The Former Yugoslavia And Albania

Yugoslavia was the nation that existed from 1918, the end of the First World War, to the 1990s. It was formed from the breakup of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, plus Serbia. The nation was originally called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and, Slovenes. The name was changed to "Yugoslavia" in 1929.

There is sometimes said to have been two successive Yugoslavias. The first was the Kingdom, formed after the First World War. The second is the Communist Yugoslavia, after the Second World War with the monarchy abolished.

Yugoslavia had a liberal interpretation of Communism, which greatly annoyed the Stalinist Communists in Moscow. Yugoslavia proclaimed itself as neutral during the Cold War and refused to join the Warsaw Pact.

After the abolition of the Yugoslav Monarchy the driving personality behind Communist Yugoslavia was Josef Broz Tito. He had originally been an autoworker and the country would produce the popular "Yugo" car.

I used to read about a theme park, after the breakup of the country, dedicated to remembering the former Yugoslavia. People reminisced such as "We weren't rich but we had what we needed and everybody had a good time".

The name of Yugoslavia means "Land of the Southern Slavs", and was compromised of six internal republics. These were, from north to south, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and, North Macedonia. The Slavic people had arrived in the area in the Sixth Century.

The primary language of the country was Serbia-Croatian. It is a mixed language that is generally spoken in one way but can be written in two ways. This is because Croatians use the Latin Alphabet while Serbians use the Cyrillic, or Russian, Alphabet.

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia, which is the northernmost of the former Yugoslav republics. The city is built around a castle on high ground. This is the castle with the city visible in the background.

Slovenia is where America's former first lady, Melania Trump, is from. Here is the city of Ljubljana. The first scene, from Google Earth, is of the striking orange roofs.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow. After clicking on the up arrow you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you so wish.

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Zagreb is the capital city of the former Yugoslav Republic, and now independent nation, of Croatia. It has, like Venice, a St. Mark's Square and Church. The first two scenes are from Google Earth.

 

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Rijeka is a Croatian city on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It was once the main port of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and was an independent city-state. Like Trieste there was a controversy over whether the city should belong to Italy or Yugoslavia. It's Italian name is Fiume.

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Sarajevo is the major city of Bosnia. It dates back to ancient times but became an important city during rule by the Ottomans. There was a lot of industrialization during the time of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Sarajevo is associated with conflict. It was where the First World War began. When Yugoslavia came apart in the 1990s, the combat was between Serbs and Croatians, and it looked like Bosnia might avoid it. But that was not to last and Sarajevo later became the focal point of the conflict.

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Belgrade is the capital of Serbia and was the capital of the united Yugoslavia. Belgrade is in a strategic location and was originally built around a Fortress, shown here from Google Earth.

Belgrade was located on the frontier of the Roman Empire. Attila the Hun is buried there. It was later located on the frontier between the Habsburgs and Ottoman Empires. Sulieman the Magnificent captured Belgrade for the Ottomans in 1521. Here is Belgrade Fortress.

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One well-known Serb is Nicola Tesla. Electrical inventors like Thomas Edison were using direct current, where the direction of current flow remains the same, to provide large-scale electrical power. But Tesla favored alternating current, where the direction of current flow alternates.

Tesla turned out to be right. The advantage of alternating current is that voltage and current can be exchanged, by means of a transformer, with total power remaining the same. Loss of power when electricity is transmitted over a distance is much less if the voltage is stepped up. It can be stepped back down at the other end. Transformers only work effectively with alternating current. Electrical power can thus be sent over much greater distances than otherwise.

The name of Tesla is very important in the Buffalo-Niagara area. There is a statue of him on each side of Niagara Falls. From Google Street View this is the statue on the U.S. side.

In a way, Buffalo is where Tesla proved victorious over Edison. The transmission of alternating current from Niagara Falls to the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 was a spectacular success. There was little loss of power over the distance, something that would not have been possible with Edison's direct current.

Tesla himself had nothing to do with the electric car and solar power conglomerate that bears his name, it was named in honor of him. From Google Earth this is the Tesla factory in Buffalo.

 This is more of Belgrade.

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Kragujevac was sometimes the capital of Serbia. It is not an ancient city but originated in medieval times. This is where the Zastava Auto Company, related to Fiat, made the Yugo car that was popular in the U.S. This car also illustrates, of course, how loosely Yugoslavia interpreted Communism.

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Skopje, pronounced "scope-ya" is an ancient city that is now the capital of North Macedonia. It has been an important city to the Romans, the Byzantines and, the Ottomans. Skopje Fortress was built by the Byzantines in the Sixth Century. The Ottomans built the Old Bazaar in the city, which was it's center of trade. After independence the country had a disagreement with Greece over the name of Macedonia, which the Greeks claimed belonged to them.

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Tirana is the capital city of Albania, which is a separate country that was not part of the federation of Yugoslavia.

Albania had been a medieval kingdom and principality, before being ruled by Venice and then the Ottomans. It returned as an independent nation in 1912.

Like neighboring Yugoslavia, Albania was a Communist country that did not always adhere to the Soviet model, but for a very different reason. In the 1970s ultra-hardline Communists were beginning to emerge in countries like Albania and Cambodia. At the same time the Soviet Union, the original Communist country, was beginning to moderate. Albania was one of the hard-line countries that broke relations with the Soviet Union, considering it as a "disgrace" to Communism.

The driving personality behind Albanian Communism was Enver Hoxha, pronounced "ho-ja". His government built many bunkers around the country, to guard against invasion, which have found their way into other uses.

When I was a young boy I remember hearing that a country in Europe had declared itself as the world's first officially atheist nation, where any expression of religion was illegal. In other Communist countries religion was more or less discouraged, but wasn't actually illegal.

How ironic that this same atheist nation had produced the famed Mother Theresa.

Muhammad Ali, who founded the Pasha Dynasty that brought about modern Egypt that we saw in our visit to "Cairo", was from an Albanian family.

After the end of Communism, there was a near-civil war in Albania when so many people lost money that had been invested in pyramid schemes.

Petrele Castle was built by the Byzantines and Tirana became an important city to the Ottomans. This scene is from Google Street View.

The Grand Mosque of Tirana is another of the many domed Ottoman Mosques modeled on the Hagia Sophia. We saw the Hagia Sophia in "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began". Scenes from Google Street View.

Tirana has it's center at Skanderbeg Square. Skanderbeg was a Fifteenth Century military leader that was victorious against the Ottomans. The first scene is from Google Street View.

 

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This is more of Tirana.

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Shkoder is the major city of northern Albania. It is a very ancient city that has been a part of the Roman, Byzantine and, Ottoman Empires.

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THE BREAKUP OF YUGOSLAVIA

At the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after the end of the First World War in 1918, Austria and Hungary were reduced to small countries. The remaining territories in the north became the new nation of Czechoslovakia, and some to the revived nation of Poland. The territories in the south became the new nation of Yugoslavia, which also included Serbia. Transylvania was given to Romania.

