The Cracked Acorn: Bullets

The U.S. military is faced with low supplies of ammunition.  New small arms require shells of various sizes, along with the popular WWII 50-caliber.  During the Vietnam War, we needed over 500,000 million rounds.  Present-day training needs, peacekeeper efforts, and the ongoing Iraq war now demand at least 2 billion rounds to maintain strict military standards. (ARMS TRADE, TIME.COM)

One of the main factories located in Missouri is running three shifts.  Bullets are being purchased from Canada, South Korea, and Israel (these are used for training and not in Iraq).  These purchases are aimed to head off a shortfall for the frontline troops and the Iraq army.

Who would have guessed that terrorism would be our next war?  After Vietnam, most major munitions factories were closed.  It was thought that supply depots would answer all our needs at various world points.  These have turned out to be too small and far from the trouble spots.  Politicians are partly to blame for saying that it was peacetime and small wars did not count. Comedians blame it on Hillary.  Building new plants takes years, and a short war could be over before these factories are ready.

Man has come a long way from the days of stone axes and slingshots.  The arm was the power of ancient armies.  Metal weapons and catapults were major inventions.  When gunpowder was invented, a new arms race began.  We now require warplanes, aircraft carriers, bombs of all sizes, and smart guided missiles.  When this fails, the nuclear-headed monster rises with its total annihilation threat.

When will it all end?

I really don’t need to write to you about how and when all this will happen, dear brothers and sisters.  2)For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. 3)When people are saying, “All is well; everything is peaceful and secure,” then disaster will fall upon them as suddenly as a woman’s birth pains begin when her child is about to be born. And there will be no escape. ( I Thessalonians 5:1-3)

King David’s great sin was to find out the number of those in his army. (II Samuel chapter 24)

The Lord told Gideon that with 300 hundred men, the mighty Midianite army would be defeated. (Judges chapter 8)

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  (Proverbs  3:5,6 – )

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children… This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.- Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a speech on April 16, 1953

YOU ARE MY HIDING PLACE, YOU ALWAYS FILL MY HEART WITH SONGS OF DELIVERANCE;  WHEN EVER I AM AFRAID, I WILL TRUST IN YOU. LET THE WEAK SAY, “I AM STRONG IN THE STRENGTH OF THE LORD.” (#441, Songs of FAITH and PRAISE)

You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble. (Psalm 32:7)