MAD, the 'Mutually Assured Destruction' policy that kept Russian and American nuclear missiles in their silos for the past half-century, is no deterrent to terrorists who have no state against which to retaliate. And the MAD policy during the Cold War has left tens of thousands of nuclear weapons potentially available to terrorists.

Today there is no accurate inventory of the world's nuclear arsenals or weapons-grade fissile materials suitable for making nuclear weapons. Estimates have it, however, that there are currently more than 30,000 nuclear weapons in the world.

We simply don't know whether these weapons are adequately controlled, or whether some could already have fallen into the hands of terrorists.

Osama bin Laden claims to possess nuclear weapons. His claim is feasible. Former Russian Security Advisor Aleksandr Lebed testified before Congress in 1998 that some 80 to 100 suitcase-size nuclear weapons in the one kiloton range are missing from the Russian arsenal. Shortly thereafter, Lebed was killed in a mysterious helicopter crash.

Putin's government denies any missing Russian nuclear weapons, but Lebed's claim has also been repeated by Alexey Yablokov, an advisor to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Former US Deputy Energy Secretary Charles Curtis doesn't buy Kremlin assurances either;

"We believe we have a full accounting of all of Russia's strategic weapons, but when it comes to tactical weapons - the suitcase variety - we do not know, and I'm not sure they do, either."

Indeed, a Russian defense official in charge of nuclear weapons security isn't sure at all.

Igor Valynkin, chief of the Defense Ministry's 12th Main Directorate, recently told Izvestya that Moscow has ruled out joint security cooperation with the United States in securing nuclear arms.

"Russia's nuclear weapons storage facilities are not yet fully equipped with modern means of physical protection," Valynkin said.

How's that again? The United States is spending fifty million dollars per year to help the Russians improve security at about fifteen different nuclear facilities. And they are still too decrepit to allow Moscow to participate in a joint nuclear security program?

And, in addition to the terrorist threat, Valynkin said there was always the danger of someone from the inside getting access to, or detonating a nuclear warhead.

"Yes, the human factor is the weakest link in the nuclear weapons protection system," Valynkin said. "But now we have developed a system that makes it possible to guard a facility without using sentries. The system is very effective," he said. Guard without sentries?

What few guards the Russians do have, says Valynkin, undergo background screening, although the screening "is not as straightforward as we would like."

"On the other hand, we are very careful in selecting the people who are going to serve with us," Valynkin assures us. Tests are done to make sure "nobody with a narcotics or alcohol dependency is given access to nuclear weapons," he said.

Evidently, the Russians have decided it isn't a good idea to give drunks and potheads the keys to the nuclear arsenal. And, since there aren't enough sober Russians to fill out a whole shift, Moscow claims it has a system to guard the nukes without sentries.

Maybe not. The Prime-Tass news agency reported on Tuesday that Russian had opened nine criminal cases of wrongdoing and issued over 100 official warnings to employees in Russia's nuclear power industry.

Speaking at a parliamentary session, deputy prosecutor Vladimir Kolesnikov warned the country's nuclear power plants are susceptible to man-made disasters because of aging infrastructure and poor maintenance and repair.

According to a report from an Indian news website, (webindia123.com) Russia's Prosecutor General's Office revealed numerous security threats to the country's nuclear power plants and is CONSIDERING checks at power facilities as a remedy.

(I thought they had an a 'very effective system' to guard a facility without using sentries?)

In a new book published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and authored by Anthony Cordesman, Iran is pushing for nuclear weapons because it's conventional military forces are still in tatters from the 1980's war with Iraq.

"They have a 340,000-man army, but 220,000 of them are 18-months-conscripts. . . Its artillery is old and worn and its 1,600 tanks and about 300 airplanes are outdated even by Middle Eastern standards," Cordesman writes.

Cordesman's new book is titled "Iran's Developing Military Capabilities." A former Defense Department official, Cordesman asserted that Iran has declined in conventional military capability since the 1970s.

"Iran is a far less modern military power in comparative terms than it was during the time of the shah or during the Iran-Iraq War," he said.

"Nevertheless, it is slowly improving its conventional forces, and it is now the only regional military power that poses a serious conventional military threat to Persian Gulf stability."

Iran's military has moved from conventional to asymmetrical warfare and nuclear weapons, Cordesman says. 'Asymmetrical warfare' is another name for stateless terrorism. In this model, Iran supplies weapons and funding to terrorist groups to conduct operations against enemies of Iran that can't be traced back to Tehran for retaliation.

This probably comes as no surprise since we've heard it all before, but it is another of those 'white noise' reports where you think, "My, that's terrible!", before moving on to the next news story.

Instead of moving on, let's dwell on it for a second or two and what it means to us -- wherever we might live, and not just inside the United States.

Using asymmetrical warfare and nuclear weapons, Iran could strike any enemy, anytime, anywhere, without fear of retaliation. No non-nuclear state would dare to counter-attack a nuclear Iran, and no nuclear state could afford to risk a nuclear exchange without incontrovertible evidence that Iran was responsible.

Iran's nuclear patron is Russia, a state with more than 20,000 nuclear weapons that it admits it can't keep track of.

Official US policy says that Iran cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Israel has gone a step further, saying that Iran WILL NOT be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and has already built mock-ups of Iranian nuclear facilities to use to train Israeli commandos to take them out.