Neither new nation would last forever. Czechoslovakia would ultimately come apart peacefully. Yugoslavia, unfortunately, wouldn't.

The driving personality of Communist Yugoslavia, after the end of the monarchy, had been that of Josep Broz Tito. He was born in Croatia. Tito died in 1980 and a difficult economic decade followed. Communism ended in eastern Europe in 1989.

Serbia was the core of Yugoslavia. It's capital of Belgrade had been the country's capital and it's former king had been from the Serbian royal dynasty. The area that was now Yugoslavia had historically been divided by religion. Serbs were Orthodox Christians while Croatians and Slovenes were Catholic. A long period of Ottoman rule had brought Islam, and Bosnia was primarily Moslem.

Of the six Yugoslav republics, the two small republics at opposite ends of the country, Slovenia in the north and Macedonia in the south, declared independence. The Serb-dominated Yugoslav military was unable to hold Slovenia.

The trouble with the Yugoslav republics declaring independence is that a lot of ethnic mixing had taken place. There were many Serbs living in Croatia and Bosnia and Croatians living in Bosnia. When the republic declared independence, these minorities either didn't want to leave or wanted to break away themselves.

What began with the independence of Slovenia in 1991 turned into major combat when Croatia declared independence. There were areas of Serbs within Croatia. The area in eastern Croatia was called Krajina. Warfare centered around the cities of Dubrovnik in western Croatia and Vukovar in eastern Croatia.

At first, it seemed like the conflict would involve the Serbs living in Croatia, and that Bosnia might be spared. But that was not to be.  By far the worst combat would end up being in Bosnia. The southern part of Bosnia is called Herzegovina, and it became a familiar name in the news.

Bosnia declared its independence following a 1992 referendum. The many Serbs within Bosnia didn't want to go and declared their own nation out of Bosnia, called Republika Srpska. It's first president would be Radovan Karadzic, and most infamous general would be Ratko Mladic. The Yugoslav Army withdrew from Bosnia but left it's weapons to Srpska. The Bosnian Serbs began a siege of the city of Sarajevo that would last until 1996. NATO bombed their positions in 1995.

Almost all of the combat in the Yugoslav Wars was the other republics against Serbs. The Serbs did not so much aim to keep Yugoslavia together as to create a "Greater Serbia". But there were also Croatians living in Bosnia, and they proclaimed the Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia.

Combat ended in Croatia, with Croatian military offensives in 1995, but continued on in Bosnia. There would be infamous concentration camps, atrocities and mass killings. Of the about 140,000 people that would be killed in the Yugoslav Wars, the vast majority would be in Bosnia.

There was shock and disbelief across Europe that something like this could be happening here.

Toward the end of the 1990s, another name became familiar on the news. Kosovo was part of Serbia and had not itself been a Yugoslav republic. But it was the part of Serbia bordering Albania and had a concentration of ethnic Albanians, who sought independence from Serbia.

The ensuing Kosovo War would result in the aerial bombing of Serbia by NATO in 1999. There would be a temporary diplomatic crisis when the Chinese Embassy was bombed in error.

The only Yugoslav republic that remained federated with Serbia was Montenegro. It ultimately separated peacefully.

Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, president and top general of Republika Srpska, the Serbs in Bosnia, were tried and convicted. Ratko Mladic remained the most wanted man in the world for a decade and a half. At first he was certainly shielded by the Serbian establishment, but later the country moved on.

High-profile fugitives are so often given away by family connections. According to one story that I read, while Mladic's family was being closely watched it was noticed that his granddaughters were taken to the yard of a farmhouse but no attempt was made to enter the house.

A guess was made that maybe Mladic was hiding in that house, and had requested to see his granddaughters through the window. The guess turned out to be correct.

The president of Serbia itself, Slobodan Milosevic, was ultimately put on trial but died before the trial was complete.

A vast amount of weapons and munitions from the Yugoslav Wars found their way all over the world.

Observations About The Gaza War

The most valuable piece of ground in any war is the moral high ground.

This war is nothing new. It has been going on since biblical times. Simeon and Levi massacred the males of the town of Shechem, and took the women and children captive, because their sister had been raped. David, when in exile with the Philistines, returned to Ziklag and found that the Amalekites had destroyed the town and taken captives. This attack very similar, except for the technology, to the Philistine raid that destroyed Shiloh, seen in the following image from Google Street View.

In the U.S. there is more support for Israel but much more support for Palestine in the world overall. If Iran would bring it's ally, Russia, to invade Israel and liberate the Palestinians, which would fulfill the Bible prophecies, they would have the support of at least 70% of the world.

A military operation to defeat terrorists might succeed in it's mission. But if children have bombs exploding around them, and see members of their families killed, the operation will have created the next generation of terrorists.

Weapons are supplied to nations at war but when the war is over the weapons end up getting sold all over the world. Some soldiers get used to being at war and have a ready new profession as a mercenary.

Coverage of modern wars are full of stories about atrocities. But many of the stories turn out to be doubtful or untrue. In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait. Saddam Hussein's soldiers allegedly went into a hospital, looking to seize medical equipment. Premature babies were in an incubator. The soldiers supposedly threw the babies on the floor, leaving them to die, and took the incubator. The general belief is that the U.S. and Kuwaiti Governments knew that the story wasn't true, but didn't say so until after the war. This is known as the Nayirah Testimony.

The greatest triumph of Satan is not just to get people to do evil things, but to get them to do evil things in the name of God.

Has anyone ever thought that western-style suits are used as a subtle, maybe unconscious, dominance tool? When a non-western leader wears a suit to a meeting with a western leader it is a subtle acknowledgement of the dominance of the west. It could also be saying that "We are just as western and modern as you are". A lot of Middle East leaders, noticably those of Saudi Arabia and Iran, wear traditional clothing.

As far as Iran being in on the scenario that we saw in "Inducing The Apocalypse", June 2023, remember that Iran is a close ally of Russia and will be part of the invasion of Israel from the north that will start the final series of wars of the world. Iran's brand of Shiite Islam is apocalyptic, known as "Twelver". There are believed to have been twelve imams. The twelfth, and final, one is now hidden from his followers but will return as the Mahdi.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is campaigning for U.S. President just as this conflict is going on. His father, the brother of President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated while campaigning for president in 1968. His assassin was Sirhan Sirhan, who was from a Palestinian Christian family and had been through the war upon the founding of Israel as a child. Robert Kennedy, as a youth, had visited Palestine just before Israel had declared independence, in 1948, and had made clear his support of Israel.

In the compound posting "Investigations", December 2018, there is one that might interest Pakistani readers. 45) THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT ZIA explains my reason for believing that the 1988 assassination of Zia Ul Haq was linked to his earlier being stationed in the Middle East as a military officer. He was instrumental in driving the Palestinians out of Jordan, afterwards referred to as"Black September ".

The Would-Have-Been City Of Ararat

Long before the restoration of Israel, in 1948, an island nearby was planned as a homeland for the Jews. The Niagara River, above the Falls, splits in two but later comes back together again. The land in the middle is known as Grand Island. Plans for once made for it to be the city of Ararat, a homeland for the Jews.

