Although Armageddon and World War Three are not the same thing, more and more articles are appearing in the press and on the Internet discussing both. Here are links to a few articles appearing in recent days.

US and NATO on the road to Armageddon!

Israel and Iran: The Armageddon scenario

Economic stress diverting Americans from drums of war

Iran says attack would start WWIII

U.S. to strike Iran in coming weeks

World War by Miscalculation

World War Three closer than the elections

The selling of World War III

War with Russia is on the agenda

The October Surprise May be Coming

Will a Russo American nuclear war start soon? (long article)

Still Training for the End of the World

September Surprise, get ready for it

WWIII -- Turkey's options

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more links to be added...

With the looming threat of war against Iran before the end of the year, and the unexpected outbreak of a brief but violent war between Georgia and nuclear-armed Russia, it seems particularly timely to consider the ill-fated Spanish Armada of the 16th century, at least the Watchtower Society’s perspective of it.

While recent developments may cause some of Jehovah’s Witnesses to imagine that the ferocious Russian bear may now be emerging from hibernation to renew its supposed role as the prophetic king of the north, the truth is that the Watchtower’s entire interpretation of Daniel, as well as their interpretations of interrelated prophecies in Revelation, are fatally flawed and provide Jehovah’s Witnesses with no reliable foundation for understanding where we stand in relation to the events foretold in prophecy and the unfolding of future events.

Take for example the Society’s interpretation of the seventh chapter of Daniel regarding the last-ascending little horn of the eleven-horned wild-beast that humiliates three kingdoms that existed prior to it. In that regard the Watchtower’s website currently features an Awake article written last year pertaining to the tragic misadventure of the Spanish Armada.

The article itself is succinct, informative and accurate. However, although the Awake does not delve into the prophetic significance of the event that the Society elsewhere attaches to the defeat of Spain’s naval forces more than four centuries ago, the concluding paragraph alludes to such, saying: “Looking back, it is evident that what happened in the summer of 1588, when efforts at conquest by the Spanish Armada proved unsuccessful, is very significant. Nearly 200 years after the defeat of the Armada, Great Britain rose to world prominence and, in time, came to have a key position in fulfillment of Bible prophecy.”

To the unfamiliar it may seem that the article merely says that the tragedy that befell the Spanish Armada only paved the way for the ascension of the British Empire and that Bible prophecy was eventually fulfilled when Britain became the dominate power in the 19th century. While that appears to be what the article is saying, that is not what the Watchtower actually teaches. The Society officially teaches that the defeat of the Spanish Armada was one aspect of the fulfillment of the 7th chapter of Daniel regarding the three horns that are “plucked up.” Indeed, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been led to believe that the loss of a few dozen wooden ships with canvas sails was the fulfillment of a major prophecy connected to the coming of Christ.

In truth, it is not “evident” at all that the disaster that befell the Spanish Armada had anything whatsoever to do with the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. As the article correctly points out, it was not so much that the British navy defeated the Spanish Armada anyway. As fate would have it, many more men and ships were lost to the gales that frequently rage across the North Atlantic than were lost in actual battle. Call it divine providence if you will, but it was certainly not an overwhelming British victory. In fact, when informed of the disaster that befell his Armada, the king of Spain is reported to have bemoaned: “I sent the Armada against men, not God’s winds and waves.”

But more than that, though, there are several insurmountable difficulties with the Society’s interpretation.

Foremost, the prophecy specifically says that the eleventh horn comes up among the ten and causes three of the ten to be “plucked up” from before itself. Any reader who approaches this prophecy with his mind unfettered by the Watchtower’s interpretation ought to grasp the fact that the three uprooted horns are plucked up suddenly, decisively and simultaneously; not gradually, one at a time, over the course of more than two centuries.

Yet, according to the Watchtower the three horns represent Spain, France and the Netherlands, which all fought numerous battles and suffered naval defeats at the hands of the British navy over the span of more than two-hundred years. Actual history belies the importance the Society attaches to the battle though, in that, the loss of the Spanish Armada was merely one naval battle and it in no way brought about the downfall of Spain itself. In fact, Spain lost another even more decisive naval engagement more than two centuries later, in 1805, when the British navy, under Admiral Lord Nelson, defeated an alliance of the French and Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Britain’s victory at Trafalgar did indeed establish the supremacy of British naval power for the remainder of the 19th century. But to emphasize the point being made here: It was more than two centuries after the defeat of the Spanish Armada before Great Britain became the dominate European power. And supposedly that is when the British Empire emerged as the “little horn.” But how reasonable is it that beast’s three horns were “plucked up” before ever the little horn emerged?

What is even more absurd is that the Society claims the little horn not only represents the British Empire but also symbolizes the Anglo-American kingdom. But the British-American alliance, sometimes called the ‘special relationship,’ did not even come into existence until during the Second World War -- almost four centuries after the Spanish “horn” was supposedly “plucked up” by the then non-existent little horn! Or are we to assume that the little horn has been growing and growing and growing for nearly half a millennia now?

It should be evident that the Watchtower’s interpretation of prophecy, while colorful and innovative, is wholly artificial. And worst of all, by assigning the fulfillment of such profound prophecies, which pertain ultimately to the political developments coinciding with the glorious coming of the kingdom of Christ, to comparatively inconsequential events of centuries past, the Watchtower has unwittingly degraded the All-Knowing Jehovah into a god who squanders his incomparable powers of foreknowledge with Nostradamic predictions of historical trivia.

ALL PROPHECY IS HARMONIOUS

The emergence of the little horn is a future event. It signifies the appearance of the last king, otherwise known as the 8th king, which occurs during a time of unprecedented global tumult. The little horn will be different from all the kingdoms that have come before it because the last kingdom will be a world government. The humiliation of three kingdoms is also a future event -- likely symbolizing the sudden downfall of the Anglo-American system, which presently dominates the world. (The exact details of the “three horns” remain to be seen.)

