WILD SPECULATION . . . HEADING TOWARD ANNIHILATION!
By
Doug Krieger
Fascinating, isn’t it, that two men, so diametrically opposed to each other—President George W. Bush and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran—could within one week (Easter, April 2006) utter such bizarre turpitudes? The one, President Bush (April 10, 2006), denying media reports (especially Seymour Hersh’s latest in the New Yorker, The Iran Plans, April 8, 2006) that the US has nefarious intentions to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program—including total regime change; while, President Ahmadinejad tells a conference of Hamas sympathizers, “the Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm.” And, of course, not to be outgunned by his previous “Israel must be wiped off the map” blast, his overt threat that Israel is “heading toward annihilation!”
The one claims that the U.S. is plotting to take over the Middle East—the other reassures a skeptical press that diplomacy’s the name of the immediate game in attempting to squelch Iran’s uranium enrichment program.
“AN EVERLASTING HATRED IN THE HEARTS OF IRANIANS”
An all-out military option against Iran by a joint US-Israeli (even European) onslaught looms altogether probable and, thanks to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s bombasts, all but certain. Mr. Bush came under heavy scrutiny regarding “Iranian military options” – calling such nonsensical prospects “wild speculation” – meanwhile, and immediately following the US subterfuge, the Iranians, through Ahmadinejad (April 11, 2006), proudly announce they’ve enriched uranium using a battery of 164 centrifuges and plan to use thousands more—enough to make nuclear weapons.
“The deputy nuclear chief of Iran (Mohammad Saeedi) said on Wednesday (April 12, 2006) that his country intends to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment involving 54,000 centrifuges, signaling the country’s resolve to expand a programme the UN has demanded it halt.” (AP)
Now, the day after Mr. Bush’s “wild speculation” remarks—and this is why the West truly believes that diplomacy, not war, is the best way to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, right?—President Ahmadinejad opened his mouth once again to exchange feet . . .
“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the enrichment success on Tuesday (April 11, 2006) in a nationally televised ceremony, saying that the country’s nuclear ambitions are peaceful and warning the West that trying to force Iran to abandon enrichment would ‘cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians’.” ((AP) Big Plan: From 164 to 54000 Centrifuges, Indian Express, April 13, 2006) . . . “Today, our situation has changed and we are a nuclear country and we are talking to others from that position.” (President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bangkok Post, April 16, 2006).
NEW WORLD ORDER?
After Iranian enrichment some Arabs in the region see their role radically changed. The Bangkok Post reported from Amman, Jordan (via the Deutsche Presse-Agentur) . . .
“The development (viz. Iran’s nuclear enrichment) has rendered the defense pacts already concluded by Gulf countries with the United States and other western powers ‘ineffective’, said Jawad al-Hamad, chairman of the Amman-based Middle East Studies (MSC).”
In the exchange with Deutsche Presse-Agentur, al-Hamad went on to say:
“Iran’s success in surmounting the red line that has been set by the United States and its allies for a long time indicates that the US policy in the region based on domination cannot be reckoned with in the long run . . . Arab Gulf countries should come to the conclusion that relying on the world order for protection will not work any more”
So, now that the “world order” (as in “American New World Order System”) has changed what are the Arab options?
“Al-Hamad said an opportunity existed for Arab countries in the Gulf region to conclude bilateral non-aggression treaties with Iran if Tehran ‘showed real good faith gestures . . . however, I think the best guarantees lie in the conclusion of a regional security apparatus mainly through the Arab League and the ICO’ (Organization of the Islamic Conference).” (Bangkok Post, Iran ‘changing Gulf region’)
Now, if this is how certain strategic thinking has commenced among Arabs once sheltered by the American New World Order System and her nuclear umbrella—how do you think strategic thinkers in Israel are felling about being “wiped off the map” or an up-to-date-post-enrichment statement like: HEADING TOWARD ANNIHILATION?
LET’S CELEBRATE EASTER WEEK BY HOLDING AN ANTI-ZIONIST CONFERENCE!
How all this can fit into one week—once again—defies apocalyptic imagination! According to the Seattle Times the busy beaver, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—when he’s not altering the “world order” in the Middle East through uranium enrichment—decided (actually organized by the Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, theocratic head of Iran) to hold a conference with every organization harboring implacable hatred toward Israel’s presence in the Middle East.