Israel says categorically that it will bomb Iran's nuclear program out of existence if necessary, and the United States has given tacit approval, with Dick Cheney saying recently that the US 'couldn't stop' Israel if it decided to take out Iran's nuclear facilities the way it took out Saddam's in 1981.

So, Iran knows that the Israelis are planning to attack them. So do the Russians. Both know the United States fully supports an Israeli attack.

Consider the following scenario for a moment. Iran is on the verge of a nuclear breakthrough -- Israel is warming up its warplanes on the tarmac. To prevent the destruction of its nuclear capabilities, Iran strikes Israel through Hezbollah or some other stateless entity.

Russia steps up to the plate to defend its multi-billion dollar investment, warning the United States that an attack against Iran is an attack against Mother Russia. And to ensure that they mean it, Russian troops join Iranian troops in a preemptive attack against Israel.

What would the United States do? What COULD the United States do? Risk a nuclear holocaust in a nuclear exchange with Russia? The Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine still exists. We could utterly destroy Russia, but Russia could utterly destroy the northern half of the Western Hemisphere in response.

And even if Washington were willing to take the risk, the rest of the world would not.

Given the circumstances, in an event such as an attempted invasion of Israel by Iranian and Russian forces, at best all the Israelis could hope for would be a series of indignant diplomatic protests and a new round of debates at the UN. No nation on earth, including the United States, is likely to risk nuclear annihilation to save the Jews.

The prophet Ezekiel writes of what he calls the Gog-Magog War. In Ezekiel's vision, Israel will face an invasion, led by the Russians and Iranians, and backed up by the rest of the Islamic Middle East.

"Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land." (Ezekiel 38:11-13)

According to Ezekiel, the world reaction will be one of shock, but little else.

"Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?" (v 12)

According to Ezekiel, the invaders will never make it past the mountains of the West Bank. Note Ezekiel's description of what follows carefully:

"And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone." (Ezekiel 38:22)

The point is this. At no time in recorded human history, from the Babylonian captivity until now has Israel been invaded by a Russian/Persian alliance. Until 1948, there had not been a nation called "Israel" since Sargon II captured and destroyed the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel in 702 BC.

Ezekiel notes that this invasion is scheduled for the "latter days": "And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days . . ." (38:16)

Is it possible that this is coincidence? What are the odds that a Jew in Babylonian captivity following the destruction of Israel and during the captivity of Judah, would GUESS that there would be in the latter days a nation called 'Israel' -- when there hadn't been a nation called 'Israel' for 150 years?

To put it into perspective, it would be like someone living today writing of the revival of the Confederate States of America at sometime in the distant future.

To keep the analogy going, our present-day prophet would also identify the nations who would be opposed, at that future time, to the existence of the revived Confederate States of America.

Our present-day prophet would not only have to identify the ethnicity of the CSA's future mortal enemies, but would also have to predict the invasion route. Do the invaders arrive on the shores of Alabama? Or from the Gulf side and up the Mississippi Valley?

Ezekiel's prophecy, viewed from that perspective, would be breath-taking if the only thing he got right was that at some future point in history, there would again be a place called 'Israel' inhabited by the descendants of its original people and existing on its original piece of real estate.

But Ezekiel got it all right, from Russia and Persia, right down to describing Israel as a 'land of unwalled villages'. (38:11) Israel is currently building an anti-terror 'wall' and any potential peace settlement will undoubtedly result in the tearing down of that wall.

In Ezekiel's day, it was common for nation-states to build walls to protect against invasion. But name for me another nation or state on the face of Planet Earth that has built a defensive wall to protect itself from foreign invasion in the past hundred years?

Ezekiel made a point of mentioning Israel as a land of 'unwalled villages' -- coincidence again? Let's list the 'coincidences';

Israel came into existence after 2,500 years of exile, at the same point in history as the birth of the nuclear arms race in 1948, the birth of the European Union in 1948, the birth of global government with the ratification of the United Nation's Declaration of Human Rights -- the UN's 'constitution -- also in 1948.

Ezekiel drew up the battle lines, accurately identified the main antagonists, predicted the world would respond with diplomacy rather than military action, and described the effects of a nuclear detonation that ends the invasion.

He noted that the invasion would come at a point in which Israel would be recognizable as a 'land of unwalled villages'.

There is some dispute as to the timing of the invasion, whether it is pre-trib or if it takes place after the Rapture, but the signs all indicate it could take place in the very near future.

Indeed, it is hard to envision a scenario in which Israel is NOT forced to launch the preemptive attack on the Persian nuclear program, and it is equally hard to envision a scenario in which there wouldn't be a joint Russian-Persian response to such an attack.

What are the odds, as I asked before, that all of this is sheer coincidence? The answer is that they are incalculable, in any meaningful way.

Professor Stoner, a mathematician, calculated the odds of eight prophecies being fulfilled in the life of Jesus at 10 to the power of 91. That would be a ten with 91 zeroes.

Stoner also said that a number, in order to have meaning, would have to be capable of measuring something. Ten to the 91st power is about what Stoner calculates to be the number of neutrons in the universe!

In light of all this, the Words of Jesus take on an even greater sense of relevance to this generation.

"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. . . Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away." (Luke 21:28,32-33)

Since we are discussing His Words at this moment, you can chalk that up to another amazing 'coincidence'.

But what makes it 'amazing' is the fact there is any thinking human being who can believe that it IS a coincidence. What makes more sense is the explanation set forth by the Psalmist;

"Thy Word is true from the beginning: and every one of Thy righteous judgments endureth for ever." (Psalms 119:160)

Maranatha!