EAST IS EAST & WEST IS WEST . . .
The Ultimate Armageddon
By
Doug Krieger
“But news from the East and the North shall trouble him . . . And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, ‘Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates’ . . . Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the East might be prepared . . . Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million . . . therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many . . . and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming up out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty . . . and they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew: ARMAGEDDON!” (Excerpts from Daniel 11:44 & Revelation 9:13-13-14, 16; 16:12-14, 16).
ARMAGEDDON is mentioned but one time in the Bible—and that in the context of the “Kings of the East” whose 200-million-man army follows Babylon’s Fertile Crescent, the Euphrates River, and descends upon the Plains of Megiddo in Israel for “the battle of that great day of God Almighty” – initially, against the forces of Antichrist—the King of Babylon.
Lest you surmise the complete merit of such a final conflict is “Biblical hyperbole” – literary fantasy having no future – or, worse yet, an exceedingly dangerous world view and self-fulfilling prophecy of the worst order – let us ponder the viability of such, knowing this, no recordation of history has yet observed such an immense army, and, how bizarre that the constellation of nations now galvanized to divide the “hidden treasures” of the Middle East have commenced in earnest to do just that!
AVOIDING ARMAGEDDON
Frank Sesno’s special CNN Presents: We Were Warned – Tomorrow’s Oil Crisis now airing since March, 2006, presents a 2009 convergence of fact and fiction in which the world through a destructive USA-hurricane (called “Steve”) and a subsequent al-Qaeda terrorist attack upon Saudi oil fields, is thrust into a global energy crisis—oil shoots up to $150bl. and $10gal. at the pumps! Rationing becomes the norm—the earth is thrown into total economic chaos.
Experts are integrated into the scenario to validate the naivety and utter folly of America’s addiction to oil. Again and again we are reminded that China’s drive for black gold to fuel its burgeoning economy—mirroring it to the oil dependence of the USA—is leading to a collision course with the world’s only super power. Likewise, we are repeatedly warned that “peak oil” (84Mbd) has been reached and that the US-share of some 21Mbd is all she wrote.
An awful and increasingly dangerous zero sum game is playing out upon the planet—here, to win—someone must loose! And, that “someone” will not be the USA—however, China knows full-well that for her to have a bigger piece of that proverbial pie, she must get real aggressive: That’s precisely what’s happening!
Prior to this fact-fiction documentary, Sesno did another documentary entitled: Avoiding Armageddon—a “four-part, eight-hour PBS documentary series about weapons of mass destruction and terrorism.”
Sesno visits China and predicts that she will have an additional 75-million vehicles within ten years. Today, one out of 70 owns a vehicle in China (i.e., approximately, 17 million vehicles). In America/Canada . . .
“The number of vehicles on the roads of North America as of January 01, 2003, is estimated at 257.8 million units, of which 154 million units, or 59.7%, are passenger cars, and 103.8 million units, or 40.3% are commercial vehicles, a split which is dramatically different than any country or region in the world.” (Ref. Woman Motorist)
The total today in America-Canada approximates 268 million units or nearly 16 times that of China. Considering the fact that America-Canada have approximately 330 million people and China some 1.3 billion, this means that the ratio of North American vehicles is just shy of one per person, whereas, China’s auto-person ratio is one in 70!
CHINA ON THE MOVE – AND THIS IS NOT A DRILL
Over a year ago (January, 2005) Frank Gertz of the Washington Times disclosed how China was feverishly building up its is links to Middle East oil (China Builds Up Strategic Sea Lanes, Jan. 18, 2005), not only through aggressive contracts with the Saudis, Gulf States, Iran, etc., but she was extending her military capabilities throughout the region to assure that she maintains her nearly 10% growth rate (the US-growth rate approximates 2.5 to 3%)
“China is building up military forces and setting up bases along sea lanes from the Middle East to project its power overseas and protect its oil shipments, according to a previously undisclosed internal report prepared for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. ‘China is building strategic relationships along the sea lanes from the Middle East to the South China Sea in ways that suggest defensive and offensive positioning to protect China's energy interests, but also to serve broad security objectives,’ said the report sponsored by the director, Net Assessment, who heads Mr. Rumsfeld’s office on future-oriented strategies.”
Yes, aggressively extending her military capabilities throughout the region. The article makes Sesno’s fantastical scenario of world crisis come to life!
The article outlines how China’s “securing the region” . . .