How does this relate to the prophecy of the king of the north and the king of the south? Both prophecies, as well as the 13th chapter of Revelation and the 8th chapter of Daniel as well, depict a singular political agency under Satan’s control that brings the mighty ones of this world to ruin; dominates all nations and speaks great and grandiose things against Jehovah himself.

To illustrate: The little horn is said to be given a mouth speaking “grandiose things”; whereas, the victorious king of the north is said to “speak marvelous things” against “the God of gods.” The beast of Revelation is said to be given “a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies.” The significance of Revelation is that it reveals that the beast begins speaking great blasphemies after it recovers from a sword stroke. Evidently the plucking up of the three horns coincides with the death stroke upon the head of the beast.

It should be noted as well that the prophecy in the 8th chapter of Daniel foretells that a king fierce in countenance will “put on great airs” before Jehovah’s anointed prince and that he will throw truth to the earth and cause deception to succeed. Obviously all four prophecies depict the exact same development that will bring about the subjugation of all peoples and nations under a tyrannical world government, including God’s people. The last king will ultimately lead the nations into a world-ending confrontation with Jehovah’s then-ruling Christ.

Significantly, the 8th chapter of Daniel situates the emergence of the last king as taking place during the time of the end. Reasonably, that is also when the three horns are “plucked up” as well.

IN THE TIME OF THE END...A PUSHING

In harmony with that, the prophecy of the king of the north and south foretells a final decisive war will erupt at the beginning of “the time of the end,” commencing with a preliminary “pushing.” (Interestingly, the king of the north is destined to subjugate Egypt, Libya and the Ethiopians, which correlates with the three horns.)

Of course, the Watchtower teaches that “the time of the end” began in 1914. Supposedly the “pushing” between the two rival kings began then too and continued over the course of the 20th century. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been led to believe that the punitive measures of the Treaty of Versailles that were imposed upon the vanquished Germany, as well as the Cold War stand off between the West and the USSR, were the fulfillment of the prophecy. Presumably the collapse of the Soviet Union brought an end to the pushing match.

In reality, the sudden end of the giant Soviet bloc of nations signaled the beginning of London’s final push to establish a global empire after first destroying democracy and the nation-state system, once and for all. Since the end of the USSR Europe has been ensnared, not by the tentacles of dreaded communism, but in the sovereignty-relinquishing schemes known as Maastricht and now the Lisbon Treaty.

Because Russia is not under London’s influence to the extent of Europe and America, the imperial strategy is to encircle Russia by pushing Nato to Russia’s eastern borders and creating failed states and destabilization throughout vulnerable nations in South Asia -- creating what the Anglo-American chess-masters call the Arc of Crisis.

At this late stage the recent agreement to place strategic missile bases in Poland appears to have pushed Russia into a corner and as a result -- reminiscent of the Cold War Cuban missile crisis -- Russia has chillingly stated that Poland has made itself a nuclear target.

As a further escalation towards war a growing NATO strike force is now present in the Black Sea

Disturbingly, the Western press has neglected to report the fact that the recent outbreak of war in the Caucuses was triggered by an unprovoked sneak attack by the Georgian military upon Russian nationals and peace-keepers in the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia. The press blackout may well be a preview of the influence of the emerging last king as he throws truth to the earth and causes deception to succeed.

According to the latest EIR the provocations directed against Russia emanate from London and are intended to push the United States and Russia into a mutually destructive confrontation in order to counteract any impulse towards cooperation between the two nations.

The driving force pushing the nations towards nuclear catastrophe is the ongoing collapse of the global financial system. The financial monarchs, whose money system is now in a terminal death spiral, are urgently committed to destroying the nation-state system, America and Russia in particular, in order to prevent them from acting against private financial interests, and to lock up control of the world’s vital natural resources and energy corridors, so as to remain on top of the heap in the aftermath of the post crash world.

Of course, no sane person would seek to provoke a nuclear war in order to avoid losing their grip on power; however, the unseen power that is shoving the nations closer and closer to the precipice are not human. The real oligarchs are maddened demons who are intent on taking the world hostage at the coming of Christ.

Whether or not the prophetic “pushing” has already begun yet remains to be seen. But one thing is clear, as the nations are being relentlessly pushed closer and closer to World War III, the Spanish Armada had nothing whatsoever to do with the fulfillment of prophecy and the Watchtower’s watchmen are sound asleep.

As EIR and a few other economists have warned, the frantic bailout now underway of the terminally bankrupt Ponzi-like financial system will cause a hyperinflationary spike in food and other commodities, leading directly to famine in developing nations. (Asia Times: The Black Death of financial collapse)

The biofuel scam is also a contributing factor in driving up the price of grain; as is crop failure in various regions of the world, such as a wheat-killer fungus in Iran and an ongoing drought in Australia.
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And, indeed, reports are now coming in from around the world demonstrating that a catastrophe is in the making. For example, the Scotsman.com published an article entitled: “Global food crisis looms as Asia’s rice bowl empties and world price soars.” In the Philippines the rising price of rice is recognized as an immediate matter of life and death.

Already riots have broken out in Haiti and Indonesia and India are on the brink. Africa is said to be ready to explode due to the increasing inaffordability of food. After all, when you subsist on an income of a dollar or two per day, as a large percentage of the peoples of this planet are forced to do, the doubling of the cost of the staple foods is a calamity.

Recognizing that fact, at its semi-annual meeting in Washington D.C. last week the managing director of the IMF stated that if prices continue to increase it is going to result in a “terrible” situation for the world’s billions of poor. The UN's Secretary General has called for an international response to the unfolding calamity. Speaking of the food riots breaking out, World Vision Australia head Tim Costello says: "It is an apocalyptic warning.”