The following image of Grand Island, from Google Earth, shows the city of Niagara Falls to the northwest. North Tonawanda is to the east and Tonawanda to the southeast. The land to the west is Canada.

Sometimes Grand Island gets cold in the winter. There are deer, hawks and, a few coyotes, but no Hamas or Hezbollah.

Much later there were plans for the smaller island in the upper left. This is Navy Island and the United Nations was originally planned to be located there, but went to Manhattan instead. Image from Google Earth.

The Militias Of The Middle East

With the recent violence in Israel remember that there is something that I have never seen written about the Middle East. It is about how history repeats itself. The present militias, including Hamas, are reflections of the organizations of knights during the Crusades.

In the following posting see section 3) THE MILITIAS OF THE MIDDLE EAST. 

http://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2019/11/how-history-repeats-itself.html?m=0

Hungary

This country is absolutely fascinating.

The ancestors of today's Magyars, or Hungarians, are believed to have originated in what is now eastern European Russia and arrived in the Carpathian Basin of Eastern Europe. Seven chiefs of Magyar tribes founded the new country. The Arpads were the first Hungarian dynasty of kings.

This means that there might be "Eastern Hungarians" living today in wherever their original homeland was. Despite the name, some doubt how close the relationship is between the Huns, led by their famous king Attila who menaced the Roman Empire in it's latter days, and the modern Hungarians. Attila the Hun was based for a time in what is now Hungary but that was centuries before the Magyars arrived in the area from the east.

But yet the medieval "Illuminated Chronicle", which was much closer in time perspective than we are today, depicts Attila as King of the Hungarians. There is also the legend of two brothers, Hunor and Magor, one the descent of the Huns and the other of the Magyars, who later returned from the east to reclaim their ancestral homeland.

This is why the Hungarian language is not related to the Slavic or Romance languages of any of the nearby countries. It may be related to Finnish, which is nothing like the languages of the other Scandinavian countries.

Many ethnic Hungarians live today near, but outside the borders of, Hungary. We saw in our visit to "The Former Czechoslovakia" that Bratislava and it's castle was once vital to Hungary. Hungarians in Timisoara were instrumental in initiating Romania's revolution of 1989.

Stephen I was the famous first king of Hungary. His reign came right around the end of the First Millennium, the year 1000. He was baptized and Christianized the country, and can be considered as the Hungarian version of Vladimir of the Kievan Rus or Mieszko of Poland.

Hungary was invaded by Mongols, who must have been their distant relatives. They later resisted the Ottomans, until finally being conquered by Sulieman. The Habsburgs began to rule in 1526 when a Hungarian dynasty died out.

We saw the Habsburgs in our recent visit to "Vienna And The Habsburgs".

One of the revolutions that swept Europe in 1848 was in Hungary against Habsburgs rule. While the revolution was not immediately successful, it did lead to the Austrian-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which made Vienna and Budapest co-capitals of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire.

Austria and Hungary were in a personal union. This means the two countries were ruled by the same emperor or king, but may not be completely united. A citizen would be either Austrian or Hungarian, but not both.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken up in 1918, after the First World War. The region of Transylvania was transferred to Romania. The cities of Buda and Pest had been united into Budapest, and the city built the first subway after London.

In Communist Hungary of 1956, protesters demanded, and got, Imre Nagy brought back as Prime Minister. He announced that Hungary was leaving the Warsaw Pact. But enough Communist troops moved in to end the revolution.

However the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was one of those things that appear quite differently when viewed in the long-term, as opposed to the short-term.

Restrictions on Hungary were loosened after that, allowing more private enterprise, and it turned into one of the success stories of the East Bloc. The reformist policies of Imre Nagy were reflected later in those of Mikhail Gorbachev. The mixed economy path of Hungary after the 1956 revolution, that made it such a success story, are reflected in the 1978 economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping.

In many ways the revolutions that swept Eastern Europe in 1989 began in Hungary in 1956. Has anyone noticed the irony that in the summer of 1989, just before the revolutions began, Zsa Zsa Gabor struck a Los Angeles police officer, and reminded everyone that she was Hungarian, and thus a descendent of Attila the Hun? This brought back the Hungarians defying the Communists in 1956, just before the 1989 revolutions began.

Eszstergom was where Stephen was born and he made it the first capital of Hungary. The following scenes begin in it's basilica. The first two scenes are from Google Street View.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking on the up arrow you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

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Obuda is the original part of what is now the capital city of Budapest. There was a Roman settlement here nearly a thousand years before the ancestors of the Hungarians arrived. Budapest is known for it's hot springs.

Why do you suppose that there would be hot springs at Budapest and around Hungary?

My geology theory explains it, "The Story Of Planet Earth" on the geology blog. Section L 41) explains that the elongated Lake Balaton is one of the periodically spaced magma emergence centers across the world. Budapest is right along the long axis of that lake.

This is Obuda.

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The magnificent Parliament Building is the symbol of Budapest, located right on the Danube River. The crown in the glass case is the Holy Crown of Hungary. This is certainly one of the very few most valuable objects in the world. Hungary is now a republic and has not had a monarch since the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. The crown was used only for coronations.

The cross atop the crown has been famously knocked to one side since the 17th Century. This is the crown from Google Street View.

What was different about the Hungarian monarchy, and so important about the crown, is that it is the crown itself that is considered as reigning over the country. The king is just someone who is worthy to represent the crown.

The Parliament Building was begun on the presumed millennium of the founding of the country. These outside images are from Google Earth and Street View.

The Parliament building is absolutely awesome inside. Images from Google Street View.

You can come back to, and "walk", around the Parliament Building by holding the mouse pointer on a point up ahead, and clicking on it. Your perspective will then move to that point, and you can keep repeating the process.

Pressing the plus button, +, will zoom in on the crown and sword in the glass case.

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.5069348,19.0457264,2a,75y,275.03h,90.09t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3AZb5ZXNOxT54MqTDENgZA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Heroes Square has a monument dedicated to the Arpad Dynasty, Hungary's first dynasty of kings. Also a monument of the seven Magyar chiefs that founded Hungary. The first view is from Google Street View.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.515091,19.078114,3a,75y,54.99h,113.14t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOgF-yu9as1-bVhaxuHUCPhqi9BlFPlbP9i_C7z!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOgF-yu9as1-bVhaxuHUCPhqi9BlFPlbP9i_C7z%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi1.6424563-ya55.883717-ro-0.8199322-fo100!7i5376!8i2688

Buda Castle, in Budapest, is the medieval castle that was once the home of Hungarian kings. The first view is from Google Earth.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.4963328,19.0391544,3a,75y,99.58h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNvUe3dIC8EMjXbVxEe6e9N0q9x6N-u_xg_gfIV!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNvUe3dIC8EMjXbVxEe6e9N0q9x6N-u_xg_gfIV%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi5.297528-ya238.91135-ro0.50453603-fo100!7i5376!8i2688

The Citadella, on a hilltop with a panoramic view of the city, was once the symbol of Austrian control over Hungary. The first view is from Google Earth.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.4868279,19.0479717,3a,75y,277h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipM8xNbPhDIrgl8Nx_SpHj6PZmx-YMKQZyFslx6r!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipM8xNbPhDIrgl8Nx_SpHj6PZmx-YMKQZyFslx6r%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya280.30536-ro-0-fo100!7i5660!8i2830

After seeing Budapest let's look at some other Hungarian cities, moving clockwise around the country.