At the conference Ahmadinejad lambasted Israel:
“(Israel is) an unending and unrestrained threat to the Islamic world . . . if there are doubts about the Holocaust, there are really no doubts about the Palestinian disaster.”
Again, of interest to Jews who endured the Holocaust—especially those now living in Israel—was the following:
“ . . . . huge pro-Palestinian posters hung throughout the conference hall (in Iran), including one that showed the Israeli flag superimposed over the face of Adolf Hitler.” (Seattle Times, April 15, 2006 – “Iran seeks to raise money for Hamas” by Hannah Allam of Knight Ridder Newspapers)
Supporting the Palestinian cause were more than 600 delegates from 50 countries—including Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and, of course, hat-in-hand Hamas—seeking funds to continue the struggle against Israel, now that the USA and Europe have cut funding for the militant Hamas, the new-democratically elected government of the Palestinian people, sworn to the destruction of the Jewish State.
“Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, made a rare public appearance at the conference to call on Islamic countries to help Palestinians against the ‘merciless and unbridled savagery’ of the United States, Israel and their Western allies . . . ‘Your martyrs are our martyrs, your sorrow and grief are our own sorrow and grief, and your victory is our own,’ Khamenei told Palestinians.” (Hannah Allam, Iran seeks to raise money for Hamas, Knight Ridder Newspapers, April 15, 2006).
Wrapping up the conference, Hamas received a pledge of $50M from Iran:
“TEHRAN (Reuters, April 16, 2006) - Iran is donating $50 million to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, to fill gaps left by Western aid cuts, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday.”
But there’s a lot to look forward to, according to former Iranian interior minister, Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour:
“The issue of the Holocaust will be dealt with in another conference to be organized by the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry . . . If something like the Holocaust really happened, then it was completely the responsibility of the Europeans and it would then be up to them to pay any eventual compensation.” (AKI, “IRAN: ‘Jerusalem’ Conference Kicks Off in Tehran”, April 14, 2006)
“NEWS FROM THE NORTH AND EAST WILL TROUBLE HIM”
Just when you thought that “Gog and Magog” had nothing to do with Russia—behold the Bear speaks out on behalf of the Prince of Persia and the “stronghold of Ephraim” . . .
“A member of the Russian Duma, Alexi Mitrafanov, said here Friday the resounding victory of Hamas in Palestine’s parliamentary elections was a political failure of the US in the Middle East. He said Tehran’s initiative of hosting the (aforementioned) conference amounts to an invitation for peace and avoidance of war in the Middle East. The United States to date has not put forward any plan to establish peace based on justice in the Middle East, particularly in Palestine, and shows no interest in solving the problem reasonably, he regretted.
“The Russian MP from the Liberal Democratic Party pointed to US and Israeli conspiracies against Iran and the Palestinian nation as shown by their efforts to deprive Iran of the benefits of modern technology and science, adding that their use of threatening and insulting language have failed to achieve their goal. Blasting US policies in the region, he said the US’ approach toward issues affecting Iran would only reinforce the national unity of the Iranian people.
“‘US crimes in Iraq and other countries in the region committed under the pretext of defending democracy are crystal clear in the eyes of the Iranian people and those of the region,’ he said, and regretted that Israeli crimes in Palestine continue abated.” (IRNA – The Islamic Republic News Agency, April 10, 2006 – “Hamas’ Victory, a US Political Failure in ME: Russian MP” Moscow, April 8, 2006)
Russia’s concupiscence for a nuclear bonanza in Iran—and the billions to be derived therefrom—are well known . . . and, in so far as China’s quest for black gold to fuel her engines of industry, propelling her into direct competition with the leadership of the West—say no more. Is there any wonder why these permanent members of the UN Security Council wield their veto powers so tactfully when it comes to sanctioning Iran for her nuclear ambitions? Of course not—Russia, China, and the West, have big plans for Iran—and, Iran knows it! (Ref. The Sino-Russian-Iranian “Financial Cooperation” – “The Ties that bind China, Russia and Iran” Jephraim P. Gundzik, Asian Times On-line, June 4, 2005)
WILD SPECULATION A LA SEYMOUR HERSH
Seymour Hersh – the man the Administration wishes to stigmatize as the anti-Bush correspondent – provoked Mr. Bush’s “wild speculation” remarks; can’t imagine why . . .
“The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups. The officials say that President Bush is determined to deny the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program, planned for this spring, to enrich uranium.” (Seymour Hersh, The Iran Plans, The New Yorker, April 8, 2006)
Well, Seymour, so much for Mr. Bush denying the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program this spring to enrich uranium: THEY ALREADY DID IT!