An “apocalyptic warning” indeed!

As reported in the English edition of Pravda, a U.N official has pointed out that unlike conditions of drought where there is simply no food to be had, the situation now is different – there is food but many simply cannot afford it. So, it is not likely that masses of starving people and famished nations are going to lie down and quietly die when they can take what they need to survive. War and social and political instability are a certainty.

The driving force behind the run-up in food prices is globalism, which is simply another name for imperialism. The Empire and their corporate oil and food cartels are making a final push to consolidate absolute control over the world’s vital resources before the dollar-based financial system vaporizes. It is their intent to crush the American republic and the nation-state system of things once and for all. (Must read – Globalization is genocide)

Will the nations’ leaders unite and avert the developing calamity? Bluntly, No! Bible prophecy foretells the complete subjugation of the nations under the boot heel of a tyrannical king – the last kingdom of Satan over mankind.

The last king, variously depicted in prophecy as the king fierce in countenance, the king of the north, the eighth king, the northerner, the tyrant of the nations, the image of the beast and the Chaldean, is destined to liquidate a large percentage of the present human population through warfare and starvation. The prophecy of Habakkuk, for example – a vision yet for the time appointed – depicts the “Chaldean” as ensnaring all the nations as if hapless fishes caught in a fisherman’s net. (See essay: The Ultimate Final Solution)

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Additional links added after initial posting

Food rationing hits Silicon Valley

Global grain prices reach record levels

Asia risks silent famine as food prices soar

Rice climbs to record as Thailand may curb exports

Walmart restricts rice purchases

Rice rationed in Britain

Is it genocide?

Wall Street Journal recommends stocking up the pantry

Hedge funds reap profits as third world starves

Coping with soaring prices

Where every meal is a sacrifice

Wall Street grain hoarding brings farmers and consumers to ruin

Lords of capital decree mass death by starvation

Global famine? Blame the FED

World food crises turns rice into gold

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"Let me issue and control a Nation's money and I care not who makes its laws". A.M. Rothschild, 1838 (Rothschilds & Rockefellers – Trillionaires of the World)

 

In response to the last blog entry on The Empire versus the Republic, I received the following email question: “In your writings you have stated your belief that it is the “international financiers” that are the real powers in control and the ones who are manipulating the world’s political system behind the scenes. While I do not disagree with this being a real possibility, I have seen no evidence to support such a claim either. Do you have any such evidence that historically, at some time in the past, or possibly in the future, these international financiers have such ability and powers to really control the political system?”

Apparently, it is a case of not being able to see the forest for the trees. However, the events of recent weeks has provided a timely demonstration of how private financial interests control governments.

As all readers are no doubt aware, the so-called sub-prime mortgage collapse last summer set off an on-rolling domino, chain reaction crash of the financial system. The most recent casualty to arrive at the morgue? – Bear Stearns.

Bear Stearns investment bank was one of the more aggressive dealers in mortgage backed securities and various other exotic financial “products” (derivatives). But when the market for MBSs, CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) and other forms of debt suddenly dried up Bear Stearns was caught holding the bag; in this instance a bag full of billions of dollars of virtually worthless securities that it bought, but now cannot sell.

As a result of being caught in a liquidity trap the company’s reserves were quickly drained and its stock tanked. In order to prevent Bear Stearns from going into bankruptcy receivership the United States Federal Reserve Bank and other governmental agencies were compelled to convene an emergency weekend meeting and hastily cobbled together a loan package that would allow J.P. Morgan to buy the bankrupt investment bank. This was an end run to get around the fact that the Fed cannot legally lend to investment banks. (LaRouche comment)

The Fed also lowered its discount and overnight loan rates and promised to buy up the banks’ worthless securities. But the question is, why the urgency?

Why not let bankers eat their losses?

After all, companies go bankrupt all the time. Why not just let Bear Stearns go kaput?

In an article appearing in the Telegraph on the 24th of March, a writer for the City of London, Evans Ambrose-Pritchard, wrote: “Fed’s Rescue Halted a Derivatives Chernobyl.” According to Pritchard the emergency bailout of Bear Stearns was necessary in order to prevent the complete meltdown of the guesstimated half-quadrillion dollar derivatives pyramid. According to the Telegraph article Bear Stearns alone had 13.4 trillion worth of derivatives positions on its books – this with a comparatively minuscule equity base of $80 billion. To put things in perspective, $13 trillion is more then a quarter of the world’s GDP!

But the buyer of Bear Stearns, J.P Morgan, is the reigning derivatives king. By taking on Bear’s positions it now has $90 trillion of derivatives on its books – twice the world’s GDP!

Needless to say the blowout of the gargantuan derivatives bubble would more or less instantaneously obliterate the global financial system and if prompt action were not taken by governments – the United States’ government in particular – it would trash the underlying world economy and drag the nations into a black hole dwarfing the Great Depression. (CNN: Chaos on Wall Street)

(Without doubt, the sudden collapse of the financial system would seem as if the sky had fallen; which, not coincidently, is the way the Bible depicts the collapse of the present system of things. See essay: The Presence of the Day of Jehovah.)

So, this is the present state of affairs. And make no mistake – it is not just a Bear Stearns problem. It is not a subprime problem. It is not merely a recession. It is a systemic crisis. The whole system is teetering on the edge of the abyss. (Germans fear meltdown of financial system)

Realistically, though, the latest bailout only forestalls the inevitable. (Wall Street Journal article praising the U.S. intervention) But it proves that the financiers control the political governments. (See Mike Whitney’s article: Bear Stearns bailout proves the U.S. is merely an extension of the financial industry)

The flip side of the bailout is this: any attempt on the part of the central bank of the United States to bail out the banks and their astronomical derivatives side bets would destroy the value of the U.S. Dollar through hyperinflation; which is, in fact, what is happening; albeit, in slow motion at the present moment. That’s because the bursting bubble is much too big to bail out.