(1) Bangladesh: Building a container port facility in Chittagong.
(2) Burma: Building naval bases in Burma, along with electronic intelligence gathering capabilities on islands in the Bay of Bengal near the Straight of Malacca—supplying a once wary military regime in Rangoon into a Chinese “satellite” by supplying “billions of dollars in military assistance to support a de facto military alliance.”
(3) Cambodia: Signed a November 2003 military agreement with Cambodia—who is helping Beijing build a railway line from southern China to the sea.
(4)
South China Sea: China has increased its military airstrip on Hainan Island/Woody Island while erecting more drilling platforms and expanded ocean survey ships in the area.
(5) Thailand: China has her sights on the construction of a $20 billion canal across the Kra Isthmus, thereby bypassing the Strait of Malacca—giving China port facilities, warehouses and infrastructure in Thailand and, as the report surmises, projecting Chinese influence throughout the region.
This report, along with her aggressive contractual agreements with Sudan, Nigeria, other African oil-producing and/or potentially oil-producing states, Venezuela, Canada, Australia, and, of course, throughout the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, makes Pentagon analysts edgy and fearful that she will use her quest for oil to accelerate her military buildup, as well as project power and force to undermine U.S. hegemony in the area.
SHADES OF PEARL HARBOR CIR. 1941
Along with the analysis appearing in the Washington Times, the U.S. military’s Southern Command in the late 1990s warned that “China was seeking to use commercial port facilities around the world to control strategic ‘chokepoints.’” (The Evening Bulletin, March, 2006)
That same classified Pentagon report said that China, by commandeering the oil shipping sea lanes, could constitute a threat to tankers, “thereby creating a climate of uncertainty about the safety of all ships on the high seas.” (Ibid. The Washington Times)
Indeed, the report goes on to say:
“China ... is looking not only to build a blue-water navy to control the sea lanes, but also to develop undersea mines and missile capabilities to deter the potential disruption of its energy supplies from potential threats, including the U.S. Navy, especially in the case of a conflict with Taiwan.”
With long-range cruise missiles, submarines and undersea mines, additional aircraft and long-range target acquisition systems—including optical satellites and maritime unmanned aerial vehicles—the Chinese are altogether, according to the report, determined to make their military presence known.
Furthermore, the “naval presence” must be considered a major departure to China’s traditional land-based defense systems and ground forces.
The Washington Times’ piece concludes:
“China believes the U.S. military will disrupt China's energy imports in any conflict over Taiwan, and sees the United States as an unpredictable country that violates others’ sovereignty and wants to ‘encircle’ China, the report said. Beijing’s leaders see access to oil and gas resources as vital to economic growth and fear that stalled economic growth could cause instability and ultimately the collapse of their nation of 1.3 billion people.
“Energy demand, particularly for oil, will increase sharply in the next 20 years — from 75 million barrels per day last year to 120 million barrels in 2025 — with Asia consuming 80 percent of the added 45 million barrels, the report said. Eighty percent of China's oil currently passes through the Strait of Malacca, and the (Pentagon) report states that China believes the sea area is ‘controlled by the U.S. Navy.’” (Ibid. The Washington Times, January 18, 2005)
With tanker traffic through the Strait of Malacca (near Indonesia) to increase from 10Mbd. (2002) to 20Mbd. by 2020, the Chinese (according to the same Pentagon report) feel utterly vulnerable akin to what Japan experienced prior to Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, triggered by the US cut off of oil from Southeast Asia—such a cut off would “severely cripple” China!
Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor was overtly connected with her desperation to fuel her economy and maintain her imperial ambitions as a Pacific power—it was intolerable for Tojo to acquiesce to America’s unilateral cut off of oil (80% of which came from the USA), notwithstanding the US effort to thwart those same imperial aspirations
Is China attempting to avoid or “falling into the same entrapment” which stymied Japan’s Empire? Frankly, the similarities are so glaring that one would have to be historically bereft to say otherwise—i.e., history is repeating itself once again!
