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SEPTEMBER 12, 20141

THE TRUMPET WEEKLYTHE TRUMPET WEEKLYS E P T E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 1 4

Gaza War boosted Hamass popularity 2

How stable is nuclear-armed Pakistan? 3

Ukraine crisis at point of no return 5

Chinese soldiers deployed to Africa 7

Britain saying Bye to EU? 10

BY RICHARD PALMER

I latest opinion poll proves accurate, in just one weekthe United Kingdom will cease to exist. Te latest figuresrom YouGovshow that percent o Scots plan to vote

Yes to independence, compared with percent or No.On September , people over all Britain could wake

up in a diminished country, one that doesnt bestride theworld stage but hobbles instead, wrote theSpectors politi-

cal editor James Forsyth in an article a couple o monthsago. I Scotland votes to leave the United Kingdom, itwould be Britains greatest ever deeat: the nation wouldhave voted to abolish itsel.

Te union between England and Scotland has been atthe oundation o the UKs greatness. Tat union has liter-ally changed the whole world.

Beore that union, the British Isles was a provincialbackwater.

Any time England went to war, her enemies allied withScotland and had an easy backdoor into England. Once thefighting between England and Scotland was ended, the two

could turn outward and, together,they changed the world. Withoutthat union, it was impossible oreither to be anything other than asecond- or third-rate power.

Why? What could cause the endo a -year-old harmonious mar-riage? Te answer can be summedup in two words: government hand-outs. Te entire breakup debate hasdescended into an argument overwhich side can give Scots the most

government money.Te material distributed by thepro-independence campaign is basi-cally made up o two parts: a vagueemotional appeal to Scottishnessand a promise that with indepen-

dence the government would be able to give out moremoney and goodies.

Te latter argument stands out most on the Yes cam-paigns home page. Te websitesAnswerssection has noth-ing about how an independent Scotland can be a greaternation or play a greater role in the world. But, theres plentyabout pensions, healthcare and social services. Te idea is

that independence will turn Scotland into a socialist uto-pia. Te country that gave the world Adam Smith wants toswap him or Karl Marx.

Te Yes campaigns argument is basically this: Toseevil English wont let Scotland have access to the magic moneytree. Declare independence, and we can take as much moneyas we want and give it out to everyone.Insert north sea oilinstead o magic money tree and thats almost literally theYes campaigns argumenteven to the point o invent-ing a conspiracy theory where the British government, oilcompanies and the Shetland Islanders have a secret oil fieldthey wont tell the Scots about.

The End of Britain Is Nigh

see END page 12

First Minister Alex Salmond meet fans of Dundee

and Dundee United football club who are voting

Yes in this months referendum on September 1.

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SEPTEMBER 12, 20142THE TRUMPET WEEKLY

MIDDLE EAST

genuinely inclusive government ailsto materialize, the U.S. mission, nomatter how ar-reaching, will ail.

Te ground war is a dud.Nobody believes the U.S. can deeat

the Islamic State with air power alone.A real victory over the Islamic State,the thinking goes, will be won with aground war, supported by an over-whelmingly American air campaign.Without U.S. combat troops, the warwill be ought by non-American bootson the groundmostly Kurds and thenotoriously unreliable Iraqi Army, aswell as, in Syria, some o the opposi-tion orces the president once mockedas ineffective. ogether, their peror-mance will determine the outcome o

the fight.Te ground campaign is what is

going to deeat [the Islamic State]in the end, said retired Gen. JackKeane, a ormer Army vice chieo staff, on Fox News Wednesdaynight. In that ground campaign, weare totally dependent on surrogateorces. Whether we can do this or not,nobody knows.

We really do become the ShiiteAir Force.

One major concern about Ameri-can intervention in the Iraqi mess isthat, by joining the fight against theSunnis in the Islamic State, the UnitedStates would effectively go to war onbehal o the Shiite side o the sectar-ian divide. Everyone agrees that wouldbe a disaster. Tis cannot be theUnited States being the air orce orShia militias or a Shia-on-Sunni Arabfight, retired Gen. David Petraeussaid over the summer.

Despite being an outcome that all

Americans want to avoid, that couldbe exactly what happens. Werealready seeing reports where U.S.strikes against [the Islamic State]are having the effect o bailing outIranian-backed Shiite terrorist groups,said Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis,who served in Iraq in and .When I was in Iraq, once al Qaeda inIraq was deeated, the main militaryront was taking on the Mahdi Army,a terrorist organization. Now, you

Five Things That CouldGo Wrong in Iraq

Byron York,WASHINGTONEXAMINER | September 10

I one thing Americasmisadventure in Iraq rom to taught everyone, it is that thingscan go terribly wrong when the U.S.intervenes in a oreign environmentwith deep sectarian divisions, an ine-ectual government, armed actionsand the general complexities o theMiddle East.

So now, [President] Barack Obama

plans to step up U.S. involvement inIraq with more airstrikes and an effortto strengthen and better organizeIraqi and Kurdish military orces, aswell as some Syrian rebels. In his ad-dress to the nation Wednesday night,the president laid out a multipointproposal or action. He also had anopportunity, which he chose not totake, to warn Americans o some othe specific ways his new interventioncould go wrong.

Since the president decided not totalk about possible downsides, hereare a ewnot at all a definitive list .

Te Iraqi government doesntget its act together.Obamas entire Iraq policy rests on

the notion that the country will orma government that is truly inclusive.According to this line o thinking, iSunnis, purged under ormer PrimeMinister Nouri al-Maliki, are given ameaningul, proportionate role in thegovernment, their support or radicalgroups like the Islamic State o Iraqand Syria will diminish.

But what i the Iraqi government

turns out to be not as inclusive as thepresident hopes . It may be that thegovernment comes together but thecountry does not. Tat is, the Shia-Sunni split is impossible to repair, atleast at this moment. Te dangeris that having reengaged in Iraq, wedont succeed, [according to PeterWehner, a ormer Bush White Houseofficial].

Te bottom line is thatby thepresidents own reasoningi a

Hamas Terrorists Now MorePopular in West BankTHE TRUMPET DAILY | September 9

STEPHEN FLURRY

Hamass recipe or success: Commit terrorism,provoke a war, use human shields, cause thousands odeathsand surge in Palestinian popularity polls.
https://www.thetrumpet.com/trumpet_daily/1563/hamas-terrorists-now-more-popular-in-west-bank

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SEPTEMBER 12, 20143THE TRUMPET WEEKLYAAMIR QURESHI/AFP/GETT Y IMAGES

could be in a situation where we areessentially serving as an air orce orShiite terror groups.

