Chapter XII
The Gulf War, And Now Afghanistan, And now Iraq again.
Open the Book of Joel
Awake ye drunkards, and weep and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, because it is cut off from your mouth.
For a nation (America and its Western allies) is come up upon my Land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
He hath laid my Vine waste, and barked my Fig Tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away: the branches thereof are made white...(Joel 1:5-7).
Because the children of the Universal, Epic Nation of Israel were promised no land in this, or in any other age, the concept of the Land, and particularly the Promised Land, has always been a Scriptural metaphor for the body (made of earth) that every individual posseses, and a state of mind--a Promised State of Mind--that every child of Light shall ultimately inherit. In America, however, the people have been led to believe they had already attained it, or that it was at least theirs for the taking. And we find parents readily, and eagerly, preparing their children to get their piece of it. Those with the biggest pieces, who have already tasted the fruit of this land--the Fruit of Opportunity--want their children to have still bigger pieces of it, more fruit, more opportunities. So day by day the parents bring them. (They do not all bring them willingly of course; many have been made to, against their will. And others bring their children against their better spiritual judgment, perhaps because they can not avail themselves of alternatives). But day by day the children come (no unexcused absenses, or the parents will be placed in jail), lesson by lesson, video by video, movie by movie (the present Disney syndrome), report card by report card, field trip by field trip (to the factories and the malls of course), practice by practice, game by game, recital by recital, fashion by fashion, purchase by purchase, want by want, diploma by diploma, career by career, deposit by deposit, investment by investment, speech by speech, sermon by sermon, Sunday by Sunday, Sabbath by Sabbath, until they have been wholly trained up and conscripted into the American way of Life. (And, as George W. Bush intimated at a speech at the Pentagon this week, we cannot imagine it any other way. Or why on earth, he asked, would anyone have cause to be angry at America? But how is it written: Isaiah 66:15-18). Having been trained up to become good producers and good consumers the people are further rewarded for their loyalty with all the further blessings of American life. It is written, however, Woe to them who call evil good...(Isaiah, chapter 5). In the international world of Give and Take, or "givers" and "takers," Americans are the "Takers," and they have been trained up to be so, (in direct violation of both the teachings of Christ and the natural ethics of all the children of Mother Earth wherever they dwell throughout the planet).
The children, as little sheep, have been led, in both the public and private religious schools of this nation, to keep their minds on the "Right" side of the political and religious spectrum, the side of Power and Majesty, and to hold in reverence those who have attained to these positions in public life, and to pledge allegience to them. (The words say "To the flag," but they actually mean, "To those who uphold the idea of the flag, and who exploit the message of the flag to their own fullest advantage"). Of course this is the side of the Tree of Life upon which the true Messiahs will also be manifest:
The only obstacle standing between the people (all of whom are assembled at this time in history around the Seventh sefira on the Tree of Life named Endurance) and God's anointed ones is the American state of mind.
Focusing on the Oracle we find the spirit of Antichrist ruling there instead. Even when one finds themselves drawn to the things that are unfolding on the Left side of the Tree, the present side named Love and Endurance, they find that every attempt to awaken the people (from over there on the Left as it is), or to point out some blatantly wicked action or behavior of the American body-politic, and of the religious institutions that support it (even in light of the teachings of the prophets), is met with an almost concerted resistance. People's minds are closed, they have been trained not to listen to it. Such criticism, of course, is in the finest American tradition of protest and rebellion, so it is allowed. ("And where else would they be allowed to"--the people unmindfully reason)? The issues are swiftly assimilated into the broad stream of the national consciousness and rendered unmeaningful. (A sown seed perhaps? Someone said that American patriotism is three thouand miles wide, but only a half an inch deep. We shall see). In the meantime individuals and families continue to be digested before our eyes. The wealthy continue to grow wealthier. And the earth continues to be dishonoured, and ravished. In other words the Word of Life continues to be tread underfoot. And spiritual wickedness in High governmental places continues unabated. The Darkness is so pervasive it is almost taken for Light. And now the people have come and laid themselves and their sons and daughters down on the altar of Operation Desert Storm. (And now again in its great unfolding sequel, Operation "Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan, of which we shall move onto at the end of this chapter. The following text, however, represents our impressions and interpretations of the events of George Bush, the father's, war in the Gulf--events, nevertheless, which are still in motion):
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and Thick Darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains (the nations): a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. (Watch out!).