So, this simply gives Mr. Bush & Co. prima-facie evidence for regime change:
“There is a growing conviction among members of the United States military, and in the international community, that President Bush’s ultimate goal in the nuclear confrontation with Iran is regime change.”
The Hersh piece is peppered with a multitude of “sources close to Capital Hill” that must drive the leak-proof Bush Admin. nuts—no wonder the only defense was WILD SPECULATION!
Now, we could go into gory detail regarding US-Wild Speculation in taking out Iran—but, let’s contemplate but one obscene reality in the world of Middle East politics and determine, from the obvious, just what the intentions of Babylon the Great just might be. Better put your thinking caps on—because sometimes the obvious is the most difficult to comprehend; however, if you were going to make a point of fighting a war on terror, taking out Saddam’s alleged WMDs, bringing freedom and effective democracies to the 10/40 corridor, and rallying earth’s democracies (especially those in Europe) in bringing freedom of expression and religious choice to Islamic nations—wouldn’t your presence in ancient Babylon be a bit ostentatious?
Of course they would; thence, for starters—let’s take a gander at the WORLD’S most outlandish foreign embassy: The US-Embassy, Baghdad, Iraq! (Now’s the time to check out the graphics at www.the-tribulation-network.com to behold this colossus.):
“Indeed, the massive $592-million project may be the most lasting monument to the U.S. occupation in the war-torn nation. Located on a 104-acre site on the Tigris River where U.S. and coalition authorities are headquartered, the high-tech palatial compound is envisioned as a totally self-sustaining cluster of 21 buildings reinforced to 2.5 times usual standards. Some walls are said to be 15 feet-thick or more. Scheduled for completion by June 2007, the installation is touted as not only the largest, but the most secure diplomatic embassy in the world.
”The 1,000 or more U.S. government officials calling the new compound home will have access to a gym, swimming pool, barber and beauty shops, a food court and a commissary. In addition to the main embassy buildings, there will be a large-scale US Marine barracks, a school, locker rooms, a warehouse, a vehicle maintenance garage, and six apartment buildings with a total of 619 one-bedroom units. Water, electricity and sewage treatment plants will all be independent from Baghdad's city utilities. The total site will be two-thirds the area of the National Mall in Washington, DC.” (Baghdad Embassy Bonanza Kuwait Company’s Secret Contract & Low-Wage Labor, by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch, February 12th, 2006)
We’re talking about some huge facility here, akin to the size of Vatican City!
“The Bush Administration is in the process of establishing new embassy facilities in Baghdad and regional offices throughout Iraq. The President has requested more than $1.3 billion in the FY2005 supplemental request for the logistical, security and construction costs associated with the embassy. On March 16, 2005, the House passed an emergency supplemental appropriation (H.R. 1268) which includes $592 million for Embassy Security, Construction, and Maintenance . . .” (Susan Epstein, CRS Report on the US Embassy in Iraq, April 11, 2005)
Here’s what Charles Hanley, AP Special Correspondent, said in his piece, U.S. Building Massive Embassy in Baghdad regarding the Vatican-size citadel in the heart of Baghdad:
“‘The presence of a massive U.S. embassy - by far the largest in the world - co-located in the Green Zone with the Iraqi government is seen by Iraqis as an indication of who actually exercises power in their country,’ the International Crisis Group, a European-based research group, said in one of its periodic reports on Iraq.
“State Department spokesman Justin Higgins defended the size of the embassy, old and new, saying it’s indicative of the work facing the United States here.
“‘It’s somewhat self-evident that there’s going to be a fairly sizable commitment to Iraq by the U.S. government in all forms for several years,’ he said in Washington.
“Higgins noted that large numbers of non-diplomats work at the mission - hundreds of military personnel and dozens of FBI agents, for example, along with representatives of the Agriculture, Commerce and other U.S. federal departments.
“This, along with subsidiary US State Department facilities, as well as US Military and Intelligence facilities scattered throughout Iraq, hardly gives one the impression that the USA is simply there to establish another successful democracy in the Middle East.” (U.S. Building Massive Embassy in Baghdad, Charles Hanley, AP Special Correspondent, SeattlePI.com, April 14, 2006)
Chris Hughes of the Mirror.co.uk called the US Iraq Embassy: “More secure than the Pentagon” with its 15-ft. blast walls; of course, we’re only planning to stay until the Iraqis can handle it on their own (Chris Hughes, Billion Dollar Bunker, Mirror.co.uk, January 3, 2006).