We drive away our timid,reluctant allies.

In his speech, the president saidAmericas coalition partners havealready started playing roles in theanti-Islamic State campaign. Te

administration believes that the wayyou get the others to do more is youmake clear all the things the U.S. isnot going to do. Te evidence showsyou get more rom allies when youreassure them on what you will do,[Peter Feaver, a ormer Bush NationalSecurity Council official, said in aninterview Wednesday].

Te status-of-forces-agreementproblem blows up.

So what happens when the

bombs all, the rockets are fired, andpeople, including, inevitably, some in-nocents, are kil led? We appear to beramping up without a status-o-orcesagreement, without the immunityprotections the administration saidwas necessary, said Feaver.

Tough on the IslamicState? Iran Senses U.S.

WeaknessCOMMENTARY | September 10

A o indecision, Presi-dent [Barack] Obama is finally,albeit in a limited manner, musteringU.S. strength to respond to the chal-lenge rom [the Islamic State] terror-ists. But at the same time, another

dangerous Islamist power is sensingU.S. weakness in its struggle to build anuclear weapon. Te latest news aboutIranian maneuvering prior to the re-sumption o the nuclear talks with theWest provides a stark contrast to anytalk about a more muscular Obamaoreign policy.

Iran is going ull speed ahead with

a diplomatic campaign to undermineWestern sanctions aimed at orcingthem to come to terms on a nuclearagreement. Secretary o State JohnKerry began the process o weakeningand perhaps dismantling the restric-tions on doing business with Iran lastall in the hope that this would leadehran to meet him at least halwayand sign another weak accord thatmight let them keep their nuclear pro-gram while committing them to not

F last two weeks, Pakistans two leading opposi-tion movements have laid aside their differences andrallied together in a violent effort to overthrow the govern-ment o Prime Minister Nawaz Shari.

ens o thousands o protesters led by Imran Khan and

outspoken cleric ahir ul-Qadri have flooded into the capi-tal city, Islamabad, saying they will not leave unless Sharisteps down. Tey have accused him o corruption and rig-ging last years election. Te prime minister has denied allcharges and has asked Khan and Qadri to negotiate. Bothopposition leaders so ar have reused these calls.

Since mid-August, Islamabad has been largely incapaci-tated by the unrest. Many roads have been closed, business-es have been suffering steep losses, and troops and policehave been occupied protecting government acilities.

Although the tensions appeared to be easing, the unresthas unnerved the country where power is ofen transerredby military coups instead o elections. It has also concerned

the international community, in large part because Paki-stan is a member o one o the worlds most exclusive clubs:Te Nuclear Nine.

Pakistans military, which is mostly pro-Western, con-trols its -plus nuclear weapons. But a collapse o thegovernment could mean an uncertain uture or the arms.It is possible that they could even al l under the control osome o Pakistans many Islamic extremists or terroristsgroups. A United States government analysis calledPakistan the least stable o the nine nuclear weaponsstates and the one where there has been significant supportor Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, not only among the

general population but also within the military and intel-ligence orces.

It is telling that bin Laden was able to live, undisturbed,just a ew hundred yards away rom a prestigious Pakistanimilitary academy or nearly a decade.

Te instability o Pakistans nuclear weapons was per-haps most evident in and , when homegrownterrorists attacked its nuclear sitesat least three times.

Even i the current wave o unrest in Pakistan blowsover, the potential or turmoil in the nuclear nation re-mains high. Te rumpethas ofen warned o the danger oPakistan and its nuclear arsenal alling under the controlo radical Islam. In January , editor in chie GeraldFlurrywrote that Pakistan also has the nuclear bomb andcould be taken over by radical Islam, with plenty o helprom Iran. Tis nation, the worlds seventh-most powerulmilitary power, could soon become a proxy o the Iranian

mullahs, he warned. []his would be the worst possibledisaster! Follow Jeremiah Jacques: witter

How Stable Is Nuclear-Armed Pakistan?Jeremiah Jacques | September 5

Protesters in Islamabad on August 30
https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/12084.19.0.0/world/military/how-stable-is-nuclear-armed-pakistanhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/12084.19.0.0/world/military/how-stable-is-nuclear-armed-pakistanhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/6412.4898.0.0/world/terrorism/pakistan-nuclear-sites-under-attack-by-terroristshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/6412.4898.0.0/world/terrorism/pakistan-nuclear-sites-under-attack-by-terroristshttp://www.thetrumpet.com/?q=4493.0.100.0http://www.geraldflurry.com/http://www.geraldflurry.com/https://twitter.com/js_jacqueshttps://twitter.com/js_jacqueshttps://twitter.com/js_jacqueshttp://www.geraldflurry.com/http://www.geraldflurry.com/http://www.thetrumpet.com/?q=4493.0.100.0https://www.thetrumpet.com/article/6412.4898.0.0/world/terrorism/pakistan-nuclear-sites-under-attack-by-terroristshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/6412.4898.0.0/world/terrorism/pakistan-nuclear-sites-under-attack-by-terroristshttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/12084.19.0.0/world/military/how-stable-is-nuclear-armed-pakistanhttps://www.thetrumpet.com/article/12084.19.0.0/world/military/how-stable-is-nuclear-armed-pakistan

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EUROPE

No QE WithoutGerman Assent

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard,

TELEGRAPH | September 3

G are behaving asi quantitative easing (QE) were adone deal in the eurozone. Tey arebetting that the European CentralBank ()will pick up the baton romthe U.S. Federal Reserve in a seam-less transition, keeping the worldsmonetary system smoothly suppliedwith liquidity as [the] Fed winds downQE in October.

Te Eurostoxx index o equi-

ties is up percent since mid-Augustin spite o the EU showdown withRussia. Belie that the will soonsweep into crowded bond markets ona vast buying spree is a key reason whyyields on -year German Bunds havebroken all records, alling to . per-cent last week, with French yieldsdown in lockstep to . percent.

Yet there is in act no stimulus, andnor is there likely to be much or along time. Europes policy settings

continue to be contractionary. Frances Franois Hollande is

pushing through billion (.billion) o austerity measures over

three years to comply with EU rules,guaranteeing mass unemploymentthrough his presidency.

Italys Matteo Renzi is caught in thesame vice, orced to keep cutting in or-der to plug a budget largely caused by atriple-dip recession and near deflationthemselves the result o policy.

Even Germany has stalled. Tere isno recovery in sight. Eurozone retailsales ell in July and consumer confi-dence dropped to a six-month low inAugust.