ZERO SUM GAME
In sum, Peak Oil taps out at around 84Mbd. production throughout the world—descending from that point. The US ingests a quarter of world oil production (21Mbd.). Other nations, especially China and India, are about to enter into the Twenty-First Century and, simply put, want their “piece of the action.” In sum, Peak Oil can be explained by:
“In practical and considerably oversimplified terms, this means that if 2000 was the year of global Peak Oil, worldwide oil production in the year 2020 will be the same as it was in 1980. However, the world’s population in 2020 will be both much larger (approximately twice) and much more industrialized (oil-dependent) than it was in 1980. Consequently, worldwide demand for oil will outpace worldwide production of oil by a significant margin. As a result, the price will skyrocket, oil-dependant economies will crumble, and resource wars will explode.” (Life After the Oil Crash)
Currently, China’s daily consumption of oil is approximately one-third of the US (approximately 7Mbd.); however, as David Ignatius in The Daily Star explains:
“President Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington this week (April 20, 2006) has members of Congress grumbling that the Chinese are selling too much to the rest of the world. CNN commentator Lou Dobbs calls it the ‘Red Storm.’ But the bigger worry over the next 25 years is that a rising China will consume too much of the world’s resources. If existing models for economic growth don’t change, that’s a recipe for continual battles over oil and other scarce commodities.
“Lester R. Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, presents some startling estimates of future Chinese consumption in a new edition of his book, ‘Plan B 2.0.’ He begins by noting that China already has replaced the United States as the world’s leading buyer of basic commodities, consuming more grain, meat, coal and steel on an aggregate basis than America does. Only in oil does America remain the top consumer, using three times as much as China in 2004.” (David Ignatius, China, oil, and the next clash over scarce resources, Daily Star, April 20, 2006)
CHINA AND IRAN
In December of 2004 a Sino-Iranian “Energy Pact” was signed which entailed the following:
“ . . . last week's signing of a mega-gas deal between Beijing and Tehran worth $100 billion. Billed as the ‘deal of the century’ by various commentators, this agreement is likely to increase by another $50 to $100 billion, bringing the total close to $200 billion, when a similar oil agreement, currently being negotiated, is inked not too far from now.
“The gas deal entails the annual export of some 10 million tons of Iranian liquefied natural gas (LNG) for a 25-year period, as well as the participation, by China's state oil company, in such projects as exploration and drilling, petrochemical and gas industries, pipelines, services and the like. The export of LNG requires special cargo ships, however, and Iran is currently investing several billion dollars adding to its small LNG-equipped fleet.” (Kavah L. Afrasiabi, China Rocks the Geopolitical Boat with Iran Oil Deal, ZNET/Asia Times, December 2, 2004)
Well can it be argued that Iran’s nuclear aspirations are supported, de facto, by both “News from the North and the East” (Russia and China)? And, it is that very news which spells trouble, big time! The “expansion” of the aforementioned LNG deal with China was confirmed in mid-February, 2006:
“In mid-February 2006, amid controversy over Iran’s nuclear research program, China and Iran announced an energy deal potentially worth US$100 billion. According to the agreement, state-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, will develop Iran’s Yadavaran oil field, and China agreed to buy from Iran ten million tons of liquefied natural gas per year for 25 years beginning in 2009. Sinopec would assume a 51 percent stake in the field, expected to produce 300,000 barrels per day, with 29 percent going to India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (O.N.G.C.) and the remaining 20 percent to either Iranian firms or another foreign company such as Royal Dutch Shell.
“This deal is the latest and most significant step in economic relations between the two states. Trade between China and Iran increased from US$1.2 billion in 1998 to US$7.5 billion in 2004, and jumped to US$9.5 billion in 2005. Chinacurrently imports about 13 percent of its oil from Iran alone and, as consumption continues to rise, will be increasingly reliant on foreign oil. Additionally, Beijing has made recent significant energy investments in Indonesia, Venezuela, Sudan, and Nigeria, and plans to construct a pipeline connecting Iran to Kazakhstan, which would in turn supply China.” (Iran’s Nuclear Plans Complicate China’s Energy Security, Power and Interest News Report, March 13, 2006)
Eventually, under pressure from both Russia and China, the UN issued a “toothless” statement regarding Iran’s nuclear aspirations. James Phillips of the Heritage Foundation regards the UN’s inept handling of Iran’s nuclear threat a signal to prepare another “coalition of the willing” a la what President Bush “had to do” against Saddam in 2003.
“Slowly ratcheting up international pressure on Iran is likely to produce too little too late. Russia and China maintain extensive economic ties with Iran, sell it billions of dollars worth of military weapons, and consider it a strategic ally. They are likely to continue to protect Iran from strong UN sanctions. And they will continue to buy Iran time by slowing the pace of diplomacy on the Security Council to that of a leisurely diplomatic waltz.