HOW SOON THE ANTI-ZIONIST BOMB?
Well, if you believe the Israelis—the day before yesterday!
“President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s claim of Iranian success in low-level uranium enrichment was more bombastic than frank. Before springing his disclosure at a sacred mausoleum in the northern town of Mashhad on April 11 (2006), DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources disclose he paid a stealthy visit to Neyshabour in Khorassan, 38 kms to the southeast.
“There, he inspected a project he omitted to mention in his Mashhad speech about low-level enrichment, namely, a top-secret plant under construction that is designed to run 155,000 centrifuges, enough to enrich uranium for 3-5 nuclear bombs a year. (My emphasis.)
“This is Project B, or the hidden face of the enrichment plant open to inspection at Natanz. This plant, due for completion next October, is scheduled to go on line at the end of 2007. According to our intelligence sources, running-in has begun at some sections of the Neyshabour installation, which is located 600 km northeast of Tehran. DEBKAfile’s sources reveal too that the Neyshabour plant has been built 150 m deep under farmland covered with mixed vegetable crops and dubbed Shahid Moradian, in the name of a war martyr as obscure as its existence.
“Already hard at work at Iran’s most ambitious nuclear project are hundreds of Iranian engineers, experts and assistants under the instruction of foreign specialists in the technology of centrifuge operation. Neyshabour is guarded day and night by the special Revolutionary Guards Corps elite Ansar al-Mahdi unit.
“In Moscow Thursday, April 13 (2006), US assistant secretary of state on arms control, Stephen Rademaker, calculated that with 54,000 centrifuges, the Iranians could produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb in 16 days. He was referring to the statement by Iran’s deputy nuclear chief Mohammed Saeed, who said his government planned to expand its enrichment program to 54,000 centrifuges from the 164 used in the small scale process announced Tuesday.” (Iran Flaunts Low-Level Enrichment to Conceal High-Powered Weaponization Plant, DEBKAfile, April 14, 2006)
Other reports indicate an anti-Zionist bomb headed for Tel Aviv would take from 2 to 10 years to make; however, the most reasonable conjectures indicate that 12 to 48 months is realistic (Ref. “Defusing Iran’s Bomb” – Henry Sokolski, Policy Review, June-July, 2005). According to Sokolski, time’s up!
APOCALYPTIC RHETORIC, IF TRUE, IS NOT ALL BAD!
There are some, who are determined to damn all who embrace a Biblical worldview, to the apocalyptic trash bin of theocratic states gone religiously berserk, and consign them all to utter geopolitical irrelevance—such are the efforts of one, Kevin Phillips. Phillips’ latest, American Theocracy, though extremely insightful regarding America’s insatiable quest for oil and all its products (and we will discuss his analyses at a later date), along with our determination to financialize every last American with gargantuan debt, is, nevertheless, a bit disingenuous when it comes to lumping all Biblicists into the same apocalyptic quagmire.
Yes, this has much to do with what’s going on between the West and Iran right now!
Bear with me as we read from American Theocracy . . .
“Theologian Barbara Rossing, a professor of New Testament studies at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, argues that ‘the Rapture and dispensationalist chronology is a fabrication … [T]he dispensationalist system’s supposedly clear-cut answers rely on a highly selective biblical literalism, as well as insertion of non-existent two thousand year gaps and obvious redefinition of key terms. The system is not true to a literal reading of the Bible, as they claim.’ Not only is this ‘a dangerous and false view of God and the Bible,’ but ‘the events where dispensationalists identify the Bible’s cosmic plan coming to life are most of all world wars, bloody crashes, earthquakes, diseases and other violent cataclysms. Disasters of sickening magnitude are welcomed by prophecy buffs because they evoke feelings that God is present and alive.’ Regretting how ‘Rapture and Armageddon scenarios tap into Americans’ love for disaster films and survivalist plot lines,’ Rossing posits the ultimate Left Behind message: “God so loved the world that He sent World War Three.’ Still, for many of LaHaye’s readers the events of September 11 squared with the series’ cultural and political message. Small wonder that, according to a Washington Post poll in September of 2003, some 70 percent of the population thought that Saddam—as “the evil one” – was involved in that day’s attacks.” (Kevin Phillips, American Theocracy, pp. 253-4, Viking Press, 2006)
For some inexplicable reason—and you must read his work—Phillips distains all fundamentalists and Biblicists, while embracing the likes of Rossing and her National Council of Churches’ worldview—a politicized
agenda that has its own form of literal contempt toward Bible-believing Christians (sad but true). Rossing does expose the commercialism and excesses of “rapture Christianity” in her text, The Rapture Exposed; however, the political agenda of the NCC, and, in particular, their distain for Christian fundamentalists—lumping them all into the same basket—does injustice to and distorts her/their otherwise credible effort.