As the president of OPEC acknowledges, the rising price of oil is not due to the market forces of supply and demand. (Forbes article) It is driven by speculation and the devaluation of the dollar (inflation). And it is, once again, the banks and their client hedge funds who are bidding up the price of oil and commodities. So, in that respect the bankers are basically inducing the United States to commit national suicide by committing to a course of destroying the value of its own currency in a vain attempt to bail out the banks and speculators. 

It is absolutely insane, but the way the British mercantile system works banks primarily loan money to speculators who purchase contracts for virtually everything – including money itself, which is the property of presumptively sovereign nations. So, while nations may issue legal currency, it is the speculators who determine its value.

London is the originator and dominate center for the FOREX hot money market that transacts a sizable percentage of the roughly 3 trillion dollars of turnover daily. (Only a tiny fraction of the global financial turnover actually purchases goods or services.)

To further illustrate the insanity of the British system, although hedge funds and speculators maintain no facilities to pump, refine, or deliver petroleum and probably wouldn’t know a wellhead from a sewer pipe, they are the primary buyers and sellers of the lifeblood of nations. (Dallas News article) That’s the free trade system. Protectionism is considered an anathema. And any attempt on the part of governments to protect their people from the rapaciousness of bankers and traders is strictly prohibited.

It is said that from the time an oil tanker leaves the Persian Gulf until it offloads its cargo in Japan or China or some other oil-thirsty nation, the contents of the tanker will have been bought and sold and bought and sold approximately 500 times – often by the same buyers and sellers! It is estimated that more than half of the current $100+ per barrel is a result of speculation and not because of the market forces of supply and demand, as the Empire would have us believe. Not surprisingly, the International Petroleum Exchange in London is the center of such trading activity.

(The prophecies correctly portray modern Tyre (London) as a mercantile system of exchange. See the essay: The Death of a God)

 

What created this monster?

This past Sunday’s New York Times featured an article in the Business section that asked a similar question. What Created This Monster?

The forthcoming answer was derivatives. And more specifically, deregulation of Wall Street, which gave rise to all sorts of unregulated forms of derivatives and speculation. Whereas, the little neighborhood chartered bank is subject to all manner of oversight regulations and governmental scrutiny, the gigantic Wall Street investment banks and their subsidiary hedge funds, which literally control the fate of the nations’ economies – as the Bear Sterns case demonstrates – are virtually unregulated!

What created this monster? Again, the bankers induced the governmental stewards of the public trust to abdicate their authority so as to allow private money interests to oversee, not only their own financial system, but the economy of entire nations is subject to the inscrutable deals made by international financiers from their offshore havens.

As the financial dominos continue to topple, the immediate period just ahead will determine the fate of nations.

As has been pointed out in the previous blog entry, the imperial system is parasitic in nature and can only survive as long as its host thrives. (The American system is self-sustaining) We have now reached the point where both the host and its blood-sucking parasite are about to expire.

As the latest EIR article explains so well, we have arrived at the end of the line for the Anglo-Dutch system. Such is the judgment of Jehovah.

Modern history for the past 500 years has been dominated by an ongoing conflict between the forces of tyranny and the human impulse for freedom. For over a millennium following the collapse of the Roman Empire Europe was dominated by a bestial Feudal system, enforced by the Roman Catholic Church, which enslaved the vast majority of the population in perpetual poverty and ignorance. But the Renaissance began to change that miserable situation.

The Renaissance eventually gave birth to the political expression of the sovereign nation-state. As opposed to the continent being fragmented into dozens of fiefdoms, modern nations began to take shape. France, under the reign of King Louis the XI, was put on a course of nation building and thus became the first nation to emerge from the Dark Ages and the Hundred Years War to become a recognizable republic, devoted to the commonwealth.

But, of course, the newly emerging nations were still dominated by a feudalistic oligarchy. It was not until the colonization of the New World that the opportunity presented itself to create a new nation – a free nation with an ocean between it and the tyranny of the European monarchies.

After the break away American colonies formed the first sovereign nation in the New World, two competing systems of political economy began to emerge – The British System and the American System.

The British imperial system is based upon exploitation, usury and speculation; whereas, the American System of economy is based upon true nation building. As an example of the British system, the East India Company, which had a charter from the government to bring in the booty from the far reaches of the sprawling empire, promoted opium production in India. The narcotic was then sold to Chinese peasants. Millions of Chinese became addicted to opium as a result of British “free trade.”

The British Empire was also profiteering in the slave trade and even though Parliament outlawed trafficking in human souls in the 1830’s, London was, nonetheless, allied with the Confederacy during the American Civil War and intended to break the union of the United States.

The fact of the matter is, the imperial system of looting made many people fabulously wealthy. Many of the mansions in Holland Park and other affluent areas of London were built with the riches acquired through the business activities of the British East India Company during the 1800’s. HSBC, one of the largest financial institutions in the world today, first got its start processing the profits from the lucrative drug trade. And to this day the plethora of hedge funds and banks located in London’s offshore pirate coves, such as the Cayman Islands, are still deeply involved in laundering drug money for their wealthy clients.

The American System, on the other hand, seeks to nurture and empower people to become productive members of society. It does so by means of education, infrastructure development, protecting domestic industry, fostering scientific progress, and by suppressing the rapaciousness of the British System.