Some have construed MarioDraghis call or fiscal stimulus atthe Jackson Hole conclave two weeksago as a radical shif in policy,heralding a reflationary blitz . Youmight equally construe it as a primor-dial scream by a man placed in animpossible position.

Te politics o remain as poi-sonous as ever, a simmering conflictbetween debtors and creditors. Te still suffers rom the design flaws

o monetary union, ideological e-tishes and mutual suspicions that haveprevented it rom acting at each stageo the crisis until the last desperate

moment. In key respects, the North-South divide is becoming harder tobridge.

Markets orget that Germanys con-situtional court ruled in February thatthe s back-stop plan or Italianand Spanish debt maniestly violatesthe EU treaties and is probably UltraVires, meaning that the Bundesbankcannot legally take part.

Tis time Mr. Draghi is in conflictwith Berlin. He is using the threat oQE to pressure Ms. Merkel to aban-

don Germanys policy o pro-cyclicalbudget surpluses, so damaging or as a whole, calculating that shemay accept fiscal stimulus as a lesserevil than QE.

Tere are hints that this game obrinkmanship may yield something.

Mr. Draghi has raised hopes thatare beyond his political gif, andwhich he cannot easily ulfill. Hisspeech at Jackson Hole is one o thestrangest episodes in the short history

build a bomb. But in the months thathave ollowed Kerrys interim deal, theIranians have reverted to their pat-tern o previous negotiations in whichthey have stalled and continued to tryto run out the clock until it is too lateto stop them. Irans public stanceand its diplomatic offensive leave the

impression that they are standingfirm and will agree to nothing thatultimately limits their ability to builda bomb.

Te Obama administrations zealor a deal with Iran is no secret. Noris the presidents desire to craf a newdtente with ehran. Tat impulse isonly strengthened by the act that bothIran and the U.S. view the [IslamicState] terrorists as an enemy. []headministrations belated realizationthat letting [the Islamic State] flour-

ish in Syria and Iraq was a colossalerror is leading some to conclude

that it should work together with theIranian regime in an attempt to crushthe group. But no one should trustehran or its motives in interveningagainst [the Islamic State]. Nor shouldthis temporary confluence o interestsbe allowed to impact the U.S. effort tostop Iran rom going nuclear.

[]he mixed signals coming romWashington about Iran are alreadybeing interpreted abroad as indicatingthe administrations lack o resolve onthe nuclear issue. As the imesnotes,Iran seems to be making progress ingetting Russia and South Arica tothink about backing away rom sanc-tions or openly breaching them. Andso long as the U.S. is behaving as i thenuclear issue is not a priority and thatincreasing, rather than weakening, therestrictions in the coming year is on

the table , its hard to blame thesecountries and others who are tempted

to do business with Iran, that Obamadoesnt care much about the issue.

But whatever the administration isplanning to do in the talks or i theyail, the Iranians seem determinedto prepare themselves to withstandany pressure rom the West. Tey aresecure in the knowledge that Obama

will never use orce against them andthat Americas allies and partners inthe negotiations will crumble even ithe president will not. Under thosecircumstances they have little incen-tive to be reasonable in the talks.

President Obama is reluctantlybringing the U.S. into the war on [theIslamic State]. But unless he wakes upand starts acting in a manner that willcause the Iranians to ear the conse-quences o trying to keep their nuclearprogram, he may ace an even more

dangerous conflict against a countryon the verge o gaining a nuke.

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o the , a digression rom hiswritten script to admit that inflationexpectations have become unhingedand that deflationary dynamics havebegun to take hold.

He abruptly switched sides, align-ing himsel (not the ) with Franceand Italy. He seemed to concede thatthe policy regime he has been deend-ing or three years is destructive andmisguided, and that the critics havebeen right all along.

One might suspect that he hasreached the point o emotional rup-ture, too sensitive to continue deend-ing the indeensible, intuitively awarethat the project is beyond saving. Healready looks like a man preparing

or his new destiny in Rome as Italyssalvation president.

Fragmentation MeansGerman Hegemony

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard,TELEGRAPH | September 10

E disintegrating. wo largeand ancient kingdoms are near the

point o rupture as Spain ollows Brit-ain into constitutional crisis, joinedlike Siamese twins.

Te post-Hapsburg order urthereast is suddenly prey to a corrosive

notion that settled borders are up orgrabs. Problems rozen or decadesare warming up again, said GilesMerritt, rom Friends o Europe inBrussels.

Te best we can hope orshouldtribalism prevailis German politi-cal hegemony in Europe. Te Germanpeople so ar remain a bastion o ratio-nalism, holding together as others tearthemselves apart. Te French are tooparalyzed by economic depression andthe collapse o the Hollande presiden-

cy to play any serious role.Te ar worse outcome is that even

Germany succumbs to centriugalorces, leaving Europe beref o coher-ent leadership, a parochial patchwork,wallowing in victimhood and decline,deenseless against a revanchist Russiathat plays by different rules.

Former chie Lord Robertsonwarns that a British breakup is doublydangerous, setting off Balkaniza-tion dominoes across Europe, and

amounting to a body blow or globalsecurity at a time when the MiddleEast is out o control and China is test-ing its power in Asian waters.

He warns that the residual UK

would be distracted or years by messydivorce, a diminished power, grap-pling with constitutional wreckage,likely to ace a resurgence o Ulstersdemons. Scotlands reusal to allownuclear weapons on its soil means thatno U.S. warship would be able to dockin Scottish ports, while its withdrawalrom all power projection overseaswould push British fighting capabilitybelow the point o critical mass.

Te world has not yet caught upwith the ull and dramatic implica-

tions o what is going on. For thesecond military power in the Westto shatter would be cataclysmic ingeopolitical terms. Nobody should un-derestimate the effect this would haveon existing global balances, he said.

Europe has largely disarmed al-ready. While America spends ,per soldier each year, EU states aredown to ,, largely earmarkedor pay and pensions, according tothe Institute or Statecraf. Almost

P P, Ukraines embattled president,is looking to make a deal with the enemy. And whywouldnt he be? In a preemptive move on the eve o the summit in Wales, the Russian president, Vladimir Pu-tin, announced a plan or peace talks in Ukraine. Western

leaders, breathing a sigh o relie, expressed a cautious opti-mism or the ceasefire. But the Wests quiet acquiescence tothe Russian plan has lef Ukrainian leaders with ew options.

In the weeks leading up to the summit on Septem-ber , Russia escalated its military invasion o Ukraine.

In late August, Russian armored troops and weaponscrossed Ukraines southeast border in what Ukrainianofficials called a stealth invasion. Te counteroffensivepushed back the Ukrainian militarys previous gains intoseparatist controlled territory. Russia continues to denyinvolvement.