Miscolc is an ancient settlement that is now a modern industrial city.

https://www.google.com/maps/@48.104924,20.7794565,3a,75y,280h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sG9kuYnOYMTdZTgpEvIfIOw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DG9kuYnOYMTdZTgpEvIfIOw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D280%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Debrecen has also served as Hungary's capital and was the country's Protestant center during the Reformation.

https://www.google.com/maps/@47.532342,21.6237441,3a,75y,48.38h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sNf9arx6t9gDUlszV2iaN_A!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DNf9arx6t9gDUlszV2iaN_A%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D48.38414%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

Szeged also began as an ancient settlement.

https://www.google.com/maps/@46.254104,20.1488224,3a,75y,180h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sCF5mtVUcwySdeA_A2mRCIA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DCF5mtVUcwySdeA_A2mRCIA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D100%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Pecs goes far back into ancient history and was an important Ottoman city during their control of Hungary.

https://www.google.com/maps/@46.0777441,18.2251713,3a,75y,339.47h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sva0gTrIcl4uBFrZFygIzhA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3Dva0gTrIcl4uBFrZFygIzhA%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D339.46857%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu

Hungary's Special Mission

What makes this country so interesting, from a prophetic point of view, is that this plain, in eastern Europe, is where the fabled Attila the Hun was based in the final days of the Roman Empire. Attila later returned to his homeland in the eastern part of European Russia. 

The ancestors of the modern Hungarians are known to have migrated from the eastern part of European Russia to their present homeland, the same plain in eastern Europe that had been occupied by Attila the Hun centuries before.

The Hungarian legend is that seven Magyar chieftains purposely led their people back to reclaim their old homeland. The legend begins with two brothers, Hunor and Magor, who were born in Persia and were the ancestors of the Hungarians and the Magyars.

The legend is described in a medieval Hungarian book, called the "Illuminated Chronicle" and Hunor and Magor are linked to the Table of Nations in the Book of Genesis.

St. Stephen is the much-revered saint and first king of Hungary, who brought Christianity to the country. His right hand has been miraculously preserved, for the millennium since his death, and is in St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest.

What was so significant about the Hungarian monarchy is that it is the crown, the Holy Crown of Hungary, that actually reigns over the country, not the king himself. The Hungarian king is just someone who is worthy to be crowned with the Holy Crown. 

The Holy Crown of Hungary is surely one of the few most valuable objects on earth.

The crown has a front and back and, centuries ago, the cross on top of the crown was accidentally knocked so that it leans to the right of the crown, as it remains today.

This was the flag showing the Hungarian Holy Crown, at the top, depicting the cross knocked to the right as the front of the crown is seen.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary#/media/File%3AFlag_of_Hungary_(1896-1915%3B_angels%3B_3-2_aspect_ratio).svg

Hungary is a small country but gained a lot of influence when it became part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, which was founded in 1867. Notice, on Hungary's coat of arms, the crown with the cross angled to the right, the Hungarian side of the coat of arms is on the same side as the lean of the cross, which is on the right side if looking forward from the crown's perspective.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary#/media/File%3AImperial_Coat_of_Arms_of_the_Empire_of_Austria.svg

The Austrian-Hungarian Empire was founded in the Victorian Era, when secularism was spreading after the introduction of evolutionary theory in 1859.

Could it be that Hungary has a sacred mission? That the ancestors of the Hungarians were led from far away back to the land where Attila the Hun had been based many centuries before? 

There they were converted to Christianity by St. Stephen, whose right hand has been miraculously preserved. The cross atop the Holy Crown was accidentally knocked to the right. Then, when Hungary gained a lot of influence as half of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, during the era of increasing secularism, it's banner on the coat of arms was on the same side as the tilt of the cross, the right from the crown's perspective.

That makes it appear that Hungary had been intended for the sacred mission of counteracting the secularism that spread in the late Nineteenth Century.

The Austrian-Hungarian Empire is gone but Hungary's sacred mission is not over yet.

The legendary brothers, Hunor and Magor, were natives of Persia. Just as the Hungarians regained their ancestral homeland so the Jews in the Bible regained theirs, after having been taken captive to Babylon.

Their return to their homeland was facilitated by Cyrus, who was the first king of the Persian Empire, where Hunor and Magor had been born. Cyrus funded the rebuilding of the Jews' Temple.

During the time of Communism in Hungary, it's Holy Crown was safeguarded in the U.S. The crown had been captured by U.S. forces near the end of the Second World War, and taken to Fort Knox for safekeeping.

Early in 1978, U.S. President Jimmy Carter ordered the crown returned to Hungary. Although it seemed very unlikely at the time, this was just as the revolution in Persia (Iran) was beginning that would end the 2500-year old monarchy that was begun by Cyrus.

The crown was personally delivered to Hungary by another Cyrus, U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.

Cyrus is not exactly a common name. Just as the revolution was beginning that would end the ancient monarchy begun by Cyrus, who facilitated the Jews' return to their homeland and rebuilding of the Temple and in whose land Hunor and Magor had been born, another Cyrus returned the Hungarians' Holy Crown to them.

The crown had the same kind of function to the Hungarians that the Temple had to the Jews and the Hungarian uprising against the Communists in 1956 can be compared to the Jewish uprising against the Babylonians that got the Jews taken into exile and their Temple destroyed.

Doesn't this make it seem that Hungary is on a special mission from God to evangelize the world? I am not Hungarian myself, and have no connections to Hungary, and this makes it possible for me to give an unbiased perspective.

THE GOLDEN FLEECE AND THE HOLY CROWN

Has anyone ever noticed the great similarity between the story of the Golden Fleece, of ancient Greek Mythology, and the Holy Crown of Hungary?

One of the two most popular stories to be adopted from Greek mythology is the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece. A fleece is the fur from around the neck of a sheep or ram.

The Golden Fleece was a very special fleece, being from a divine ram. The Golden Fleece was a symbol of divine authority, and a legitimate king was absolutely required to be crowned with it. 

This is one of the two great stories from ancient Greece. The other is the Trojan War, and the two epics that center around it. The first is the Iliad, which takes place during the war. The second is the Odyssey, which tells the story of the journey home of Odysseus after the war. Both epics were written by Homer.

The thing that I find to be just so striking is the resemblance between the story of the Golden Fleece and that of the real-life Holy Crown of Hungary.

Like the Golden Fleece, the Holy Crown of Hungary is linked to a hero. Unlike the mythical Jason, St. Stephen was the real first king of Hungary, who Christianized the country.