These two competing, antagonistic systems of political economy are what is symbolized in prophecy by the iron and clay and the kings of the north and south leading up to the time of the end. (See essay: The King of the North Conspires for World Domination)

Since the end of the Second World War and the emergence of the United States as the preeminent world power, the Lord’s of London have sought to subvert America from her stated mission of freeing the world of colonial rule. In this they have succeeded. Particularly since the early 70’s, when President Nixon abolished the post war Bretton Woods agreement, which effectively handed over control of the U.S. dollar to the London-based currency speculators and oil merchants, the American economic engine has been effectively throttled.

But the parasitical British system of globalization is incapable of sustaining itself. That’s because a parasite only lives as long as its host thrives and the host – in this case, the underlying physical economy of America and Europe – has been on life support for sometime now.

The pyramidal scheme of amassing hundreds of trillions of dollars of debt predicated on extracting an income stream from a relatively miniscule few trillions of actual productive labor is manifestly unsustainable and doomed to collapse. So leveraged is the massive half-quadrillion dollar derivatives bubble, likened to a ticking time bomb, that a mere two percent notional loss could create a reverse leverage effect and virtually wipe out all of the world’s capital. That’s why the system is now in an advanced state of economic breakdown – as a few sober observers are aware.

In further evidence of that fact, commenting in the New York Times on the Federal Reserve’s recent bailout of the troubled investment bank, Bear Sterns, James L. Melcher, president of Balestra Capital, a hedge fund based in New York, said. “If the Fed hadn’t acted this morning and Bear did default on its obligations, then that could have triggered a very widespread panic and potentially a collapse of the financial system.” But as the title of the New York Times article suggests, Bear Sterns is just one of many toppling dominos in the financial daisy-chain.

But the rolling temblor now shaking the financial system is merely a harbinger of a seismic event that will shake civilization to its foundation and more importantly, herald that the day of Jehovah has commenced.  

So, what does the near future hold?

The financial oligarchy are determined to use the collapsing dollar to finish off – once and for all – the American republic and the nation-state system globally; otherwise, they run the risk that the United States and other sovereign nations may unite in their common interest of self preservation and act against the financier’s interests, as the global financial system careens toward the abyss. Will the forces of empire succeed?

In a word, Yes. The present democratic nation-state system is destined by the prophetic Scriptures to be crushed by the last empire. (See e-watchman essays collection)

How do the enemies of the republic intend to do it in? Evidently their intention is to lure the United States into war with Iran; with the intended victim of the war being the American republic itself. With the Bush administration on the way out the window of opportunity to induce the U.S. into launching a suicidal shock and awe attack on Iran is rapidly closing. Yet, the ongoing financial collapse is impelling the empire to act now, while they still can.

Ominously, this week’s U.S. News and World Report offers six signs the U.S. may now be headed to war with Iran.

 

Periodic droughts and accompanying food shortages and famines have been a fact of life ever since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden to work the land sown of thorns and thistles. Nevertheless, Jesus foretold that there would be food shortages in one place after another. Together with international wars, pestilences and earthquakes, food shortages would constitute a telltale sign that Christ’s secret parousia had begun.

Reasonably, though, if food shortages are to be a noteworthy aspect of the kingdom’s coming, then there must be something extraordinary about their scope and scale. Without question, during the 20th century there were indeed severe food shortages and famines in various places. (Wikipedia on history and causes of famines) But most of them were either in underdeveloped lands in Africa, which have been subject to drought and famines for centuries, or else in the extremely populous lands in the Indian sub-continent. And the communist leaders, Stalin and Mao, subjected their own peoples to forced starvation.

For the most part, however, the nations of Europe and the Americas have not suffered from food shortages in recent decades. That seems extraordinary in view of the fact that two great wars were fought in the heart of Europe. Of course, during the Second World War there was much suffering and deprivation, but it was quickly relieved as soon as the war ended. And even during the Great Depression in the United States there was no shortage of food – only a shortage of money to purchase it. That’s why many people received their daily ration in soup kitchens and bread lines that sprang up across America. But it seems that the Western world’s immunity to food shortages is about to change.

As the now-ongoing collapse of the global financial system accelerates and the central bank of the U.S. continues to flood the world with rapidly devaluing dollars (inflation), food shortages are an inevitable consequence, and they are going to become more and more common – “in one place after another,” as Jesus foretold at Luke 21:11. Here are a few headlines pointing to the unfolding global calamity:

 

Food prices continue to rise worldwide (WSWS.org)

Alarm bells as inflation pressures mount. (IHT)

Wheat surges to record as U.S. supply may drop to 60 year low (Bloomberg)

India may pay more for edible oil imports as prices surge (Bloomberg)

Feed the world? We are fighting a losing battle, UN admits (Guardian)

Food shortages loom as wheat crop shrinks (Times Online)

Food and the specter of Malthus (Financial Times)

Inflation hawks on top as cost of living skyrockets (Telegraph)

One in six countries facing food shortages (Guardian)     

Why the price of peak oil is famine (Telegraph)

U.N. warns over food aid rationing (BBC)

World food stocks dwindling rapidly, U.N. warns (IHT)

It would appear that the proverbial cat is out of the bag now – Although no one knows the precise day and hour it will vaporize, the U.S. dollar is pretty much finished. It seems that bankers, politicians, big money managers and investors are more and more coming to that realization.  (Lyndon LaRouche on Dollar Collapse)

Less understood or accepted at this point, though, is the fact that the entire present financial system has entered into a terminal phase.

The situation is similar to the Titanic immediately after its fateful encounter with the iceberg. For a short while it appeared as if the ship had survived the accident. Some revelers were even reported to have picked up bits of ice that had fallen on the deck from the floating frozen mountain as a result of the collision to cool their martinis; but it may have well been their last drink. It soon became apparent that the “unsinkable” Titanic was doomed.   