[W]estern leaders, including [U.S.] President BarackObama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have been

unwilling to use the I-wordinvasionwhen reerringto Russian action in Ukraine. Te day beore the summit, speaking in Estonia, President Obama made itclear that the United States would not provide military sup-port to Ukraine.

Te Baltic States have good reason to ear. Putins policytrack record in Ukraine is littered with contradictions andbroken promises.

Te Wests cautious optimism should have given wayto a sobering realism about the ineffectiveness o Western

policy toward Russia, but it has not. I the purpose othe sanctions was to deter Russian aggression, by that mea-sure, they have ailed. I the purpose was to show Russiathat there are economic consequences or military invasion,then they have ailed by that measure as well. So ar, thesanctions have not affected the daily lives o most Russians,and Russian public support or Putins policy on Ukraineremains high.

Western leaders squandered a key opportunity to takea strong stance against Russia afer the Crimean annexa-tion in March. I the orce was deployed six monthsago, Putin may have thought twice about invading Ukraine.Putin has exploited this tactical mistake masterully. As

Russia continues to set the agenda on Ukraine and theWest continues to implement the same ineffective strategy,Ukrainians eel increasingly abandoned. Te crisis hasreached a point o no return, and Poroshenko is lef withno options.

The Ukrainian Crisis Is at a Point of No ReturnNATIONAL INTEREST | September 10

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nothing is being spent on new equip-ment. Europe has slashed deensebudgets by billion over the pasttwo years even as Russia blitzes billion on war-fighting capabilitiesby and turns itsel into a mili-tarized state, a Sparta with nuclearweapons.

A portrait o Peter the Great hangsabove the desk o Russias Vladi-mir Putin. One might conclude thatMr. Putin will not rest until he hasavenged the post-Soviet losses oNarva, Riga and Poltava, the triple

victory sites o that mercurial tsar. Tefirst two lie across the EU line in theBaltics, the latter deep within Ukraine.

Te Scottish precedent threatens to set off a chain reaction. I theScots and Catalans go, the Flemishwill ollow. Te precedent creates so

much pressure, says Paul Belien, aBelgian author and Flemish national-ist. I am not happy. I ear the Scot-tish experiment will end in economicdisaster and discredit our cause. Weare the ones who subsidize Wallonia,so were really in the position o Eng-land, he said.

Scotland is our example, says EvaKlotz, leader o Sd-iroler Freiheitmovement in the Italian Dolomites.

What is happening in Scotland

changes everything or us. Tat theScots can voteand crucially thatEngland respects itshows that its

possible to achieve sel-determinationdemocratically, without war and vio-lence, she said.

Yet there is a twist. Te sub-plot othe Sd-irol campaign is reunifica-tion with Austria, years afer itwas torn away and handed to Italy asa strategic barrier, or spoils o war.

Tere are many such pockets acrossEurope: the Swedes in eastern Finland,the Germans on the wrong side o theBelgian border or indeed across mucho Alsace, the Irish Catholics o Derry,and soon perhaps the Shetlanderswithin a new Scotland. Above all thereare the Hungarians.

Europes stability since is builton the sanctity o borders, a universalacceptance that nobody will reopenthis Pandoras box, even i they havelegitimate cause. It is why Russias

seizure o Ukraine has been such ashock, so dangerous since it drew achorus o apologists within the EU,some aiming to exploit it, others use-ul idiots.

Yet Germany seems largely im-mune to ragmentation ashion .Some may view German dominancewith alarm. Yet perhaps we should bethankul that at least one great Euro-pean state is holding the line.

Te EU was supposed to lock in a

European Germany, not a GermanEurope. Te grand design assumed aplausible level o parity between Berlin

and Paris, buttressed by an array ocohesive nation states led by London.Tis is dying beore our eyes.

TW I N B R I E F

n Pope to visit EU ParliamentPope Francis announced Septem-

ber that he would accept an invita-tion to address the European Parlia-ment. Te visit to the Parliament inStrasbourg will take place on Novem-ber . Te president o the Com-mission o Bishops Conerences othe European Community (),Cardinal Reinhard Marx, said, Tedecision to come to Strasbourg beore

visiting any individual EU memberstate as such gives a strong signal thatthe pope supports and encouragesthe pursuit o European integration

and unity. EU Parliament PresidentMartin Schultz extended the invita-tion to the pope in October last year.At the time, the Vatican InsidersGia-como Galeazzi, wrote that the popewouldnt be satisfied with merely

visiting Parliament and having a ewphotos with politicians. Bergoglio isno an o blown-up media campaignsunless he can see concrete results,so a papal v isit to Strasbourg wouldmean a crammed schedule with lots

o topics to discuss, he wrote. imewill tell what concrete results thisvisit has.

ASIA

China, Russia to BuildGiant Seaport

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE |

September 10

C Russia will build one othe largest ports in northeast Asiaon Russias Sea o Japan coast, reportssaid, in a urther sign o the power-houses growing alliance.

Te seaport is expected to be ableto handle some mil lion tonneso cargo a year, Chinas state-runPeoples Daily Online reported lateWednesdaycomparable to Britains

busiest port Immingham or Le Havrein France .

Te new acility will be located inar eastern Russia, just kilometers

( miles) away rom the Chinese bor-der. Te region is also close to NorthKorea.

Chinese and Russian leaders inkeda deal on the port at Mays Coner-ence on Interaction and ConfidenceBuilding Measures in Asia () inShanghai, the report said.

Resource-hungry China is seek-ing to diversiy its sources o energyamid booming domestic consump-tion, while Russiaat odds with the

West over its annexation o UkrainesCrimea Peninsulais seeking toreocus its gas and oil exports towardsAsia.

Last week, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin and Chinese VicePremier Zhang Gaoli attended thegroundbreaking o a gas pipeline thatwill help Russia supply China undera huge energy deal. Afer a decadeo tough negotiations Chinese andRussian leaders inked a -year deal,-billion agreement in May thatwill eventually involve billion cubicmeters o gas annually.

We are today starting the biggest

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construction project in the world,Putin said at the ceremony outside theSiberian city o Yakutsk.

Zhang said that he hoped the pipe-line would be completed within ouryears. China is to devote consistentand unswerving effort to establishinga strategic partnership o energy coop-eration with Russia as agreed upon bythe heads o state o the two countries,he said, according to Chinas officialXinhua news agency.

