Sunday, February 1, 2015

Persia; Redux?

My assumption is that having been admitted into a hospital earlier this week with the flu and going through an intensive admission interview with many of the questions about family history, I was reminded all over again that nothing happens without cause and reason and we are all parcels of our history with each breath we take. From that platform, my mind was deeply challenged by watching yet another Charlie Rose interview with three young men, none of whom I had ever seen nor heard of until the interview which was a four way colloquy on Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the new Middle East. Each of these men are fresh, brilliant, teachers, time on the ground with vast networks and a rich flavor of history. It was that aspect that grabbed me more deeply for I am pretty much a student for history or it is always the best predictor of the future. I wish I had the link to the CR interview for every word is worth watching and digesting in the context of the world before us; it is not pretty for an array of reasons. 
 


A most powerful, and for me at least, quote Mr. Rose put on for us to see toward the end of the program for comment was given credit to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius, a most interesting man but he borrowed the quote from a Le Monde column by Mr. Serge Halimi which from 2011, I think sums up where our world is evolving to when he stated:


The democratic Arab revolts are redrawing political, diplomatic and ideological boundaries in the Middle East. Repression in Libya threatened this dynamic process, and we do not know where the UN-approved actions of western forces in support of the Libyan rebels will lead

by Serge Halimi
 


The flavor of the rich discussion deeply touched me thus why up early with my mind in gear on what I listened to. We, as a People, want to generally know why things are happening and the result if we have time for it and it does not interfere too badly with our preset thoughts or agenda, I believe. If I picked on one concept that really brought home, for me at least, the context of what I have been witnessing over this last post 9/11 era where we now a whole generation being categorized as that, it was be the meaning of Empire. A definition for Empire is:


an extensive group of states or countries under a single supreme authority, formerly especially an emperor or empress.



As Americans we, by nature, push back from anything that smells of empire. The Japanese Empire is still a stench in the minds of my generation, for example, due to the WWII schism as it still true for the German Empire. But the term in today’s world actually has morphed into a more sinister and actually more dangerous amplification of the definition. Why am I taking this path? As I listening to the uprising in Yemen, most of you reading this would probably have to take a moment or two to find it on a map, could not name who heads the state nor provide a shred of evidence that it even exists. But it is there and yet another casualty that we are regularly getting to witness melt into this strange post of overthrow, mass killings, threats to our Homeland, upheaval for Europe, the role of NATO, etc., etc. If you filtered back through all the news, blogs, talking heads, etc., there is a nation, an Empire that denominates and seemingly has tentacles running through each of these seemingly ever burning fires with more added regularly as cans of gasoline being cast into the cauldron. That nation is the theocracy of Iran.




Awakening this morning pondering these thoughts and being a Christian, I thought a great stop off on my mental journey would be to Google Persian Kings of the Bible and names like Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes, Artaxerxes quickly flood my mind. You see Iran is the modern day Persian. These names are almost mystical for the Christian for the Christmas story is wrapped with their influence and part of the process that leads to the birth of the Christ Child, doesn’t it? Many of us reading this remember Iran in our generation for the hostages during the debacle of the Carter Administration thus we lose the flavor of the richness of the Iranian / Persian Empire’s historical greatness, influence, wealth and reach. All that sounds pretty positive when viewed in the historical context of an imperialistic state for these is one thing that seems common to empires which is they tend to never lose that desire to return to those empirical days of yore and thus greatness.


I believe most of us would agree that Iran is an “Evil Empire” many call it today. If you trace the gunpowder and blood trails just in the last few years, we find at the intersection of the death and destruction this once mighty empire. We hear it so much that I believe we, including me, have become sort of tired of hearing about it. But here we are talking about it but now in the wake of the American president, our Mr. Obama now trying to hold our Congress under threat to stop all sanctions, that seem to be having an intended affect on Iran’s spread of evil today, over Iran
nuclear program thus giving even Iran time to breath and time to develop a nuclear weapon. I believe Israel sees this Iran more clearly that most and thus why Obama is so set on not have the Israeli Prime Minister address the US Congress in the new few days. All this this translates into giving Iran more time to develop a nuclear weapon the brains of the world are telling us but our diplomatic leaders in Obama and Kerry are yelling a new, wait and see rhetoric if you have been listening. I posit one question; try to imagine Iran as a nuclear power in the sand box of the Middle East. Got it? No, you probably do not for none of us can imagine that.