A Fire (of War) devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land (in this case Iraq and Kuwait) IS AS THE GARDEN OF EDEN before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing shall escape them, (escape who? the Americans).
The appearance of them (America and her allies) is as the appearance of horses (the engines of war); and as horsemen so shall they run.
Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble.
Before their faces the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness, (the prayers of the American people shall be turned back upon them like so much strange fire and black smoke).
They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and shall march every one on his ways, they shall not break their ranks.
Neither shall one thrust another, they shall walk everyone in his path (just as they have been trained up to do), and when they fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded, (in other words, they will not die to their great mischievous ways, they will keep coming until they have depleted their own numbers).
They shall run to and fro (without any spiritual focus); they shall climb upon the wall and upon the houses, they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
The earth shall quake before them; the heavens (the entire East) shall tremble: the Sun (Christianity) and the Moon (Judaism) shall be dark, and the Stars (the angelic powers in the earth) shall withdraw their shining...
And (then, after all these things) the Lord shall utter His Voice before His army: for His camp is very great: for Strong is He that executeth His word: for the Day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?...(Joel 2:2-11).
All the mysteries of the (original) Garden of Eden were carried out of the West in ancient times, and transplanted there in Mesopotamia and along those river systems that flow through present-day Iraq, a land which we have come to associate with the whereabouts of the Garden of Eden to this very day...
Thus that whole land was AS the Garden of Eden before the allied forces of Desert Storm. The morning cometh, (and the restoration of all things), says Isaiah, but first the night. (Isaiah 21:12). This refers to the night of spiritual darkness that we are all now experiencing. Jews in Palestine likened Saddam Hussein to a modern Haman, and others likened him to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. In America they celebrated his defeat in a great historic way. The parade in New York City was an obscene spectacle, a grandiose flag-filled celebration of American military might, technological superiority (the work of modern wizards), and of its immense ability to kill abroad without being killed at home. (God has been extremely prudent toward America so far, giving her great space to repent). It seemed that not one person among the throngs at that parade were even scarcely aware of the great danger that exists, not only to their own mortal lives, but to their own eternal souls, because of their allegiance that day to the great American (Roman) Juggernaut. (These words, of course, were written several years before the events of September 11th, 2001).
Had God not provided a Remnant in this generation the real spirit of Haman in this world (the spirit of the American Antichrists) would have everyone completely in its grip, and dead to the fullest realizations of their own higher precepts and traditions. The reason Jews don't see it is because they do not think the traditions and the history of Christianity have anything to do with spiritual reality to begin with, at least not with Jewish reality, or with the history of Israel as they see it. Jews, for the very most part, think that the nation of Israel is a purely Jewish phenomenon, and that its center as well as its capitol is over there, (in the East), and as such they look upon Saddam Hussein as a devil and not as an imminent judgment upon themselves; and upon America as a protector and not a spiritual oppressor, (or as the Great Satan as others in the Middle East still call it). Jews remain oblivious, as they are to almost everything beyond their own self-interest, to Christianity's, and thus to America's claim to the mantle of Israel, and therefore to almost any idea whatsoever concerning the concept of antichrist. They do not believe in Christ, why on earth should they believe in an antichrist. (1 John 2:18,19, 2 Thessalonians 2, KJV). The idea is actually foreign, not only to Jewish consciousness but to liberal as well as to modern intellectual consciousness as well. It is indeed A Day of THICK DARKNESS.
Speaking to the nation the real spirit of Haman said:
"Regrettably the Noon deadline passed without an agreement of the government of Irag to meet the demands of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 660. (again, see Isaiah 59). To the contrary, what we have seen is a redoubling of Saddam Hussein's efforts to destroy completely Kuwait and its people...