China Deploys Troopsin South Sudan

WALL STREET JOURNAL | September 9

C deploying soldiersto a United Nations peacekeepingorce in South Sudan to help guard thecountrys embattled oil fields and pro-tect Chinese workers and installations,a spokesman or the Arican nations

president said uesday.Te airlif o the Chinese inantrybattalion to the South Sudanese stateso Unity and Upper Nile, the site othe only operating oil fields still underthe control o the central governmentin Juba, was expected to take severaldays, spokesman Ateny Wek Atenysaid.

While Beijings troops will operateunder UN command, their posting toSouth Sudan marks a sharp escalationo Chinas efforts to ensure the saety

o its workers and assets in Arica andguarantee a steady flow o energy ordomestic consumption.

Te deployment marks the firsttime Beijing has contributed a battal-ion to a UN peacekeeping orce, UNofficials said. In March , Chinasent some peacekeepers to Mali toprotect Chinese engineers building aUN camp in the town o Gao.

Chinas state-owned NationalPetroleum Corp. holds a percent

stake in a joint venture that operatesin South Sudans vast oil fields. Tecompany also has a ,-mile exportpipeline that carries crude throughneighboring Sudan to Port Sudan onthe Red Sea.

Beore the latest fighting in SouthSudan flared, the country accountedor percent o Chinas crude imports,according to the U.S. Energy Inorma-tion Administration. Output has sinceplummeted by a thirdto ,barrels a dayollowing the outbreak

o fighting late last year.More than , people have been

killed and some . million uprootedrom their homes in South Sudansince fighting erupted in December .

Te UN Mission in the Republic oSouth Sudan is authorized by the Se-curity Council or up to , troopsand , police personnel. As o July, it had a total o , soldiers, po-lice and military liaison officers. Un-der its mandate, UN peacekeepers are

U the only place where Russia is stirringup trouble. Since the Soviet Union broke up in ,Moscow has routinely supported secessionists in borderingstates, to coerce those states into accepting its dictates. Itslatest such effort is unolding in the South Caucasus.

In recent weeks, Moscow seems to have been aggravat-ing a longstanding conflict between Armenia and Azerbai-

jan while playing peacemaking overlord to both. In the firstweek o August, as many as Armenian and Azerbaijanisoldiers were reported killed in heavy fighting near theirborder, just beore a summit meeting convened by Russiaspresident, Vladimir V. Putin.

Te South Caucasus may seem remote, but the regionborders Russia, Iran and urkey, and commands a vitalpipeline route or oil and natural gas to flow rom CentralAsia to Europe without passing through Russia. Westernofficials cannot afford to let another part o the region bedigested by Moscowas they did when Russia separated

South Ossetia and Abkhazia rom Georgia, just to thenorth, in a brie war in , and when it seized Crimearom Ukraine this year.

Tree times in the s, Armenia and Azerbaijansigned peace agreements, but Russia ound ways to derailArmenias participation. (In , or example, a disgrun-tled journalist suspected o having been aided by Moscowassassinated Armenias prime minister, speaker o Parlia-ment and other government officials.)

An unresolved conflicta rozen conflict, Russia calls

itgives Russian orces an excuse to enter the region andcoerce both sides. Once Russian orces are in place, neitherside can cooperate closely with the West without ear oretribution rom Moscow.

Te latest violence preceded a summit meeting onAugust in Sochi, Russia, at which Mr. Putin sought anagreement on deploying additional Russian peacekeepersbetween Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Beore the meeting, Moscow had been tightening its gripon the South Caucasus, with Armenias tacit support. Lastall, Armenias government gave up its ambitions to sign apartnership agreement with the European Union and an-nounced that it would join Moscows customs union instead.

Renewed open warare would give Russia an excuseto send in more troops, under the guise o peacekeeping.Destabilizing the South Caucasus could also derail a hugegas pipeline project, agreed to last December, that mightlighten Europes dependence on Russian uel.

But astonishingly, American officials reacted to the cur-rent fighting by saying they welcome the Russian-spon-sored summit meeting. Has Washington learned nothing

rom Georgia and Ukraine? o prevent escalation o theCaucasus conflict, and deny Mr. Putin the pretext or a newland grab, President [Barack] Obama should invite the lead-ers o Azerbaijan and Armenia to Washington and showthat America has not abandoned the South Caucasus. Tiswould encourage the leaders to resist Russias pressure.

Letting the South Caucasus lose its sovereignty to Russiawould strike a deadly blow to Americas already dimin-ished ability to seek and maintain alliances in the ormerSoviet Union and beyond.

Russias Next Land GrabNEW YORK TIMES | September 9

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allowed to use all necessary meansto protect imperiled civilians at oilinstallations. I attacked, Mr. Atenysaid, the Chinese soldiers are combat-ready and can fight back.

India Signs Free TradeAgreement WithASEAN

ECONOMIC TIMES | September 9

I a ree trade pact inservices and investment with the-member Association o SoutheastAsian Nations () on Mondayin New Delhi. Te accord is aimed atallowing reer movement o proes-sionals and encouraging investment.

comprising Brunei, Cam-bodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore,Tailand and Vietnamand India are

targeting billion in trade by .Nine out o countries havesigned the accord, while the Philip-pines is expected to do so soon afercompleting domestic procedures.

Te services pact covers issuessuch as transparency, domestic regu-lations, recognition, market access,national treatment, increasing partici-pation o developing countries, jointcommittee on services, review, disputesettlement and denial o benefits, a

commerce department official said.

Putin Tightens Controlof Defense SectorREUTERS | September 10

P V Putin signed adecree on Wednesday taking directcharge o a commission that overseesRussias deense industry as Moscow

tries to reduce reliance on Westernequipment ollowing sanctions overthe Ukraine crisis.

He also said was using rheto-ric over the conflict in Ukraine to

resuscitate itsel .

J the United States are exploring the possibilityo okyo acquiring offensive weapons that would al lowJapan to project power ar beyond its borders, Japanese o-ficials said, a move that would likely inuriate China.

While Japans intensiying rivalry with China dominates

the headlines, okyos ocus would be the ability to take outNorth Korean missile bases, said three Japanese officialsinvolved in the process.

Tey said okyo was holding the inormal, previouslyundisclosed talks with Washington about capabilities thatwould mark an enhancement omilitary might or a country thathas not fired a shot in anger sinceits deeat in World War .

Te talks on what Japan re-gards as a strike capability arepreliminary and do not coverspecific hardware at this stage,

the Japanese officials told Reuters.Deense experts say an o-

ensive capability would require achange in Japans purely deen-sive military doctrine, whichcould open the door to billions odollars worth o offensive missile systems and other hard-ware. Tese could take various orms, such as submarine-fired cruise missiles similar to the U.S. omahawk.