Like the Golden Fleece, the Holy Crown of Hungary is considered to be absolutely essential that a legitimate Hungarian king be crowned with it. In fact, the Hungarian monarchy differs from others in that it is the crown itself that rules. The king is just someone deemed worthy to be crowned with it. The Holy Crown of Hungary is a coronation crown, used only for coronations and not worn on a daily basis.

Also like the Golden Fleece, the Holy Crown of Hungary has been lost and regained. The Holy Crown of Hungary has been lost and regained most recently when it was captured by U.S. forces, and taken to Fort Knox for safekeeping, near the end of the Second World War. U.S. President Jimmy Carter had the crown returned to Hungary, where it is prominently displayed today in a glass case in the Parliament Building.

The first question is whether the story of the Golden Fleece directly influenced the Holy Crown of Hungary. The crown was actually made in Byzantium, which was the Greek-speaking former eastern half of the Roman Empire, centered on Constantinople.

But the next question is whether God was involved with the Golden Fleece and the Holy Crown. 

We saw in a posting on this blog, "The Wars Of The Gods", October 2022, how the God of the Bible came into conflict with the ancient Greek God Zeus, later called Jupiter by the Romans.

Considering this background, doesn't it look as if the Hungarians are on a special mission from God, being led back to the ancestral homeland once occupied by their ancestor, Attila the Hun, where they would be Christianized by St. Stephen with the Holy Crown of Hungary replacing the Golden Fleece as the sacred sign of leadership?

Anniversary Of Yom Kippur War

The Yom Kippur War began with a surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria on October 6, 1973.

THE STORY OF MARWAN 

With Israel being taken by surprise on the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War a figure that comes to mind is Ashraf Marwan. He was an Egyptian billionaire, having made his wealth from arms trading, and the son-in-law of Gamal Nasser.

Nasser was the leader of the movement that overthrew Egypt's King Farouk, in 1952. The former monarchy was the Pasha Dynasty, that had been a branch of the Ottoman Empire. This overthrow set the pattern for monarchies to be overthrown by military officers across the Middle East. It would be repeated in Libya, Iraq and, Yemen. Every president of Egypt since Nasser has been a military officer, with the brief exception of Mohamed Morsi.

Nasser was also the driving force behind Pan-Arabism, although Arab unity would not be realized. At one point Egypt and Syria joined to form the United Arab Republic, until Syria felt dominated by larger Egypt and wealthy Syrians felt threatened by Nasser's socialist policies. 

Arab unity is hindered by the history of caliphates. The Umayyad Caliphate was based in Damascus. They were supplanted by the Abassids, who built Baghdad as their capital. Then the Fatimids built Cairo as their capital. Pan-Arabism would have to overcome this history of rivalry between the major cities.

Nasser led Egypt during the 1967 Six-Day War with Israel, which resulted in Israel gaining a lot of territory, including the Old City of Jerusalem, the West Bank and, the Golan Heights. When Nasser died in 1970, Anwar Sadat became president and Marwan began working for him.

Marwan was also a secret agent. The question is whether he was a double agent, working for both Egypt and Israel. 

Traditional spying has mostly been replaced by hacking. But in the days before the internet I think double agents were more common than is generally realized. Some were motivated to spy on their own people out of ideology, but others were motivated by money. If someone will spy on their own people for money then why shouldn't they also be willing to spy on a foreign country for money?

On October 6, 1973, it was both Ramadan and Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. Israel was certainly overconfident after it's quick victory in the Six-Day War of 1967. Few people would be expecting a surprise attack.

Marwan had gained Israel's confidence and then warned it of an attack to come in May of 1973, which never happened. Maybe Marwan's true intentions are shown by the fact that he encouraged the Oil Embargo against the U.S. for supporting Israel after the 1973 war, and his purpose in warning Israel of an imminent attack several months before it actually happened was to give them a false sense of security, and possibly to test how Israel would respond. Since it was impossible to completely hide the preparation for the attack.

Just before the actual attack, on October 6, Marwan gave Israel another warning of an impending attack. This time the warning was accurate. What I think was happening is that, since Marwan's warning in May didn't come to pass, this must be a false warning too and it will give Israel a false sense of security.

After the assassination of Anwar Sadat, at a parade on October 6 of 1981, to commemorate the attack on Israel eight years before, Marwan became a businessman in London. He died in a mysterious fall in 2007 and his widow believed that Israel's Mossad was behind it, although it was never confirmed.

Before Marwan there was another famous names Israeli spy, named Eli Cohen, who had been born in Egypt. He attained a high position in the Syrian Government, until being caught and executed.

There is a story that Eli Cohen visited Syrian gun emplacements in the desert. He had a tree planted at each emplacement to provide shade. But the real reason for planting the trees was so that the Israeli Air Force could see where the gun emplacements were. However I am not completely sure that the story is true.

Egypt named a new city for October 6. Image from Google Earth.

DAVID AND GOLIATH

The following scene is of the Valley of Elah, from Google Street View.

This is where the confrontation between David and Goliath took place. The youthful David brought down the giant Philistine warrior Goliath with a sling, because God was with him. The Valley of Elah just happens to be right around where the current combat is taking place between Israel and Gaza.

What a powerful force history is. The repetition of history is almost like a law of physics. We tend to repeat history, often without realizing it.

Part of Philistine territory was what is now the Gaza Strip and Gaza was the name of one of the Philistines' five cities. Although the Palestinians of today are not related to the Philistines they are actually named for them.

This time the Palestinians from Gaza are in the role of David, facing Israel as Goliath. The rockets, often homemade, that are fired at Israel from Gaza represent the sling of David.

WAS WATERGATE A FACTOR IN THE 1973 YOM KIPPUR WAR?

Israel had been brought back into existence in 1948, following the Second World War, after not having been a nation since ancient times. This had brought immediate and continued conflict with surrounding Arab nations. In the 1967 Six-Day War Israel had gained control of a lot of territory, including the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank and Golan Heights. Most important of all was the Old City of Jerusalem. In an effort to keep the peace Israel allowed a Jordanian organization to administer the Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount is what remains of the site of the First and Second Jewish Temples, on Mount Moriah from ancient times. The First Temple was established by King Solomon. It was ultimately destroyed by the Babylonians and the Jews taken into exile. When Babylon was conquered by Persia the Jews were allowed to return and they rebuilt the Temple, this was the Second Temple. 

King Herod ultimately dismantled the Second Temple, which had never been as grand as the First Temple, in order to rebuild it on a greater scale. Herod constructed a massive retaining wall around Mount Moriah and filled in the gap. This formed a mount to support Herod's Temple. But not long after it was completed it was looted and destroyed by the Romans because of a Jewish uprising. The wealth that was looted went to build the Colosseum in Rome. 

All that remained was the mount surrounded by the retaining wall. This is known today as the Temple Mount. It is sacred to Islam, as well as to Judaism and Christianity, and Moslems later built two mosques on the mount, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa. The Dome of the Rock is believed to be on the exact site of the first two Temples.