I have therefore directed General Norman Schwarzkopf, in conjunction with coalition forces, to use all forces available, including ground forces to eject the Iraqi army from Kuwait...The liberation of Kuwait has now entered a final phase.
Tonight as this coalition of countries seeks to do what is right and just, I ask only that all of you stop what what you are doing and say a prayer for all coalition forces risking their lives for their country and all of us. (see 1 Cor. 10:20-22; Ezekiel 16:20,21). May God bless and protect each and every one of them and may God bless the United States of America."
He and his counselors, his ministers, his priests and his prophets, remained completely oblivious to the pleadings of God in this matter (see Joel 3:2), to the drumbeat of reason, or to the many voices of supplication that were raised across America. "Were you moved," he was asked after an episode in church when John Schuchardt stood up in the congregation and implored: "We need to think of the 18 million people of Iraq; half of them children. We must think of what it means to be bombed (from the air) every day by 2,000 planes and cruise missiles..." "Not in the least," he replied. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," cried Schuchardt, as he was escorted to the door shouting, "Stop the bombing! Stop the massacre in the Name of God!" How could this president be moved by such words? God had completely shut his mind. "Once assailed for his weakness, Bush is now lionized for his strength," said the New York Times. Let the weak say, I am strong, said the prophet. (Joel 3:10).
Writing in the February 15, 1991 edition of the Jewish Press, Tzvi Zev Ben Yahuda does not only unwittingly describe the things that God is preparing to bring upon America when he describes what America did to Iraq, but his half-sided view of the conflict represents an indictment of America anyway, no matter how you look at it, because if his view of Iraq being Babylon was correct, then it was America who fulfilled the words: Behold, a people shall come from the North, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance. THEY ARE CRUEL, AND WILL SHOW NO MERCY. (Jeremiah 50:41). Well, they didn't show any mercy. Nevertheless, this text speaks of the judgment that shall fall upon America itself, as it is also written: In the cup which she has filled, fill to her double. (Revelation 18:6). Yehuda, in his rejection of the Christian mysteries, had no insight into the hidden structure of these things, into the Law of Correspondances, and could not imagine in his own national, and perhaps even personal duress how Saddam Hussein and George Bush were spiritual images of each other in these affairs when he wrote:
"All prophecies refer to the days of Messiah. Since we are in (those days) it follows that the period written about in the book of Jeremiah applies to our time. In Jeremiah, chapter 51, the battle to come against Babylon is described in an extensive manner, realizing that the geographical boundaries refer to today's Iraq. Reading through the chapter almost conclusively confirms that the battle described is today's war in the Gulf.
The battle begins with a massive bombardment of Iraq with Tomahawks and thousands of sorties from the air. The Iraqis remain in their bunkers. 'Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon.' Jeremiah starts comforting us by telling us that this war is waged by God and the outcome, as foretold in this chapter, will therefore surely follow. 'And I will send into Babylon strangers that will shatter her, and will empty her land, for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.' Initially these strangers will empty her land as they form an economic belt 'round about' her...
'Make bright the arrows, fill the quivers...because His device is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple...'"
America (the true modern Babylon), has, indeed, helped to shake into the consciousness of many Iraqi people, and of thinking Muslims elsewhere, a desire for a more peaceful Criterion than the one that presently drives Islam in that part of the world, but in the process it has hastened the words that also say:
How is the Hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! (This is not Iraq). How (shall) Babylon become a desolation among the nations.
I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord. (This is America)...(Jeremiah 50:23, 24).
Addressing his troops upon their return, Bush said, "When you left it was still fashionable to question America's courage, America's resolve. No one--no one in the world doubts us any more. What you did helped us revive the America of our hopes and dreams." "No question about it, the country's solid. There isn't an anti-war movement out there." It's over, finally, the last t is crossed, the last i dotted." "The first test of the New World Order has been passed...the hard work of freedom awaits."...
