming off of the satellite, read some, and worked on-line. I'm pretty exhausted and I'm gonna go take a nap.

Yak at you guys later.

Take care,

Jack.

The Exchange - The Last, Best Hope

The Exchange - The Last, Best Hope

A friend of mine sent me these article links along with his personal observations regarding religious matters in Germany and Europe.

We have often had related discussions on these very matters. I'm not going to post his remarks because they were for a few select friends but below you will find my response to his observations and the articles he sent me.


http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0915/p01s01-woeu.html?s=u

http://www.csmonitor.com/1999/1025/p1s4.html?s=widep


My Response:

My personal opinion on this matter is this.

Germany and Italy were the prior religious centers of Continental Europe. (One could easily count Spain at one time but Franco held that under the thumb for a very long time).

When religion began to decline in both nations they were ripe for Hitler and Mussolini and with Fascism changing Christianity into a sort of bastardization of official ceremonial state function, or wiping it out altogether and replacing it with neo-pagan Nazi state religious totems, Christianity began her modern death march in Europe.

Then Germany and Italy lost the Second World War but Germany never recovered her religious identity, (and I'm not sure she ever may entirely), I suspect because many people there associated with the idea that religion had done nothing to stop Nazism, and they were right. But Christianity was already impotent and on the decline in the continent by that time anyway. Italy recovered because of the Vatican and Catholicism but really hasn't been a major political, social, religious, or national power up until very recently, and then only weakly compared to the past.

When religion is weak in Germany and Italy it is weak throughout all of Western Europe. (When religion is weak in Russia it is primarily weak throughout Eastern Europe as well, Poland possibly excluded.) Britain is too much the non-continental and semi-isolated island outsider to really drive the continent in any way and France is a religious joke as well as a political and economic one. Italy may always be relatively religiously strong due to the Vatican, but Germany really determines the course of Western Europe, economically, politically, and religiously. Europe does not have a unified culture and never will and only religious sentiment and association can stand as a surrogate "Super-culture." Secularism cannot act as a Super-culture at all because by very definition secular prosperity is competitive and economically adversarial. Germany and France cannot secularly and economically prosper equally. Only religion acts as a superculture and always has in Europe, even amid internecine conflict. Though such conflicts also on the one hand served to remind Europe of the superculture (Christendom) while at the same time tearing apart that superculture with various regional, national, and ethnic versions of Christianity in violent competition. (Not that I'm against denominational competition, it's good for religion, but not to the extent that it helps breed religious and sectarian warfare. That's all been worked out in modern times, Christian religious groups and denominations do not war on each other, but then again they do not act cooperatively in Europe either. They are apathetic and languid to a high degree.)

Nevertheless if Germany corrects itself religiously then most of Western Europe will become that much more stable and much can be done to isolate and marginalize the danger, degeneration, and duplicity that is France. If not then Western Europe will follow France into another period of stagnation followed eventually by open warfare in Europe.

I found it interesting you mentioned the Third World Nigerian street preachers. About two years or so ago I read a very good book which had statistics on various types of Christianity apparent in different parts of the world. Surveys were taken in various regions of the world and the one major power/industrialized nation that scored the most in common with Third World Christians (as far as similarities of religious views) was the United States. The US also scored high in similarity of religious viewpoint with home churches in Asia and with Catholics in South and Central America. The nations we scored least as having anything in common with religiously were most Western European nations. Which only makes sense because America has never had much faith in secularism as a solitary pursuit, or a safe national or cultural pursuit, rather we mix secular and sacred pursuits freely, like the Byzantines did. (I have a personal theory that the US is Byzantium reborn and improved upon.) Also America has never really lost her affiliated affections and sentiments towards primitive or early Christianity and has even to this day maintained a "rural and primitive feel" in most things, culture and religion included, when compared to the over-civilized and over-intellectualized and passive and primarily effeminate cultures of Western Europe. I do not say effeminate as a mere insult, but as a true and correct observation. Europe is urbanized, passive, slow to change, retiring, narcissistic, pessimistic, effeminate, and timid. The US is primitive, frontier-like in outlook, dynamic, aggressive, optimistic, masculine, and unafraid. We have far more in common in psychological outlook and general worldview with many parts of the Third World than we do with Europe, with which we share basically only a common cultural background heritage. Europe is our ancestor, but in truth we are nothing like our parents. Thank God for that.

Anyway, if Germany and Italy return to the more primitive roots of their Christian heritage then the axis will shift again and Europe may tilt in our direction once more. If not then in my opinion we can look to fight a war there once again, maybe by the time of our grandchildren. I would like to be optimistic, and I am considering Pope John Paul and Benedict, and the Third World primitive Christian missionaries now invading Europe and even the US (and our major urban centers could use a few good missionaries, they have to far too large an extent become "Europeanized") but it may already be too late. Only a complete collapse of the Secular Only model may bring Europe to her senses again, and that will only follow a real catastrophe. But then again if the early Christians could bring Rome to her knees and remake the Roman world into Christendom, then maybe the modern primitives can also remake modern Europe into a kind of New Christendom. But only time will tell in my opinion. I think we're too far out to tell as of yet.