As well as destroying the Temple the Romans also forced the Jews into exile, for rebelling against their rule, and the nation of Israel would not exist for nearly two thousand years. It was reestablished in 1948 and, as we might expect, the Arabs that had been living there didn't like it at all, and there has been mostly a state of conflict ever since. The touchiest flashpoint is the Temple Mount.

There were wars on a regular basis, in 1948 and in 1956. In the 1967 War Israel regained the Old City of Jerusalem, as well as much other territory. In 1973 Israel was clearly confident that the surrounding Arabs were not a serious threat. Egypt and Syria, which had been temporarily united the decade before as the United Arab Republic, were planning to take the lost territory back. 

With the element of surprise Israel would be attacked on two fronts. Egypt would attack the occupied Sinai Peninsula and Syria would attack the Golan Heights. Israel had used trickery in the 1967 war which wouldn't work this time. Egypt had been disadvantaged in the 1967 war against Israel because it was also involved in the Civil War in Yemen.

Unlike in 1967, Israel had a very close call in 1973. Israel was supported by the U.S. and the Arab nations by the Soviet Union. There was a naval standoff between the two superpowers. The war was followed by Arab nations punishing those who had supported Israel with an oil embargo. I remember going to school in the dark because the clocks had been changed in an effort to save energy.

This embargo is known as the first "oil shock", the consequences of getting dependent on imported oil. The second was the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the third was 9/11.

What I want to add to this 1973 war is the Watergate crisis that was going on in the U.S. at the time. The Yom Kippur War occurred at the very height of this crisis. It was well-known that America was Israel's closest ally and I have long believed that seeing America distracted by Watergate was an important factor in planning this surprise attack. The same applies to the North Vietnamese offensive of 1975. America had withdrawn from the war with a truce and seeing America distracted by Watergate led the Communists to gamble that it wouldn't get re-involved in the war.

Does anyone remember Yasser Arafat International Airport? In the early 1990s it was to be Gaza's airport and a symbol of peace. But it wasn't long before it was closed by combat. In this image from Google Earth the remains of the runway can still be seen but the dark green looks like it is being used for agricultural plots.

THE NEW MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT

The efforts to bring peace to the Middle East were ultimately successful. The first generation of wars against Israel were of nations led by Syria in the north and Egypt in the south. In some of the conflict nations like Jordan and Iraq joined in.

The conflict today is between Iran and it's proxies against Israel. Another phase of the Middle East conflict involved militias, such as Al Qaeda and Islamic State, but that mostly skipped Israel.

The Most Attractive Building-Interior

I decided that the most attractive building in the world was St. Basil's Cathedral, in Moscow. The first of the following images, from Google Street View, is the cathedral from within Red Square and the second is from outside Red Square.

But that was from the exterior. The most attractive building in the interior is the Hungarian Parliament Building. This building is like being in a dream world. What makes it stand out is the use of color. Many buildings can match this one in form but this building really makes the most of color. All of the following images are from Google Street View.

The Assassination Of John F. Kennedy Made Really Simple

Today is a very important day on this blog. It will soon be the sixtieth anniversary of the Assassination of John F. Kennedy. More has been added to this posting, which is number 52) in the compound posting "Investigations", December 2018.

I have written before my certainty that the Mafia was behind the assassination, to make it look like the Castro government of Cuba was really behind it. The U.S. was to take the assassination as an act of war, invade Cuba and depose the Castro government, and then the Mafia could have it's Cuban playground back. The idea of the Mafia being behind it is not new, but was because Kennedy had his brother, Robert, as Attorney General, who was making life difficult for the Mafia. I have never seen the Mafia regaining control of Cuba as the motive before.

But there has been more added here besides that. I have found a clue, supporting this scenario, that investigators were supposed to notice, but apparently didn't, and I cannot find that this clue has ever been written about. I ask readers that this posting be considered as the final word about the Kennedy Assassination.

Surely the subject of more conspiracy theories than anything else is the November 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Lee Harvey Oswald was officially determined to have acted alone as the assassin. But ever since then the majority of Americans have believed there is more to it than that. Some believe that there was more than one gunman, and that it wasn't Oswald who fired the fatal shot. Others believe that, while Oswald was the only gunman, he had support and was doing the assassination for some larger purpose.

Kennedy was being driven through Dallas in an open convertible, waving to the crowds who had lined the streets to see the popular president. The motorcade had just passed the building where school textbooks were stored and was proceeding down a slope when three rifle shots were fired from the sixth floor of the building. One shot missed, one hit both the governor of Texas and Kennedy, and then the fatal shot struck Kennedy in the head. At that point there was grass on both sides of the road, known as the "grassy knoll". 

This view from Google Street View is from the place where Kennedy was hit looking back at the building, to the left, from which the shots were fired.

Oswald, an employee of the school textbook building, almost escaped but the owner of a shoe store, having heard about the assassination on the radio, noticed a suspicious man duck into his store as a police car went past, and then go into a nearby theater. After assassinating Kennedy, Oswald had shot and killed a police officer who attempted to question him.

I am certain that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone with regard to the actual shooting. Those stories about a "second gunman", whether on the "grassy knoll" or in the school textbook building from where Oswald fired the shots, have been thoroughly debunked. The supposed sound of gunshots in the background on an audio recording has also been explained.

Communist countries inevitably come into play in virtually any Kennedy assassination theory. Oswald had earlier defected to the Soviet Union before changing his mind and returning to the U.S., bringing his Soviet wife with him. Before the assassination Oswald had visited both the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico City. There was a very anti-Communist, particularly anti-Cuba, mentality at the time in the U.S.

The following image, from Google Street View, is of the apartment building where Lee Harvey Oswald lived in Minsk.

When I landed in the U.S. people were still talking about this assassination. Some children at school told me "Everybody knows that the Mafia did it".

There is a theory that the Italian Mafia was behind the Kennedy Assassination but it was because his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, had started an extensive campaign against organized crime, and not because of any foreign connections. In this theory Oswald's earlier defection to the Soviet Union would make it appear that Communists were behind the assassination.

There were two groups of people for whom Fidel Castro's 1958 overthrow of the Cuban Government had been catastrophic. These were the anti-Castro Cuban exiles and the Italian Mafia.

Cuba, before Castro's revolution, had been a playground for the Mafia. The leader of the country, Fulgencio Batista, had been a close associate of theirs. If ever the Mafia had their own country it wasn't Italy or the United States, it was Cuba in the 1940s and 50s. In 1946 a great meeting of Mafia leaders was held in Havana. The location was absolutely ideal, close to America but beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement. The Mafia had a vast amount of money invested in all kinds of resorts and casinos. Frank Sinatra was a regular performer.

But it all came to an end with the 1958 Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro.

Not long after the Cuban Missile Crisis Lee Harvey Oswald had started an organization called the "Fair Play For Cuba Committee". He is widely believed to have been planning to move to Cuba, leaving his wife behind, and killed Kennedy so that he would be a hero in Cuba.