U.S. officials said there were no ormal discussions onthe matter but did not rule out the possibility that inormal

contacts on the issue had taken place. One U.S. official saidJapan had approached American officials inormally lastyear about the matter.

Japans military is already robust but is constrained by apacifist Constitution. Te Sel Deense Forces have dozens

o naval surace ships, submarines and three helicoptercarriers, with more vessels under construction. Japan isalso buying advanced F- stealth fighter jets.

Reshaping the military into a more assertive orce is acore policy o Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Te Japanese officials said theirU.S. counterparts were cautious[about] the idea, part ly becauseit could outrage China, whichaccuses Abe o reviving wartimemilitarism.

Part o Japans motivation orupgrading its capabilities is a

nagging suspicion that the UnitedStates, with some , troopsin South Korea as well as ,in Japan, might hesitate to attack[North Korea] in a crisis, Japa-nese experts said. We might

want to maintain some kind o limited strike capability inorder to be able to initiate a strike, so that we can tell theAmericans, unless you do the job or us, we will have todo it on our own, said Michishita, a security expert at theNational Graduate Institute or Policy Studies in okyo.

Japan, U.S. Discuss Offensive Military Capability for TokyoREUTERS | September 10

Related: Putin II Tightens Grip onRussian Media

A more dictatorial Russian govern-ment is coming fast . That power

will be able to challenge Europe whennobody else can, including the U.S. Russian elections have recently moved

President Vladimir Putin much closerto becoming a dictator. This strikesintense fear in Europe. The Europeansstill remember how violent Russia wasin World War II, and Russia is a closeneighbor with massive piles of nuclear

weapons. Gerald Flurry, Trumpet,January 2004

Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the U.S. officials who wroteJapans Constitution were experienced and world wise.If they were around today, they would recognize Japansshifting tides and take action to reverse them. But, as theProphet Isaiah wrote, American leaders today act like chil-dren (Isaiah 3:4). The biblical name for the United Statesis Manasseh, which in Hebrew means forgetful.Those

leading America today are living up to this name: Likechildren, they are destitute in experience and forgetfuleven about very recent history. As the U.S. snubs history,

turns inward and ignores geopolitical shif ts, the barri-ers established to prevent another world war are beingsystematically dismantled. Trumpet,December 2013
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ANGLO-AMERICA

In the BeginningManCreatedDo you know why man was created? Do you know why you were

born? The Bible contains the answers!GERALD FLURRY

Britain Awakens toBreakup Dangers

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard,TELEGRAPH | September 8

P across theworld have woken up to the pos-sibility that Scotland may vote tobreak up the United Kingdom, withsome already preparing deensive ac-tion that risks a potentially dangerousflight rom sterling and Britains bondmarket.

Japans biggest bank, Nomura, hasadvised clients to slash financial expo-sure to the UK and brace or a pos-sible collapse o the pound afer polls

showed the independence campaignrunning neck and neck, warning thatthe separation o England and Scot-land afer more than years wouldbe a cataclysmic shock.

Te ast money unds startedmoving a week ago but now we areseeing real money clients acting,said Jordan Rochester, the banksoreign exchange strategist. Te risksare suddenly seen as much greater orJapanese pension unds.

Nomura advised investors to takeout protection on British banks, insur-ers and pension unds through themarket or credit deault swaps ().

We could see a lot o money being

pulled out o UK investments. Sterlingcould all at least percent in a worstcase scenario. Tese are scary times,Mr. Rochester added.

Equity prices linked closely toScotland ell heavily in the first day otrading afer a YouGov poll showedthe Yes camp pulling ahead or thefirst time, but it is ar rom a rout.

Stephen Jen, head o MacroPartners and a Chinese-speaker romaiwan, said Asian investors are flab-bergasted by the sight o an ancient

and successul union tearing itselapart or no obvious reason. It istotally bizarre. Tey simply dont un-derstand it, and nor do I. Until a weekand hal ago everybody thought therewas a zero probability o Scotland vot-ing Yes, he said.

We have always assumed theUnited Kingdom would stay united,but now everything we thought aboutthe UK has suddenly been tested, andwill have to be repriced.

Sterling could weaken a lot, thoughjust how ar it alls depends on com-plicated dynamics. I Scotland tries tokeep all the oil and reuses to take onits share o the public debt, there could

be a run on UK assets. Mr. Derrick said a percent plunge

in sterling is quite conservative giv-en the dangers o a messy divorce.

Te risk now is that the worldssuperpower creditors take [flight]and start to dictate an outcome thatneither Westminster [nor] Edinburghwill welcome. Asia has suddenlycome alive to this, and people areasking a lot o questions, said DavidBloom, head o currencies at .

Lax Security atNuclear Power PlantDAILY CALLER | September 8

A miles outside Washing-ton, D.C., is a nuclear power plantthat sits on the western shore o theChesapeake Bay. Its the sort o placethe government has warned is vulner-able to a terrorist attack.

But an investigation conducted bythe Daily Caller ound that anybodycan enter the property o the CalvertCliffs Nuclear Power Plant, drivethrough the ront gates, park not arrom a nuclear reactor and have nocontact o any kind with security.

Te Daily Callerwas able to pro-ceed through an unmanned securitycheckpointthe guard booth wasempty and padlockedand, minuteslater, enter a parking lot about eet away rom one o the plants two

nuclear reactors.On one visit, reporters did not see

a single security guard anywhere. Ona subsequent visit, a lone markedsecurity car passed by without slowingdown or asking questions.

At one point, a large civilian truckroughly o the size o the trucks usedin terror bombings around the world,including at the Oklahoma City ed-eral building in rolled throughthe ront gates and approached the
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reactors without being stopped. Part o security is to have a vis-

ible deense so that it doesnt attract

adversaries who might see this kindo weakness to exploit, observes Dr.Edwin Lyman, an expert in nuclearterrorism at the Union o ConcernedScientists.

Less Safe Than AnyTime Since 9/11?WASHINGTON TIMES | September 10

T beheadings o journal-

ists by the terrorist army known asthe Islamic State has shaken Americato its core, with more people sayingthe United States is less sae now thanat any point since /, said a new pollreleased Wednesday.

Te News/Wall Street Journalpoll ound that percent o Ameri-cans believe the country is less saenow than beore the Sept. , ,terror attacks on New York and Wash-ington. Tats more people eeling

unsae than even a year afer /when just percent elt that way.

Te ear has prompted more than

percent o Americans to back mili-tary action against the Islamic State ,which has overrun large swaths o ter-ritory in Iraq and Syria and declareditsel an Islamic caliphate.