The Shia lead government of this so called theocracy, a God-led state, is what that means, does not translate the same for a Christ-based Christian which is part of the emotional struggle many have at the mention of Iran. I paste in some opening comments to a FB post I put up last evening about a WSJ piece by Peggy Noonan that was built heavily on a Senate testimony I got to watch earlier while in the hospital this week. If I can find the CSPAN program in an archive I will post it for to hear the rich history from three formers Secretaries of State talking about this was enough to cause me to take deep pause and reflect. Why? We are, in fact, witnessing the redrawing of the traditional post WWI boundaries England drew after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire which all has root structure back to, yes, Iran / Persia. My commentary last night on FB:

 



... This Noonan article was based heavily on a CSPAN program live I watched earlier this week as the three former Secretaries of State address a Senate Committee chaired by John McCain. It, dialog left me totally unsurprised yet almost looking for a fresh breath. Lack of leadership in Washington is heavily responsible for the state of chaos unfolding in the Middle East and while we may hope there is a solution, I am about to decide the unraveling is too far gone to hold anything resembling the Middle East through the lens of the post WWI boundaries drafted by the United Kingdom when they could no longer afford to keep it all under the UK flag.
 

Many fingers can be pointed and much blame can be cast but we are as a global people are where we are. One thing for sure, I do not believe American has the political will nor the respect required internationally to provide leadership. I believe another national, probably China, can potentially take that role assuming they even want it but for sure, the maps we have grown up with will be changed and redrawn before too long in blood red ink. This will force additional change in the EU spiked by the issues with Russian aggression that could well unravel the EU thus melting geographic borders forming with would roughly be the old Holy roman Empire. That spell the Biblical end times. I believe it inevitable, the events, The end ... I cannot wait for I know where eternity resides and I will be there.
 


I will close this for now but I feel like this will result in other reaches back to this base for I see more clearly than ever the dangers of Iran, the bloodshed they spawn for hegemony using proxies we cannot even pronounce fueled by starving, now, their own people due to low oil prices as it Russia on her conquest to reestablish the old Mother Russian Empire via the Ukraine aggression. See, all this starts to really tie together in my mind for what Iran and Russia are creating, and oh yes, we must never look too far from China for they are part of this geographical and ideological redrawing of our world we have known. It is my belief that as the end times of this world as we know it draw ever near, certain historical events will return. One will be the geographic of the Holy Roman Empire; there is that world again, Empire. The HRE was a composite of a ten nation confederacy headed and housed in Rome. I believe the general configuration of the HRE will return in the ashes of the now European Union that continues to struggle for solidarity, an ever weakening single currency, the EURO and now that largest Muslim population outside the Middle East all painfully un-integrated into France, UK, Germany, Spain, etc., etc. We saw what happened in France but a few days ago. All this will can have a case and effect process in the EU nations melting borders in consolidation leading to larger states but modeling the HRE. configuration. All of this has End Times written all over it. Add to that a Pope I think nobody understand, a theocrat if you will, creating strange and unique alliances about social issues the Catholic church has long stood against. Just another can of global gasoline I believe. The shift in Turkey is all part of this as well headed by their Mr Erdogan and part of their angst is the EU refusal to grant them access into Europe. Europe has raped Turkey as Europe has raped and colonized Africa and we see where that has taken us. It all times together. 
 


We all just want this to get over, get some more popcorn and the Lone Ranger will ride in and it will all be good again. Me thinks not! I am convinced more than ever before we are only in the open act of a global shift of epic and Biblical proportion. Yes, I said Biblical proportion. I am sure more will come from where this has drawn my attention. I hope you agree and will be fueled to learn more about the Persian Empire as we see via ISIL, AQ, Boka Haram, etc., etc. are all proxy means controlled by the new Cyrus, etc., etc. in the nuclear twenty-first century that is moving so quickly in some indefinable direction is dazzling to try and understand; it is to me anyway. 
 


Never forget, the Bible is also a Book of History! That is my richest source of thought. As well, in the context of this writing, my suspicions and concerns about America and this POTUS are elevated even high for I fight going down the sinister pathway with this Administration. Something just never smell right in the sniff test, does it?

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