It is noteworthy that world leaders are now openly talking about the dollar’s seeming death spiral. As the price of oil threatens to breech $100 a barrel for the first time ever, over the past weekend the behind-closed-doors discussions of OPEC, which were inadvertently broadcasted, centered on the topic of what to do about the incredibly shrinking dollar dilemma. Some OPEC members want to dump the dollar altogether; that is, they want to stop being forced to accept it for oil transactions. But the Saudi minister warned that merely contemplating such a move could cause a sudden collapse of the dollar.

Nevertheless, in his closing remarks at the oil producer’s conference Iran’s president declared the dollar to be a “worthless piece of paper.” Not to be outdone, at the same OPEC meeting the firebrand president of Venezuela stated the obvious: “the empire of the dollar is crashing.”

And at a meeting on the other side of the globe at the ASEAN summit, the Premier of China also expressed alarm over the declining value of the dollar and how China might protect its substantial dollar reserve.

As of this writing the dollar has reached new all-time lows against the Euro.

Although the basis of the destruction of the dollar lies in decades of deindustrialization and deregulation in the United States, which has given rise to a casino economy, the recent detonator for the now ongoing implosion of the financial system was the so-called subprime fiasco; which, as most readers are probably aware, entailed bundling complex financial “products” based upon the inflated value of U.S. mortgages, many of which were taken out by less-then-credit worthy borrowers and are now going into default in droves.

Already the foreclosure crisis is being compared with the Great Depression. And because so many over-stretched consumers were using their once-rising home value to finance cars and credit card purchases, the sudden reversal of the housing market is creating a so-called “consumer crunch” and causing a ripple effect to hit other segments of the economy. (EIR article on chronology of crisis)

But while millions of Americans are going into foreclosure, the investments banks that packaged the exotic CDOs and MBSs and marketed them to unsuspecting investors are now themselves stuck with tens of billions of dollars of unsellable debt, or what has been termed “radioactive paper.”   Deutsche Bank estimates that the banks may have to write off nearly half-a trillion dollars.  

Although panicked Wall Street bankers were quick to declare the credit crunch over back in August – practically as soon as it began, and undoubtedly the so-called Plunge Protection Team has been working around the clock to pump the U.S. stock markets up to forestall the inevitable, reality has broken through the façade in recent weeks – the credit crisis has not ended. It has just begun.

Indeed, the panic in the financial system that began in August was only temporarily ameliorated by the central banks of the world injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into the system. And more recently, a few weeks ago in fact, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank was forced to pump an additional 41 billion into the banking system – the largest injection of liquidity since the aftermath of September 11th, 2001, when the system nearly crashed under the duress.

But pumping hundreds of billions of steadily devaluing dollars into an already collapsing system increases the likelihood of igniting global hyperinflation. Undoubtedly, the money men are also simultaneously gripped by the fear that the hundreds of trillions of dollars of derivatives contracts are going to blow out if the credit crunch continues – creating what one analyst has termed, a financial Armageddon.

So, these are the unpleasant choices bankers and politicians are faced with: letting the system freeze up and crash, or setting off a global hyperinflationary firestorm, reminiscent of Weimar Germany.

In all likelihood, however, the financial system is not going to crash on its own. It will come down as a result of the shock wave created by war.

As it stands presently, the highest levels of private financial interests, headquartered in the City of London, are aware that the global financial system they control is in its death throes. In order to come out on the top of the heap in the post-crash world the oligarchy associated with the Crown are intent on destroying the nation-state system, the United States as a constitutional republic in particular, in order insure that governmental authorities do not act against oligarchical interests. So, they are drawing the U.S. into global war and martial law. (Transcript of LaRouche webcast-Save the American Republic from the British Empire)

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Here are links to additional news articles and commentaries on the Web that have been added to this blog entry after it was posted: "A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions," Mike Whitney "A Financial Tsunami," William Engdahl. The U.S. Dollar: The Long Farewell, Gwynne Dyer.

Here are links to numerous e-watchman essays regarding relevant prophecies that cast light upon the now-onrushing day of tyranny –

The King of the North Conspires for World Domination

A King of Fierce Countenance

Judgment Day: The Last Hour of the Eighth King

The Coming Downfall of America

The Death of a God

 

More and more there is talk of a Third World War; and the most chilling aspect is that the persons doing most of the talking are the very ones in a position to pull the trigger and ignite a global conflagration.

Last week at a press conference it was President Bush claiming that if Iran merely obtains the knowledge of how to produce a nuclear weapon, World War Three will then be inevitable.

Vice President, Cheney, chimed in a few days later to warn that there would be “serious consequences” because Iran will not be allowed to become a nuclear power – the unspoken implication being that the U.S. will go to war to prevent Iran from developing nuclear technology.

Reminiscent of a page from George Orwell’s novel, “1984,” where the tyrannical government of Oceania engaged in mind-numbing doublespeak with slogans such as “war is peace”; or perhaps in imitation of the demonic perversion spawned during the Vietnam War that led the United States to believe it had to destroy entire peasant villages in order to “save them” from the Viet Cong, so too, President Bush implied that he was willing to risk starting the next world war in order to prevent it.

While the media may brush off such comments from the notoriously dim-witted chief executive as political rhetoric, as the Whitehouse has done in the aftermath of Bush’s statement to the press, there is every reason to believe that Bush and Cheney are intent on starting what could well be World War Three. Certainly, there are many who think just that.