How could he, or any of his ministers know that as he spoke God's true spiritual warriors were still strapping on their armor, and preparing themselves for the battle. (Ephesians 6:10-17; 1 Kings 19:18; Rev.11:13). "The war is now behind us," Bush told the nation. "Seven month ago America and the world drew a line in the sand. We declared that aggression against Kuwait would not stand, and tonight America and the world have kept their word." Such a great leader, with such great words of his own, should not be surprised then to hear that God also keeps Their word. How is it written: There are many voices in the world and none of them is without signification. (1 Cor.14:10). The following is a speech also given by Saddam Hussein to his retreating troops:
"In the Name of God, the merciful, the compassionate. O great people, stalwart men in the forces of holy war and faith, glorious men of the Mother of battles; O zealous nations,, and among all Muslims and all virtuous people in the world; O glorious Iraqi women...
It was an epic duel which lasted for two months, which came clearly to confirm a lesson that God has wanted as a prelude to faith, impregnability and capability for the faithful, and a prelude of an (abyss), weakness, and humiliation God has wanted for the infidels, the criminals, the traitors, the corrupt, and the deviators.
To be added to this is the time of the military and non-military duel, including the military and economic blockade, which was imposed on Iraq and which lasted throughout 1990 until the time God Almighty wishes it to last...
It gave depth to the Age of Showdown...All we have gone through or decided within its circumstances, obeying God's will (exactly true) and choosing a position of faith and chivalry, is a record of honour, the significance of which will not be missed by the people and nation and the values of Islam and humanity...
This will shake the opposite ranks and cause them to collapse after everything has become clear...
God says, 'Like a goodly Tree whose root is firmly fixed, and its branches reach to the heavens. It brings forth its fruit at all times by the leave of its Lord.'
Then everything will be possible on the road to goodness and happiness that is not defiled by the 'feet' of the invaders nor by their evil will, or the corruption of the corrupt, and who spread corruption in the land of the Arabs. Moreover the forces of plotting and treachery will be defeated for good. Good people and those who are distinguished by their faith, and by their faithful and honourable stands of holy war will become the real leaders of the gathering of the faithful everywhere on earth...
The earth will be inherited, at God's order, by His righteous slaves. 'For the earth is God's, to give as a heritage to such of His servants as He pleaseth; and the end is best for the righteous.'...
Then, also, it will be clear that the harvest does not precede the seeding, and that the threshing floor and the yield are the outcome of a successful seeding and successful harvest."
The great difference between Hussein's words and those of George Bush to the American people, though they are the same in tenor (egomaniacal), is that Hussein's words unknowingly comprehend the true spiritual dimensions of the conflict. Hussein, the absolute slave of God, opened his mouth and spoke as his Master (the Lord of the Universe) gave him utterance. Bush opened his mouth, and his Master let him speak out of the torrents of his own heart. Hussein makes no claim to being a son of God, that is a Christ, (he refers to himself as a slave), but George Bush by his own profession of the Christian religion claims such an honour, as it is written: For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified are of one...(Hebrews 2:11)...
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock...
And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the wind blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it...(Matthew 7:24-27).
It should also be noted by Muslims everywhere: slaves do not inherit their Master's house. Only true sons and daughters do. And the truly mature ones are commanded to get up off of their knees, and Stand Upon Their Feet. (Ezekiel 2:1,2). For the Father (Allah) loveth the Son, and sheweth (them) all things that He himself doeth. (John 5:20). (Please see the chapter entitled The Mystery of Islam).
With the keys to the Oracle one should be able to comprehend the import of every spoken and written word, whether they emanate from the center of spiritual reality (from the Mind of God), or far from it--from the minds of men; (thus, whether they spring from the Light or the Darkness), and therefore how sincere, or how deceptive, and in what way every word serves to facilitate the economy of God's will. (see Hebrews 4:12; Malachi 3:18),
"Right now (wrote Mary McGrory) George Bush, once dismissed as hapless, wimpy and weak, holds the whole world in his hands. If he says war, 500,000 of his countrymen and 200,000 from 28 other countries will march in a ground war. If he decides that Saddam Hussein is trying to say uncle...he can give his thumbs up sign used by the Roman emperors to allow gladiators another chance. It is all up to him, the leader of the world's greatest democracy.