“While it seeks sanctions from the Security Council, the United States must also prepare to mobilize a “coalition of the willing” to impose sanctions outside the UN framework or, if it proves necessary, to use military force. So long as Russia and China continue to block strong action, the Security Council will fail to defeat the threat of a nuclear Iran, just as it failed to defeat the threats posed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.” (U.N. Security Council’s Toothless Statement on Iran’s Nuclear Program, By James Phillips, Capital Magazine, April 3, 2006).
So, where’s all of this heading? If you affirm any of Frank Sesno’s thesis—and that of Peak Oil in general—it’s heading in the wrong direction and everyone involved is making it go that way!
By the way, that’s how “things happen” – the lesson of history is well put: History repeats itself, over and over again—so, the lesson is this: If history teaches any lesson at all, it is that there are no historical lessons!
TRADE IS NO GUARANTEE FOR PEACE
In July of 1941 the West, led by the USA, cut off trade (a.k.a., oil) from Japan—in less than a year, war broke out. Trade between the West and Japan was extensive prior to these hostilities—just as trade between the West and China is extensive today; in fact, there is far more trade between China and the West than Japan and the West had prior to WWII.
The 2005-2006 trade deficit the US has with China now tops $200B—in spite of the fact that more US firms are opening up joint ventures with Chinese counterparts and US products sold to China now top $40B. (Fears of Growing Trade Rift with China, Jon Cronin, BBC, February 17, 2006)
The Chinese reply to America’s complaints on unfair trade practices and the charge that the Chinese artificially manipulate the value of their Yuan thereby insuring that an increasing number of US manufacturing jobs are being exported to China—and that Americans desire to buy on the cheap: Hey, you guys are getting excellent goods made in China at every day low prices—after all, the Wal-Martization of America could never have happened without cheap Chinese labor.
Meanwhile, the plot thickens as China’s Central Bank—with an abundance of US dollars—soaks up the US deficit by investing billions in those same trade imbalances through acquiring huge amounts of US bonds! Asian banks now hold nearly a trillion dollars of US I.O.U’s.
The Chinese put it right out front:
“It is out of this reason that the bilateral trade volume has risen from US$500 million in the late 1970s to US$170 billion today. Meanwhile, China has spent more than 70 percent of its US$660 billion foreign exchange reserve on US Treasuries, binding the two parts quite closely with common interests. If the US side could refrain from ‘politicizing’ trade questions, the trade ties will sure to witness another great leap.” (Four Strategic opportunities for US-China relations, People’s Daily Online, July 13, 2005).
Therefore, say the Chinese:
“The time of globalization is not an era of ‘clash of civilizations’, but one of cultural exchange and harmony. By now, China-US exchanges and cooperation in cultural resources and cultural industry have become an important part of China's fast-moving cultural market. For the United States, a deeper understanding of the Chinese culture is increasingly serving as a base of co-existence of the two nations.” (Ibid, see above)
“Clash of Civilizations” is, of course, a direct reference to Dr. Samuel Huntington’s thesis that the West, Islam, and China are on a collusion course of biblical proportions (Clash of Civilizations, Dr. Samuel Huntington).
THE PROPHETIC IMPERATIVE
The Bible’s rendition of future events is, as far as futurists are concerned, abundantly clear—the ultimate conflict of the ages will pit the West, led by the one who shall “enter the Glorious Land . . . and many countries shall be overthrown . . . but news from the East and the North shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many” (Daniel 11:41, 44). This is the same one of whom it is said: “He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver (i.e., the “hidden treasurers”).”
The economic crisis facing the world, as a result of Peak Oil, and of China’s ascendancy, Islam’s militancy, Israel’s “materiality,” and, most of all, the West’s claim to the “hidden treasures” of the Middle East . . . portends an amazing resemblance to the eschatology found in Scripture. While the world is mesmerized by the supercilious Da Vinci Code—the real “code” can be discovered by a Biblical account that speaks to our generation as no other text on the planet . . .
“Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil (i.e., plunder or booty) will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem . . . then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east . . . Thus the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with Him . . . and the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be ‘The Lord is one,’ and His name one.” (Zechariah 14:1-2a, 3-4a, 5b, 9).
And, ever the more meaningful – the poetic strains of Rudyard Kipling:
“Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face,
tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!”(The Ballad of East and West)