In response to Bush’s accusations a leading Iranian cleric charged that it was the “pharaonic nature” of the United States that was leading the nations towards WWIII. (Interestingly, Bible prophecy depicts the American kingdom using that same analogy. See essay: The Coming Downfall of America)

Getting in on the World War Three talk, in a recent essay the much maligned leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro, correctly assessed the situation, saying that the American president ``threatens humanity with World War III, this time using atomic weapons.''And the leader of the world's fourth largest nuclear power, Israel, said that Iran's non-existent nuclear weapons are an issue for the entire world.

As reported on by Press TV, U.S. congressman and presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, perhaps stated it best when he said: "The White House rodeo cowboy has gone dangerously too far and precipitously too close to igniting the war he claims to be trying to avoid."

For sure, it is apparent that the President is not engaged in empty rhetoric. As reported on by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky in Global Research, an ongoing U.S. military exercise code named Valiant Shield 2008, not only appears designed to facilitate bringing the American civilian population under military rule, but the scope and timing of the war games coupled with the prevailing Anglo-American propaganda, makes it apparent that the real target is not Iran, but Russia and China. Because of close cultural, commercial and military ties, an attack on Iran would, in reality, be an attack upon Russia; hence, triggering a global conflagration. Russia is, in reality, the only power on earth that can prevent the U.S. from total world domination and because of that it is targetted for destruction.

No doubt that is why EIR’s intelligence chief, Jeffery Steinberg, penned an article calling the immediate impeachment of Cheney the last chance to prevent World War Three.

A commentary in the French newspaper, Le Figaro, succinctly summed up the situation as two trains on the same track heading for disaster and described the leaders of both Iran and the United States as equally “ignorant and stubborn.” While that is undoubtedly true, it does not begin to address the real driving force that seems to be irresistibly shoving the nations toward catastrophe.

For a certainty, the driving force for World War Three is not President Bush or even the Vice President, Cheney. No. In fact, the real warmongers are not even human. They are demonic. The situation is Satan and his demons know that Christ’s kingdom is going to cuff them and haul them off and they are determined not to go quietly into the night; so, they are, step-by-step, luring the human rulers of this wicked system into a calamity that befits their end.

The vast majority of persons who believe in the existence of the Devil have been sorely misled into supposing that Satan was long-ago consigned to stoke the fires of some subterranean inferno – far from the comings and goings of this world. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. Satan is, in reality, the reigning god of this earthly system of things, and the world reflects his evil character in various ways. Rather than some mythical Hades, Satan and his angels presently reside in their original place of residence, in the spirit realm – in heaven – that is, until the future coming of Christ's kingdom. At that time, Satan, described in the 12th chapter of Revelation as the one "who is misleading the entire inhabited earth," will finally be ousted from heaven and confined to the region of our earth for a short period of time before his incarceration. (Revelation 12:9-12).

One of the principal means by which Satan the Devil has misled mankind is through religion. The 17th and 18th chapters of Revelation depict a prostitute-like organization called Babylon the great that has immoral relations with “the kings of the earth,” and who misleads all the nations by her demonistic practices. The last verse of the 18th chapter of Revelation gives us another identifying characteristic of Babylon the Great: She is responsible for the blood of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth. Truly, what war has ever been fought that did not pit two religious opponents against each other? Or what war has ever been fought that influential clerics have not supported?

Unfortunately, the greatest slaughter this world will have ever suffered is yet to come, in the near future, with the outbreak of global war – leading to what Christ referred to as the great tribulation.

In the run-up to every war there is always a massive propaganda campaign conducted by the war profiteers and those on their payroll. So, while the West is being brainwashed with Islamophobia by the media and politicians, it should come as no surprise to Jehovah’s Witnesses that some of the most ardent and influential warmongers are the leading men of the so-called Evangelical movement.

While the clergy of Christendom have supported every war that has ever been fought over the centuries with empty slogans of God and country, the present neo-crusade in the Middle East has been given a new twist – prophecy – or at least the Devil’s version of Bible prophecy.

So, not only are the hundreds of millions of blind church-goers ignorant of the elemental teachings of Christ as regards loving one’s enemies and being no part of the Devil’s world, they now have been bamboozled into imagining that loyal Christians must support radical Zionism and fight Israel’s wars. Some rabid evangelicals are even deluded into supposing that it is their Christian duty to hasten the war of Armageddon by actively fomenting war with Israel’s neighbors.

A soon-to-be released book entitled Prince of War: Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire paints a none-to-flattering portrait of one of America’s favorite preachers as one of the foremost warmongers. It is said of Graham, (lower right) who has counseled and prayed with most presidents for the past 40 years, that there was never a war that he didn’t bless.

Apparently the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree either; evidenced by Graham’s son, Franklin, who in an interview with CNN in the aftermath of 9-11 said that the U.S. ought to use weapons of mass destruction upon America’s enemies.

Of course, Graham and his son are not the only evangelical preachers who advocate war. There are many. The late Jerry Falwell (lower left) had been one of the more outspoken hatemongers. In the wake of the United States’ disastrous invasion of Iraq, which by some estimates has since resulted in the deaths of over one-million Iraqis, Falwell opined that God is actually “pro-war” and that the entire debacle was necessary to protect innocent people.

Pat Robertson (upper left) is another notorious advocate of violence. In 2005, Robertson called for the assassination of the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. His rationale for advocating the murder of a popularly-elected president of a sovereign nation was that it would save the U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars if they didn’t have to invade Venezuela to take him out.

More recently, politically influential evangelicals have been calling for President Bush to bomb Iran. In the past year John Hagee, a fundamentalist warmonger (upper right) who heads up a mega-church in San Antonio, led a 3,500-strong throng of “Israel-first” fanatics to Washington D.C. for the purpose of blitzing the nation’s elected officials with Zionist war propaganda. (Alternet article on the influence of the evangelical "Armageddonists.")