The country in a paroxysm of what is called patriotism--although at times it looks awfully like intolerance--would probably vote to repeal the Bill of Rights.
Bush's onetime competition, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, is on his knees. Under the gun from his military...His future is in Bush's hands.
Bush knows that as far as Americans are concerned he can do no wrong. A staggering 86 percent of his countrymen approve of his conduct of the war...
The country, infatuated with starbursts and lasers and Fourth of July every night on the home screen has found a war it can love...At the moment everything is going his way. If the erstwhile lapdog now thinks he is Julius Caesar, he is entitled.
Patrick Buchanan (who, for all the wrong reasons) says: 'that we cannot share this imperial spirit or this global vision,' is also driven to say: 'With the Iraqi army in headlong retreat, even opponents of the war must concede that as Commander in Chief, George Bush has been the most effective war president of our lifetime...When Moscow came forward with a plan that could have led to a negotiated Iraqi withdrawal, President Bush brushed it aside, giving Saddam a 24-hour ultimatum.'
All along Bush had thirsted for military victory. If his rude sweep of Moscow's peace proposal off the table left Gorbachev with egg on his face, so be it. Bush will help him wipe it off later...As for Saddam, he played perfectly the role Bush assigned for him...He deserves everything that is coming to him...
Not since FDR has an American president seemed so dominant a presence. George Bush doth bestride our narrow world like a colossus...We cannot visualize this New World Order that has so captured our president's imagination. But then the New World Order is his, not our vision, and he won the right to try to bring to reality."
BUSH THINKS NOW THE WEST HAS WON
by Walter R. Mears
LONDON__In the new world according to President Bush, the West has won the cold war--even though it isn't over yet.
Tima and again, Bush has told the Soviet Union that it is the losing side. That theme accompanies and helps to explain his drive for U.S. policy that looks beyond the containment of the Soviets. After summoning tyhe Atlantic allies to join in an effort to redraw the military map of Europe with sharp East-West cuts in conventional weapons, Bush urged that the political map be redrawn too. And on Western terms.
He wants to erase lines that carved Europe apart after World War II. He promises to carry that quest beyond "the rusting Iron Curtain" when he goes to Poland and Hungary next month. "The Cold War began with the division of Europe," Bush said in Mainz, West Germany..."It can only end when Europe is whole."
And Bush sees that coming, with "the liberating power of democracy" already at work in Eastern Europe. He said the West and its values have succeeded, while in the Communist world, "their vision failed."
"Winds of change are blowing in Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union," Bush said..."It is happening, in part, because Mr. Gorbachev has seen that our society works and that his does not."
The president has said repeatedly that he wants the reforms of Mikhail S. Gorbachev to succeed. Secretary of State James A. Baker III said that is the administration's hope "because what he is doing is embracing the political and economic agenda of the West.
"The West has won," Baker said. We've won the struggle of the past 40 years...The Soviet Union is moving in our direction..."
Mikhail Gorbachev appeared on the world scene, not only to facilitate the ascendancy of Ronald Reagan and George Bush to the throne of Babylon (Revelation 13:11), but to precipitate those events that have unfolded in the world since the collapse of the Soviet Order, as it is also written: Let no man beguile you in the worshipping of angels, intruding into things he hath not seen. (Colossians 2:18; Hebrews 1:14).
To which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on My Right Hand, Until I make thine enemies thy Footstool.
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?...(Hebrews 1:13,14).