Te numbers underscore thechallenges acing President [Barack]Obama when he addressed the nationWednesday at p.m. to outline a strat-egy or conronting the terrorists.

Breaking the Silence

on the IRS OutrageTHE NEW YORK OBSERVER |September 9

T O Sidney Powell hasbeen breaking story afer story onthe scandal involving ormer chieLois Lerner and the mysterious inabil-ity o her office to produce emails thata judge has ordered. Her scoops haveincluded the act that Ms. Lerners

BlackBerry appears to have beenwiped clean afer the Congressionalinquiry into the politicization o the

had begun.Te scandal began when it appearedthat the was targeting conservativegroups like the National Organiza-tion or Marriage and those with teaparty in their names, subjectingthem to extra scrutiny when applyingor tax-exempt status. As Ms. Powell,a ormer ederal prosecutor who hasworked or U.S. attorneys rom bothparties, has pointed out, the scandalhas mushroomed beyond the politicaltargeting, and now seems to present a

clear pattern o obstruction:Tis is the ourth announcement o

an ever-expanding computer calamityconnected to Lois Lerner to emergerom the . First it was just Le-rners computer that was affected, thenthose o her closest co-conspirators,then no more than computers, andnow an ever-larger batch o burnedout workstations.

Readers understand how toxic it isor a democracy even to appear to use

T a possible breakup o the United King-dom have been elt here in recent days, as markets gyrateand banks make contingency plans.

Yet as Scotland nears its vote on whether to be anindependent nation, bankers here worry that a split might

unintentionally set in motion a push or what could be amuch uglier divorce: an exit o Britain rom the EuropeanUnion.

I an independent Scotland would be complicated, aBritain alone in Europe would be a complete mess, finan-cial executives say.

Certainly the more important o the two is the poten-tial o Britain leaving the EU, said Brian Hilliard, the chieBritish economist at Socit Gnrale in London.

Britain, or many businesses, particularly financialservices, is a gateway to the rest o the -nation EuropeanUnion, a market o million people, more than theUnited States and Japan combined. For businesses like Citi-

group or Goldman Sachs, having a London office meanshaving a passport or nearly all o Europe. Without thatunettered access, the ree flow o capital, talent and goodsand services would have to be renegotiated.

It is hard to be the gateway to the EU i you are not inthe EU, Mr. Cummings said.

A diminished gateway status would hurt the financial

industry, which accounts or percent o Britains grossdomestic product and nearly percent o jobs. Bankersworry that without the promise o all o Europe behind it,Londonrivaled only by New York as the worlds leadingfinancial centerwould not attract the same interest, and

neither would Britain. Te calculus behind how Scottish independence could

drive an exit by Britain rom the European Unionknownas Brexitis political.

Voters in Scotland have been more supportive o theEuropean Union than those in the rest o Britain, meaningan independent Scotland removes a significant bloc o pro-Europe votes in a reerendum.

Te absence o the Scottish voters in the reerendumin would clearly shif the balance against Europe,said Graham Bishop, a consultant on European integrationbased in London.

Complicating matters is the composition o the

Labour Party. Forty-one o the Scottish members oParliament are Labour, and i they leave upon indepen-dence, the balance o power tilts toward the ConservativeParty.

Still, Mr. Hilliard o Socit Gnrale says he believesthere is a percent chance that Britain will leave the Eu-ropean Union. I so, he predicts a triple whammy.

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the tools o the state to punish dissent-ing opinion. Its not a surprise thatthese stories have turned into a hitseries or the Observer.

What is a surprise is how little at-tention the rest o the media is payingto this issue.

All last summer, when the targeting

part o the story was first breaking,the big three networks issued a virtualblackout on coverage. High-wattageconrontations that would have madegreat Darrell Issa accusing Commissioner Danny Werel oblocking the committees investiga-tion, s report that Ms. Lerner

had lied when she blamed low-levelemployees, the revelation o her owne-mails in Te Wall Street Journal(pre-destruction) that revealed a lib-eral agenda, USA odayand the NewYork imesboth publishing ront-pagestories on the targeting o conserva-tives and the non-compliance rom

M years ago, I opposed devolution,writes Sir John Major in todays imes. I did so notbecause I thought Scotland could not govern itsel. Plainlyit can. I did so because I believed devolution would be ahigh road to separation. So it has proved. Te vote next

week is about ar more than the uture o Scotland. It isabout the uture o every part o the United Kingdom.

And he goes on to talk about Labours deadly legacy,decrying their meddling with the political settlement andthe constitutional dogs breakast bequeathed. So, i Scot-land votes next week to secede rom the United Kingdom(which looks possible, i not likely), it wil l be ony Blairsault through New Labours ignorance and delinquency.

Except that the separatist cause was given a significantboost in by the Conservatives, or it was John Major,egged on by Michael Forsyth, who suddenly announcedapropos o nothing that the stone o destiny (aka the stoneo scone; the coronation stone; Jacobs pillow/pillar) should

be wrenched rom the throne o the United Kingdom andreturned to Scotland. In his Commons statement, Mr. Ma-

jor explained: Te stone o destiny is the most ancientsymbol o Scottish kingship. I wish to inorm the Housethat, on the advice o Her Majestys ministers, the Queenhas agreed that the stone should be returned to Scotland.Te stone will, o course, be taken to Westminster Abbeyto play its traditional role in the coronation ceremonies outure sovereigns o the United Kingdom. [I]t is appro-priate to return it to its historic homeland .

In his response, leader o the opposition ony Blairobserved that the stone is part o Scottish nationhood.

David Steel M.P. added that the majority o people inScotland want not just the symbol, but the substancethe substance o the return o democratic control overour internal affairs in Scotland. But it was Margaret Ew-ing M.P. who hit the legendary nai l squarely on the head:[]he stone o destiny is not the symbol o k ingship butthe symbol o the sovereignty o the people o Scotland. Like others, I argue that, while we welcome the returno this symbol o power, we want the realit ies o powerin Scotland. It may have taken this Parliament some years to return stolen goods to Scotland, but inactuality the people o Scotland will return to themselvesthe power o having their own sovereign Parliament very

soon.It was a vacuous political gesture draped in the royal

command, but it was clearly expressed that the Queenwas acting on the advice o (her) ministers. What theydismissed as mere symbolism was, or many, a portent onationalist power, or legend decreed that the return o thestone to Scotland would herald independence rom the

yoke o English oppression and tyranny (i.e. Edward andMargaret Tatcher).