The amazing thing is that millions of people listen to these evangelical con men. And of course, these same preachers that call for the murder of non-Americans are big Trinitarians. But while soaping down their listeners' ears with sermons declaring "Jesus is God" they deny the very teachings of Christ.

Can you imagine the apostle Paul using his audience with Caesar in Rome as an occasion to try to influence the emperor to annihilate entire nations or murder rival kings?

The beauty is that justice will prevail. Yes, the evangelicals are likely going to get their war with Iran, but it will be more war then they can handle. It will lead to the destruction of the American republic and eventual imposition of a totalitarian world government, which Jehovah will then use to annihilate the iniquitous whore of Babylon and her evangelical warmongers. (See essay collection on e-watchman.com)

Question: What do these four public figures have in common? (Besides the tendency to gesticulate with their right index finger)

Answer: They have shown themselves to have an interest in the acquisition and use of weapons of mass destruction.

Of course, in the case of the late Iraqi strongman, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden and the current Iranian president, Ahmadinejad, there is no proof that they have ever acquired weapons of mass destruction. (The exception being the poison gas that Saddam used on the Kurds, but it is generally known that the United States armed Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war and most probably U.S. companies supplied the chemical agents.)

Osama Bin Laden is largely a fictional character, in the sense that his image has been cleverly exploited by the Anglo-American Empire as the face of evil and the most dangerous man on earth. Unfortunately, millions of people believe it.

It is truly laughable that after the 9-11 terror attack President Bush vowed to ‘smoke him out, get him on the run and kill him.’ In the six years since then, though, Bin Laden apparently remains at large. This is in spite of the fact that Osama Bin Laden is presumably being pursued by the combined intelligence agencies and armies of the Western nations. Imagine that! One man eluding the world’s entire network of intelligence agencies! It is truly incredible that with the vast spying capacity of the United States a man can remain at large in an open wilderness; and not only at large, but supposedly still in control of a world-wide network of underling terrorists!

The latest generation of U.S. spy satellites and unmanned drones can scan virtually every inch of the globe and see in much greater detail then the technology permitted Google Earth. Not only that, the U.S. is capable of monitoring every cell phone, land line telephone and internet communication in all of South Asia, and the entire world for that matter. Still, Reality-TV drunken Americans believe that Osama Bin Laden poses a threat to the United States from his isolated cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Perhaps the wily Osama has revived the use of carrier pigeons to relay his instructions and carry bundles of cash to his many operatives around the globe! Of course, millions of Americans also believe that aliens from outer space routinely visit the earth.

In all likelihood Bin Laden is dead, but it serves the purpose of the fascists who lust for more power to have an ever-looming enemy from whom only they can offer protection, for a price; and so every effort is made to keep Osama’s bearded image alive in order to terrorize the masses into submitting to more police state measures and more war, always more war. Americans have already been forewarned that the “war on terror” is going to last for a generation. Meanwhile, the ghost of Bin Laden seemingly waits in reserve to conveniently take the blame for the next terror incident, which the imperialists have repeatedly stated is inevitable.

Osama is not the lone poster boy of evil though. The latest boogie man foisted on the gullible public is Ahmadinejad. He is portrayed as a Hitler-like madman who will stop at nothing until he has brought nuclear annihilation upon Israel and America. This is in spite of the fact that the United Nations nuclear inspection agency (IAEA) has stated that Iran does not have any nuclear weapons and will not have any in sufficient numbers for many years.

The truth is, Americans are victims of an elaborate brainwashing operation. On one front, the population is induced to distraction through an endless array of mindless pastimes; while at the same time the mass media stupefies its viewers with silly sitcoms, the never-ending antics and petty crimes of celebrities, and entertainment, trivia and gossip pawned off as “news.”

The greatest irony is that of the four men pictured above, the three Middle Eastern men, who have over the years been portrayed as posing the greatest threat to the world, actually have posed the least danger. By far, the Vice President of the United States is the most dangerous man on earth at this present moment in history. He, along with President Bush, possesses sole control over more than 10,000 nuclear weapons and have made no secret of their eagerness to use them.

Since 9-11 policy-makers have for the first time in American history adopted a “first-strike” military doctrine that allows the U.S. to launch unprovoked preemptive nuclear strikes against any perceived threat, anywhere in the world. That policy is now being fully implemented in preparation for a devastating strike against Iran. Specifically, the military plan is called “Global Strike,” which essentially places the U.S. military on a hair-trigger – on the ready to annihilate numerous targets around the globe.

One of the more troubling developments recently is the determination of the U.S. to install a missile shield. Just last week the U.S. military publicized the successful test of an interceptor missile. Supposedly the missile defense is intended to knock down ballistic missiles launched from Iran and North Korea. But since the policy of Global Strike has already been implemented for the express purpose of destroying the capability of so-called rogue nations from even developing the potential to initiate a strike, the missile shield would seem to be superfluous. Unless the shield is intended for another purpose, as the Russians contend.  (See blog entry: King of the North Prepares Global Strike)

In recent days the Vice President admitted that he considered asking Israel to make a limited attack upon Iran as a way of provoking Iran into retaliation as a pretext for the U.S. to unleash shock and awe. There is no reason to assume that similar schemes are not still under consideration. As the Guardian recently reported, President Bush is also being strongly pressured by Cheney not to leave office next year without first attacking Iran.

The recent revelation that a U.S. B52 landed at an air force base in Louisiana, armed with six live nuclear cruise missiles under its massive wings, has caused some to speculate that the affair was actually an aborted flight intended for an attack upon Iran. It is thought that alarmed officers within the U.S. air force may have pulled the plug on the operation. (See Global Research article)

Whether the story is true or not, there is no question but that the world is in a most dangerous and precarious state presently and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. That is because the real faces of evil are veiled. They being Satan and the demons – who know their days are numbered.

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