Did Gorbachev or any of the Soviet hierarchy at that time, or now, (or do any of the armies of the world) understand the cosmic role they are playing in history, all of which shall lead to the redemption and the liberation of the true Israel from among the nations of the earth, (and particularly from the midst of the American nation)? Only as they relate to the earthly or materialistic aspects of this great drama--facts on the ground as they say in the Middle East--but not in the spiritual sense as those who are coming to a full mind in Christ. Every spirit is confined to its own sphere of intelligence. The mind of Christ comprehends every sphere:
Hear Enoch, and take in these my words, for not to my angels have I told my secret, and I have not told them their rise, nor my endless realm, not have they understood My creating which I tell thee today...(Secrets of Enoch XXIV).
Thus one learns to distinguish between the high-sounding and dominant phrases of the American leaders who pretend to speak in the name of Christ, and, say, Gorbachev's 1986 address to the 27th Party Congress of the Soviet Union, (words that are still in full flower despite all appearances to the contrary):
"Comrades! The draft of the new versions of the Party Program provides a comprehensive analysis of the basic directions and special features of present-day world development. The program does not set itself the goal of anticipating the future in all the diversity of its concrete manifestations. That would be a futile undertaking. But something else is just as true. Conducting a correct scientifically substantiated policy is possible only if there is clear understanding of the tendencies of reality. Through penetration into the dialectics of what is taking place and into its objective logic, and the ability to draw correct conclusions that reflect the movement of our times are not simple things, but they are urgently necessary...
The present world is complex, diverse, dynamic, permeated with contending tendencies, and full of contradictions. It is a world of very complex alternatives, anxieties and hopes. Never before has our earthly home been subjected to such great political and physical overloads. Never has man exacted so much tribute from nature, and never has he proved to be so vulnerable to the might that he himself has created. World development confirms the fundamental conclusions of Marxism-Leninism that the history of society is not a disorderly 'Brownian movement,' but a law-governed, progressive process. Its contradictions not only pass sentence on the old world and on everything that impedes progress, they also constitute the source, the motive force of social progress. Progress that unfolds in conditions of struggle, which is inevitable as long as exploitation and exploiter classes exist...
The liberation revolutions begun by Great October defines the image of the 20th century. However significant the achievements of science and technology...only the social and spiritual emancipation of man makes him truly free. Whatever the difficulties on this path--objective ones, and those artificially created by the old world--the course of history is irreversible." (see Daniel 6:8-14)...
We find Gorbachev--also unknowingly--outlining the great themes of Israel's national liberation in this speech. He was confined, naturally (or rather, angelically), to the things he understood, about liberation in general, but at every turn of a phrase he was summarizing or implying some aspect of higher reality--every bit of which escapes the reasoning of American leaders. What has been the course of historical events since this time? The prelude to Resurrection itself. (For a further insight into the things God was preparing for America, in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union, as well as throughout the rest of the world, read David Halberstan's War In a Time of Peace, Bush, Clinton, and the Generals). Gorbachev went on to preside over what seemed to be the virtual collapse of the entire Communist order itself. Save for the Chinese monolith, Communism as an economic and social way of life in the West appears to have been delivered still born.
TIME RAN TOO FAST FOR SPRINTER GORBACHEV
By James Gannon
For Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who accelerated history, time seemed to slip into some frantic high gear. From the moment the impatient Soviet leader came upon the world stage in 1985, the pace of historic change leaped into fast forward, compressing into his six years the work of as many decades...
Few leaders who have spent so short a time in power have etched such a large place for themselves in history. But his signal accomplishments were unintentional, astonishing their instigator as they astonished the world. He set out to reform Communism, not bury it; he meant to rejuvenate the Soviet Union, not liquidate it.
His monument is rubble: the Berlin Wall, the Soviet empire, the economy of his country, the smashed icons of Communism--Marx, Lenin, Stalin. He ruined what he set out to renew, but the world is better for all that.
"His place in history," says Soviet specialist Robert Hormats, "is that he presided over the destruction of the old system. His role was not to build a new one. His role was to be the creative destroyer."
Gorbachev, observes Michael Mandelbaum of the Council on Foreign Relations, "performed one of the great services of the 20th century--he destroyed Communism in Russia. He was a Communist reformer, and that turned out to be an oxymoron--he couldn't reform the system."