Fidel Castro had overthrown the pro-U.S. government of Fulgencio Batista in 1958, driving many Cubans to leave for the U.S. These anti-Castro Cubans attempted to invade and liberate the country. The attempted invasion, known as the Bay of Pigs, was supported by the U.S. but ended in disaster.

Fidel Castro had visited the U.S. after coming to power in Cuba and had been very popular. But then Kennedy had demonized him, and had backed the Cuban exiles in their attempt to invade the island.

But why would Kennedy demonize Castro after he had been so popular in the U.S.? 

Kennedy is known to have had friends in the Mafia. Before becoming president he visited Cuba and Mafia friends reportedly set up the married future president with prostitutes. ( Source- Smithsonian Magazine, "When The Mob Owned Cuba"). It was known that Kennedy was less than saintly in his private life but his indiscretions were with high-class women, the likes of Marilyn Monroe. These encounters, while married, with common prostitutes could be very damaging.

Is this why the Mafia set him up with prostitutes? Knowing his lustful ways and that he might be president someday, this gave the Mafia something to hold over Kennedy. At least to some extent he would have to do their bidding. The 1960 election turned out to be very close and it is generally believed that the Chicago mob helped him win Illinois.

In 1963 the Cuban exiles in the U.S. and the Mafia must have been very disappointed. After the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion, followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis, Fidel Castro was firmly entrenched in power. The U.S. had supported the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, but not with it's own ground military force.

It became clear that the only way to remove the Castro government, so that the exiles and the Mafia could get their country back, was for the U.S. to actually invade Cuba. Kennedy had demonized Castro and supported the Bay of Pigs at their obvious request but, with Soviet nuclear missiles removed from the island, Cuba was no threat to the U.S. and Kennedy wasn't about to invade it, risking a world war.

But what if the exiles and the Mafia could find a pressing reason for the U.S. to invade Cuba? There was one thing that was within their power to do. What if they could have the U.S. President assassinated and make it appear that the Castro government was behind it? Kennedy had threatened to attack Cuba if the nuclear missiles were not removed.

It was widely known that the U.S. Government under Kennedy had enlisted the Mafia about the possibility of assassinating Fidel Castro. I don't think anything became of it and it's real purpose is so that Cuba would not welcome Americans who arrived or tried to move to Cuba, which was a popular idea in the 1960s. Attorney General Robert Kennedy was making life difficult for the Mafia and there could have been a, perhaps unspoken, arrangement in which the Mafia would eliminate Castro in return for the U.S. Government easing up on it. But this opened the idea of Cubans assassinating Kennedy in return, or maybe the Mafia killing Kennedy and making it look as if the Cubans were behind it.

That is where a character like Lee Harvey Oswald comes in, he described himself as a "patsy" after being arrested. He had earlier learned to speak Russian before defecting to the Soviet Union. But I cannot see that he spoke Spanish or had ever been interested in Cuba.

So why did Oswald suddenly shift his attention to Cuba? Neither his founding of the "Fair Play For Cuba Committee" nor his visits to the Cuban and Soviet Embassies in Mexico City apparently accomplished much.

Could he have undertaken those actions to make it appear that he was getting instructions from the Castro government? He could have kept his visits to those embassies in Mexico City a secret but he didn't. 

Could members of the Dallas Mafia, knowing of his earlier defection to the Soviet Union, have sold him on Cuba? They could have told him how hated Kennedy was in Cuba, since many members of the Mafia had been to Cuba, and that he would be a national hero there if he killed Kennedy.

They must have known that, given Oswald's erratic nature and his earlier re-defection from the Soviet Union, he would likely be denied permission to move to Cuba. When Oswald returned to Dallas they would tell him that there was one sure way that Oswald could not only get into Cuba, but also be a national hero there. It was to assassinate the U.S. President, who had demonized Fidel Castro, supported the Bay of Pigs invasion, and then confronted Cuba in the Missile Crisis the year before.

In April 1963, seven months before the assassination of Kennedy, a shot was fired at retired General Edwin Walker, who lived in Dallas. He was sitting at his desk by a window and the single shot hit the window frame. Oswald is widely believed to have fired the shot, although not until after the Kennedy assassination. The general was known for his outspoken right-wing views, and had in fact been relieved of his command over it.

But I find this to be a little bit strange. Oswald was clearly a very good shot with a rifle. If he could hit Kennedy's head at long range then how could he miss this shot, at much shorter range? He fired two shots at Kennedy, before the fatal third, why didn't he fire again at Walker? But the bullet fired at General Walker was the same type as Oswald's rifle would use.

Maybe Oswald didn't fire this shot, even though he told his wife that he did, or did fire it but purposely didn't hit Walker. It could have been done to build Oswald's legend as a genuine anti-fascist for his future life in Cuba after the assassination of Kennedy.

The fact that an Italian-made rifle was used in the assassination of Kennedy is interesting. It could be a false clue to divert attention away from the Italian Mafia. It made it look like someone, probably the Cuban exiles or someone other than the Mafia who had a grudge against Kennedy, was trying to make it look like the Mafia was behind it. If the Mafia really was behind it, but trying to keep it a secret, then why would they have Oswald use an Italian rifle?

Oswald's Soviet-born wife, Marina, was well-known in the Russian community around Dallas. Cuban exiles would have heard about Oswald's earlier defection to the Soviet Union and that he liked guns. Having been in the U.S. Marines he would be a good shot with a rifle at a distance. The following year, 1964, was an election year and Kennedy was sure to campaign in Dallas. Oswald just happened to get a job in the school textbook building that Kennedy's motorcade would pass, and from where the fatal shots would be fired.

Given Oswald's pro- Castro activities and then his escape to Cuba after the assassination would make it clear that Cuban Communists were behind the killing. The U.S. would use that as a reason to invade Cuba and depose the Castro Government, the same as it invaded Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11. The Cuban exiles and the Mafia would have their country back.

Fidel Castro, according to the Wikipedia article about him, thought that Kennedy had been assassinated by a right-wing conspiracy and was concerned that Cuba would be blamed for it.

But why would the Mafia choose Oswald as the assassin and what exactly were they thinking? To understand that we have to go back thirty years before the assassination and when we do it all fits together perfectly. This is the clue that investigators were supposed to notice but I cant see anywhere that they did. The Warren Commission report on the Kennedy Assassination was written by very unimaginative bureaucrats.

In 1933 Giuseppe Zangara tried to assassinate president-elect Franklin Roosevelt. That means it was after Roosevelt had been elected but before he actually took office. Zangara was a bricklayer and had immigrated from Calabria, in southern Italy. It was this assassination attempt that the Mafia was thinking of when it set Oswald up to assassinate Kennedy with an Italian-made rifle to make it look as if Castro was behind it, but set it up to look as if the Mafia was behind it, who really were behind it.

