World News and Trends: United States faces growing threat from 'nuts with nukes'
Three years before 9/11, columnist and author Peggy Noonan wrote of "nuts with nukes"—dictators and terrorists to whom the normal processes of rational thinking don't apply.
Three years before 9/11, columnist and author Peggy Noonan wrote of "nuts with nukes"—dictators and terrorists to whom the normal processes of rational thinking don't apply.
"When you consider who is gifted [with the ability or means to acquire weapons of mass destruction] and crazed with rage . . . when you think of the terrorist places and the terrorist countries . . . who do they hate most? The Great Satan, the United States," she wrote (Forbes ASAP, November 1998).
In a January 2005 column she revived her phrase about "nuts with nukes," again commenting on how dangerous a world we inhabit. As if on cue, in early February the spokesman for Iran's powerful Supreme National Security Council, Ali Agha Mohammadi, vowed that it will never scrap its nuclear program, which it insists is for peaceful purposes.
Barely a week later, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami promised "a burning hell" for any aggressor against his country. Meanwhile, European Union negotiations with Iran to halt its nuclear work were at a standstill, and it appeared that the issue may go to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions against Iran.
Almost simultaneously, North Korea publicly stated that it possesses nuclear weapons and will not return to the six-nation talks aimed at shelving its nuclear-weapons plans. North Korea's foreign ministry said that it needed the nukes for self-protection against "gangsters" such as the United States and that "only powerful strength can protect [North Korea's] justice and truth."
A few days earlier, North Korea had threatened to turn U.S. bases "into a sea of fire" should war break out on the Korean peninsula, and to "thoroughly" wipe out those who would aid the United States—presumably South Korea and Japan, hosts of U.S. bases. While an estimated 1 to 2 million North Koreans have starved to death in the last decade, the paranoid dictatorship fields an army of almost 1.2 million troops, the fifth largest in the world.
No wonder Jesus Christ said of the time of the end: "For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive . . ." (Matthew 24:21-22, New International Version).
To understand where these trends may be leading, request our free booklets Are We Living in the Time of the End? and The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. (Sources: Forbes ASAP, Associated Press, Reuters, WorldNetDaily.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: March - April 2005
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Jerold Aust
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