Stuff and nonsense, you say: mythical bluster; absolutelybarking. Well, up to a point, maybe. But what secular-minded politicians tend to ignore are the spiritual, reli-gious and theological oundations o the British Constitu-tion, ofen treating them as anachronistic expressions obigotry or o belonging to an age o unreason.

Te stone o scone had resided in Westminster Abbey or years . But the prime minister had not even botheredto consult the dean and chapter over his intentions: It was asthough the stone were nothing more than an historic artiactto be packed away and carted around like an Elgin Marble.

Te dean, the very Revd Michael Mayne, strained to explainto Mr. Major that the stone and coronation chair were a singleintegritythe reliquary with the relic in it. And he askedwhat it said about the modern political view o monarchythat the stone was to be housed not in a Scottish church, onconsecrated ground, but in a castle museum; a secular space.But Mr. Major had not even thought about this.

And so the coronation chair is empty o the historicthrone upon which the kings and queens o Ireland,Scotland, England and the United Kingdom have longbeen crowned. Trough political ignorance and religiousindifference; through scheming subteruge and sophistry,

sovereignty has been removed; national independencecompromised; the Protestant aith diminished. Te Royal Warrant or the stones removal specifies

that it should be returned or all uture sovereigns o theUnited Kingdom at their coronation. It is a sacredceremony o religious anointing. But the next sovereignmay not reign over a United Kingdomat least one that in-cludes Scotland. We are assured that the Union o Crownswill continueand, yes, it preceded the Union o Parlia-ments by a century. But it will be a shadow o its ormerreligio-political significance. And or that we can blame,successively, David Cameron, Gordon Brown, ony Blairand John Major (and Michael Forsyth).

Or, i it helps, you can blame Margaret Tatcher ordelivering her Sermon on the Mound.

If Scotland Votes Yes, It Will Be John Majors FaultARCHBISHOP CRANMER | September 10

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SEPTEMBER 12 20142THE TRUMPET WEEKLY

Meanwhile the No campaigns main argument hassimply been, Youll get the same amount of money and

goodies, or perhaps even more, if you stay in the union.Neither side has a vision o what a united Britain can do

to help the world. Teir views are completely insular andsel-ocused. What a horrible reason to end the most suc-cessul political union o separate states in history.

Such a separation will, in time, rank as one o the worstcalamities ever to beall either nation.

Te Catastrophe of IndependenceAn independent Scotland would cripple Britains military.Hundreds o years o history have shown that deendingBritain without Scotland is all but impossible.

From early in the th century, when the Royal NavysGrand Fleet assembled at Scapa Flow to deend our shoresagainst the Kaiser, to more recent efforts to intercept rogueRussian warplanes and naval ships challenging British-controlled territory, Scotland has been our first line odeense, the elegraphs deense expert Con Coughlin

wrote earlier this year. He points out that three out oBritains five yphoon combat squadrons are based inScotland, as well an early warning radar network and other

vital deense assets. He continues: Apart rom orcing theNavy to find a new home or the rident submarine fleet ata conservative cost o billion (. billion), Scottishindependence would require the to relocate more thanhal o its combat squadrons south o the border. As or theArmy, at a time when it is struggling to cope with the coali-tions demand to cut its standing strength by percentto ,, the establishment o a separate Scott ish deenseorce could orce it to accept a urther cut o around ,.

As one senior officer remarked: A British Army witharound , would be laughable.Meanwhile Britains First Sea Lord, Adm. Sir George

Zambellas, said, I believe that independence would unda-mentally change maritime security or all o us in the Unit-ed Kingdom and damage the very heart o the capabilitiesthat are made up o the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, theRoyal Fleet Auxiliary and the Fleet Air Arm.

Te result would be a gutted British military. It wouldbe the end o Britain as a first rate military power. For goodor or evil, the UK would no longer be able to intervene inworld events in any meaningul way.

A breakup would also have a huge effect on Britains

oreign policy. Heres another quote rom Forsyths article:Te rump that would be lef behind afer a Scottish yes

vote would become a global laughingstock. Whenever theprime minister o what remained o the United Kingdomraised his voice in the international arena, he would be metby a chorus o You couldnt even keep your own countrytogether! I even the British dont believe in the British wayo doing things any more, then why would anybody else?

Later on in the article he notes: Afer all, this would nolonger be the same country that had ought on the winningside in two world wars and colored hal the globe pink.It would, instead, just be the successor state to that great

nation.Finally the breakup would also have major economic

effects. Heres what Jordan Rochester, oreign exchangestrategist at Japans largest bank, Namura, said about anindependent Scotland:

We could see a lot o money being pulled out o UK in-vestments. Sterling could all at least percent in a worstcase scenario. Tese are scary times.

As the polls that put the Yes vote in the lead emerged,the pound immediately dropped to its lowest level againstthe dollar in months. Te value o two top Scottishbanks tanked by over . billioneach.

Just the thought o independence is starting to causefinancial markets to panic.

A Kingdom Without VisionProverbs tells us that where there is no vision, the peopleperish. We see that in action today. Some visionnotperect, but enough to provide the two nations with asense o common purposeexisted in the past. Te firststages o union with Scotland came at the time o a rising

consciousness among the English that they were a peoplesomehow different to all others, called to a special destiny,as historian Paul Johnson put it in his book Te OffshoreIslanders.

Te last actor was decisivethe keystone in theReormation arch, he wrote. It takes enormous energy tochange the entire course o world history, and such energycannot be drawn exclusively rom physical orces; some-thing metaphysical is required too.

Part o that enough energy came rom what could becalled vision. BritainEngland and Scotland unitedbe-lieved that it could change the world, and make it a better

place.Tat vision is gone. Te nation does not even try to giveits young people a sense o worth or purpose, so they turnto drink and un. Young Muslims see no useul purpose intheir home country, so they turn to an extremist ideologythat seeks to destroy it. Te orces o division, which havealways existed in British politics, are no longer restrainedby a sense o common purpose. Any charlatan who canconvince the Scots that they could get more ree money byleaving the union gets a large chunk o the vote.

Britain no longer gives Scots a reason to remain British.Apart rom a vague sense o Scottishness, the national-ists dont have much o a vision either. So the whole thing

becomes a row over benefits. Tats all thats lef to argueabout.

Scotland may ultimately vote No on September , butthat hate and division will remaina sense o vision andpurpose will not. With a No vote, Britain will narrowlyavoid catastrophe, but these aults will remain.

Its a sad picture or Britain. However, there is hope orthese underlying problems to be fixed. Tat hope is theonly real way to fix England and Scotlands problems.

For more on this hope, read our ree book Te UnitedStates and Britain in Prophecy.

Follow Richard Palmer: witter

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