There are so many similarities between Zangara's assassination attempt on Roosevelt and Oswald's assassination of Kennedy that it could not possibly be a coincidence. Like Oswald Zangara gained marksmanship skills in the military, having served with the Italian Army in the First World War. Like Oswald Zangara was working close to the site of the assassination attempt. Like Kennedy Roosevelt had been in an open car, with another politician, when the assassination attempt took place. Kennedy had been with Texas governor John Connolly, who was wounded. Roosevelt had been with Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, who was killed. Oswald fired from a sixth floor window, Zangara fired standing on a chair. Like Oswald Zangara was politically leftward. His final words, before execution, was to excoriate Capitalism and express solidarity with poor people.

All of these similarities could not be a coincidence. The attempted assassination of Roosevelt took place in Miami, which has always been America's Cuban center. Since an Italian leftist had tried to assassinate FDR in Miami, it would look to those investigating the Kennedy assassination like Cuban agents had set Oswald up with an Italian rifle, and so many similarities, to assassinate Kennedy but make it look like the Mafia had been behind it. Also considering that Kennedy's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, was organizing a crackdown on organized crime.

Meanwhile the Mafia would be one step ahead of everyone else. It really would be the Mafia that was behind the assassination of Kennedy. But it would look to U.S. investigators like Cuban agents were behind it, but trying to set it up to look like the Mafia was behind it. The U.S. would take the assassination of it's president by a foreign government as an act of war. U.S. forces would then invade Cuba, and depose the Castro government, and the Mafia would have Cuba back.

The plan was for Oswald to escape, and later be traced to Cuba. But even if he didn't escape investigators were supposed to notice the striking similarity between Oswald and Zangara, which could not possibly be a coincidence, and take it as an act of war by the Castro government, which tried to set it up as if the Mafia had killed Kennedy because the Mafia had been involved in supposed plots by the U.S. Government to assassinate Castro.

This scenario explains Jack Ruby. The most intriguing thing about the Kennedy Assassination is that Oswald was himself shot to death two days after killing Kennedy. It was announced that Oswald was being moved from one police station to another. News reporters were waiting in the parking garage of the police station. As Oswald was escorted past them, a man among the reporters pulled out a pistol and shot Oswald to death.

The shooter was Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner with a criminal background who was heavily in debt and dying of cancer. He would die in prison for the shooting. His stated reason for killing Oswald was so that Kennedy's widow, Jackie, wouldn't have to go through his trial.

Jack Ruby is known to have been acquainted with members of the Dallas Mafia, as well as with off-duty police officers, through his nightclub. He was as strange of a character as Oswald, if not more so. Maybe he thought, or the Mafia told him, that he would be a hero for killing the man who killed Kennedy. Maybe he thought his friendships with police officers would help him after he had killed Oswald. According to one account that I once read while being restrained and arrested after shooting Oswald Ruby shouted to the police, "Hey guys it's me, Jack". There is information online that Ruby visited Mafia friends in Cuba, in 1959.

Notice the similarity here. Jack Ruby was convinced he would be a hero in America for killing Oswald, just as Oswald was convinced he would be a hero in Cuba for killing Kennedy. It makes it appear that they were convinced by the same people.

The assassination was successful but the exiles' plan was for Oswald to escape, and later be traced to Cuba or trying to enter Cuba. Convertibles were popular during the 1960s and Kennedy would be waving to the crowds that would certainly come to see the popular president from the open car. Oswald wouldn't be in the crowd but in the school textbook building. It would take some time to determine where the shots came from, initially focusing on the crowd, and this would give Oswald the chance to escape, which he almost did.

Many people have speculated that Jack Ruby, already dying of cancer, had the job of silencing Oswald after he had fired the fatal shots because Oswald, as an ex-Marine, was the one that was a good shot with a rifle. In the same way, during the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul, the would-be assassin didn't know that there was another gunman standing near him who would shoot him after he had shot the pope, purportedly to save the pope's life but really to silence the assassin from revealing who was behind the assassination attempt.

But if Jack Ruby was to similarly silence Oswald then why wasn't it done immediately? Jack Ruby was nowhere around when the assassination took place and Oswald had already been in police custody two days when Jack Ruby managed to silence him, by pretending to be a reporter in the police station parking garage. Ruby had made a great show of grief after Kennedy had been killed, closing his nightclub, but that could have been part of the "Plan B", silencing Oswald, after he had failed to escape to Cuba and had been arrested.

The plan was for Oswald to escape and later be traced to Cuba. Oswald's home and belongings would be searched and He left behind the "backyard photos" of himself holding the rifle that would kill Kennedy, obviously so that people in Cuba would know for sure that he was the assassin. He almost did escape but when he was caught they had to find a way to silence him before he could reveal who was really behind the assassination.

CONCLUSION

What I want to do here is to add the concept that the real reason Kennedy was assassinated was to bring about a U.S. military invasion of Cuba that would depose the Castro Government by making it appear that it was behind the assassination. Many people with influence, the Mafia and the anti-Castro Cubans, had lost so much that they could regain by bringing this about.

Also that the Kennedy assassination was modeled on the assassination attempt on Franklin Roosevelt thirty years before. The plan was for Oswald to escape after the assassination, and later be traced to Cuba. But even if Oswald didn't escape investigators were to notice this clue, which they apparently didn't, and blame the assassination on Cuba.

Of course if this clue had been noticed, and resulted in a U.S. invasion of Cuba, it could have started a world war.

Has anyone ever noticed that George W. Bush, a native of Texas, would follow exactly this same pattern, except that the Kennedy Assassination would be replaced by 9/11 and Fidel Castro would be replaced by Saddam Hussein. Maybe George Bush instinctively knew what the Kennedy Assassination was really about. Fidel Castro remained in power but what might have happened was played out against Saddam Hussein instead. His country was invaded and he was deposed on the basis of his involvement in 9/11. The theories about Oswald not acting alone were reflected in Saddam's supposed "weapons of mass destruction".

Another separate thing that I have never seen written about the Kennedy Assassination is that not far from the site of the assassination in Dallas lived an eight-year-old boy, named John Hinckley Jr. He would one day attempt a presidential assassination of his own. His assassination attempt would resemble not Oswald's sniper shots at Kennedy but Jack Ruby's waiting for Oswald, and then opening fire. 

Kennedy had won the 1960 presidential election by defeating Richard Nixon, who would later be president himself. Ironically Nixon, while not assassinated, would also be brought down by the obsession with Cuba. Cuban exiles were prominent among the Watergate burglars, who were allegedly looking for evidence that the Democrats were receiving funding from Cuba.

This Mafia dynasty in Cuba, during the 1940s and 50s, doesn't get a lot of historical attention. But it was the primary reason for the Castro revolution that overthrew the Batista government, and brought the world to the edge of nuclear holocaust during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It led to the assassination of Kennedy, which inaugurated the modern era of mass shootings. Charles Whitman's sniper shootings, from the University of Texas Tower, very much resembled Oswald's firing at Kennedy which took place elsewhere in Texas. This is generally considered as the first modern mass shooting. Finally, it resulted in America being really shaken by Watergate.