Phillips, a lone-disgruntled moderate Republican (if such really exist upon this planet) is enamored with mainline U.S. Protestantism and, ipso facto understands their disgust for Southern Baptists and other fundamentalist evangelicals vis-à-vis their alliance with Israel. In keeping with his expose of the excesses of American theocrats—his prejudices get the best of him: For Phillips’ Bible has virtually nothing to say regarding the “end of days” nor of a future Armageddon, or, for that matter, any relevance concerning Israel’s materiality or a return of an historical Jesus. All of the aforementioned, as far as Phillips is concerned, is leading America down a destructive path to geopolitical nihilism—as an ascendant Asia waits in the wings. Knowing that an awful and unavoidable car wreck is about to happen, does not make one supportive of such wrecks!
Phillips, along with the allegorical NCCers, would have us all believe that they who foresee an apocalyptic drama played out on the planet have neglected the weightier matters of the law: love, justice, mercy, and caring for the poor. If we would concentrate on these Christian virtues, then the demons of Antichrist would go away in a flash—all would be love and oneness and the Kingdom of God would be among us indeed!
I bring up the Phillips’ issue and worldview, because it is exceedingly appealing to those of us who within the fundamentalist camp are keenly aware of the “rapture excesses” and the politicization of the American evangelical Church.
Notwithstanding the awful excesses of my fellow religionists—to throw the baby out with the bath as Phillips’s broad brush strokes invite—I find no solace in his inane, evolutionary, social-gospel panoply. Both Bill Moyers and he, though knowledgeable and well-intentioned, recoil at virtually all that bespeaks of absolutes in matters of faith, and find, I am sure, articles professed by this and similar sites, meaningless and even dangerous.
To the faithful amongst the fundamentalists and evangelicals, and to mainline Christians in particular—as well as believing Catholics and Orthodox—crusades and warfare in the name of Christ have been our bane in times past and now in the immediate . . . the sword is incompatible with the cross of Christ—and you know whereof I speak; however, to emphasize, as Phillips has done, the excesses of the Christian State, with utter disregard for the secular beasts of the French, Russian, Nazi and Maoist revolutions of past and present, and the untold millions annihilated in the name of atheism, social evolution, and agnosticism, demonstrates a proclivity against all things religious, while providing excuse and cover for sinister elements within the dark side of the force.
Yes, the inevitability of a calamitous and catastrophic upheaval is about to take place—not only in the Middle East—but throughout the world. Indeed, “wild speculation, heading toward annihilation.” The “wars and rumors of wars” which accelerate and worsen each century—seen by skeptic and believer alike—will crescendo at the close of this age!
That having said—when attention is drawn to these matters between the USA and Iran, as well as Israel and Iran—what these “apocalyptic sightings” reveal are “signs of the time” whose inevitable conclusions demand that genuine Christians should live circumspect lives before their God, and testify to those things which are recorded in His Word . . . giving hope and comfort to those near and afar in the midst of a “crocked and perverse generation.”
“That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain” (Philippians 2:15-16)
Looking forward to the Day of Christ!
P.S.
Please review the latest efforts of Iran at P2 enrichment—directly and quickly leading to a nuclear bomb, compliments of Pakistan’s Abdul Qadeer Kahn, father of the “Nuclear Jihad” and of the “Islamic Bomb.” (Iran Claims Nuclear Steps in New Worry, By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER, Published: April 17, 2006, The New York Times)
P.P.S.
Events have utterly overtaken us – please read the AP article by Edith M. Lederer entitled: “Israel Warns of New Axis of Terror” – April 17, 2006 – along with this statement by Israel’s UN Ambassador: “The danger I must add, not just to Israel but also to the whole free world, and to civilization as we know it, as this axis of evil and terror sows the seeds of the first world war of the 21st century, Gillerman (Ambassador Dan Gillerman) said.” (My emphasis.)
