[Darris McNeely] The big international news this week has been the chemical attacks in Syria by President Assad upon his own people, and whether or not the United States was going to mount some type of punitive attack because of that. Just recently, just this week at the end of the week Great Britain decided that they would not join the United States in any action that might be taken by the United States against Syria. It's an interesting action that has come about when the British Parliament has essentially decided not to do this.

Why does that matter? That's the question. Why does it matter that Britain will not side with the United States on this particular issue at this particular moment in time? Put it in context. The United States and Great Britain has always had a very special relationship. And many, many times in past history they have acted in concert together to deal with aggression, atrocities, and efforts by other nations and other powers to curtail the freedoms of people in various parts of the world. Twice in the 20th Century the United States went to Europe to fight with Great Britain against aggression. In 1956 the nation of Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, which was owned by Britain. That particular incident was quite instructive.

The United States would not back Great Britain at that time in their action to keep what was theirs even though it was in Egypt. And it led because of that to Britain having to withdraw its position and basically give up any control over the Suez Canal. And from that point in history, Britain's empire began to really unravel and go in a different direction. The 1970's, the United States got itself embroiled in Vietnam. Great Britain did not support America in that particular effort. It was a major crippling blow for American prestige. The US lost that Asian battle.

History tells us that when these two nations stand together interesting and beneficial things for freedom and for liberties throughout the world take place. When they don't stand together, when there's a breech between them it's not always been good. And so when we see today in this matter with Syria that Great Britain has decided not to stand with America in whatever action the US may take in that area, it matters because it does further weaken the connection between these two great powers.

And that matters not just in world history and modern history, but it matters because these two nations are joined together by the imposition of the hands of the biblical patriarch Jacob back in Genesis 48 when he laid hands upon the sons of Joseph and he conferred blessings of national greatness upon those two sons that have been fulfilled in modern times in not only these two countries but other English speaking nations as well. It matters because of that. And it matters because God has been faithful to His promises that were conferred by Jacob upon Joseph and modern descendants of Joseph in these two nations. And because of that it matters for the good of a lot of people in the modern world who have largely benefited from policies, actions, and presence of these two great powers and what they have done in history and in modern times.

And when we see that they don't stand together, when we see that other things divide them it doesn't bow well for people who have benefited from liberty, from freedoms that have been promoted and guaranteed through policies and actions and even the laws of these two great countries, all of which in many of their roots even go back to certain principles of the Bible. That's why it matters. That's why this action by Great Britain to not even in this matter with Syria right now to support it matters. It matters because there is a God who is ultimately in charge of history.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.