He had a dream that Communism could be renewed by exposing it to the sunlight of political freedom and the oxygen of economic reform. What he did not know--what we did not know--was that after seven decades in the suffocating dark of communism, the fabric of his society was so rotten that sunlight and oxygen were catalysts for disintegration...
His time of power effectively ended with the abortive August coup, but he desperately clutched the last shreds of leadership until his irrelevancy became clear last week. His time, which always ran too fast, finally ran out. Gannett News Service.
By Max Lerner
"So this is George Bush's day and year and perhaps decade. How long was it dear children, when the name to conjure up was Mikhail Gorbachev? He was statesman, revolutionary, world conqueror. And for contrast there was George Bush...Yet it was this Bush fellow who made history, while Mikhail Gorbachev every day is having to plot to hold his disgraced party and defunct empire together.
History is a seamless web, its intricate threads craftily entwining with one another, its wonders never ceasing. Bush is new kind of world hero, one who doesn't fit easily into Carlylean mold of "hero and hero worship." Yet the worship is there, from the thunderous joint session of congress, to a grateful nation and yes, a grateful and respectful world...
I see the Gulf War, and Bush's emergence as the world's recognized leader, as an integral part of this era of challenge and change...A new force-field in the world, a new man (or set of men) involved with it, a new idea emerging from it...It has made Bush something like the First Citizen of the world, in power, influence, and prestige. No one else comes close...
But one idea is a-borning--the idea of order, born out of collective security. Because of it the Gulf War was a just war. Because of it, the present Middle East disorders and civil wars will find their check. And because of it, by the millennium's end, George Bush will still be a crucial figure in history. It will not be for his "new world order" alone. Even more it will be because the climactic idea of our time, that of order, is also a moral idea. It includes what the world has long needed--a sense of limits, collectively secured."
Indeed, out of great chaos will emerge great Order--the birth of the true Communal Order of God. For not out of such a society as the Soviet Union was, or even as Russia is, but only out of a Dark and intensely capitalistic and technological society as America is can the true Spiritual Order arise. (See Ezekiel 18, and 34). God's removal of Soviet control over the internal and political affairs of Eastern and Central Europe, and over those Islamic nations in the center of Asia, created a social and economic vacuum, even a spiritual vacuum that had to be filled, and oh how the children of Darkness have rushed in to fill it. And it released social forces that were otherwise being held in check, and oh how the West is incapable in the end of holding them back:
Thou sawest till that a Stone was cut out without hands, which smote the Image upon his Feet, that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Then was the iron and clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the Summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the Stone that smote the the Image became a Great Mountain, and filled the whole earth...
And in the days of those kings the God of Heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all kingdoms, and it shall stand forever...(Daniel 2:35, 44).
Gorbachev's address to the Communist Party Congress continues:
"One cannot help seeing that the two social and economic systems differ substantially in terms of their readiness and their ability to comprehend emerging problems and to solve them.
This is the world in which we are living on the threshold of the third millennium. It is a world full of hope, for never before have people been so thoroughly equipped for the further development of civilization. But it is also a world overloaded with dangers and contradictions that prompt one to call it perhaps the most alarming period in history.
The first group of contradictions, the most important from the standpoint of the fate of mankind, is connected with relations between the states of the two systems, of the two formations. These contradictions have a past extending over many years, Since the time of the Great October in Russia...
The difficulty that the ruling classes of the capitalist world have in understanding reality and the periodic recurrence of attempts to resolve by force the whole group of contradictions dividing the two worlds are not accidental...Imperialism is impelled by its mainsprings and its very social and economic essence to translate the competition of the two systems into the language of military confrontation...Today as well, the right wing of the U.S. monopoly bourgeoisie regards the aggravation of international tension as justification for military appropriations...The policy of total opposition, of military confrontation, has no future. Flight into the past is no answer to the challenges of the future; rather it is an act of desparation...Washington's deeds will show them when and to what extent it recognizes this. For our part we are ready to do everything in our power to change the international situation for the better...
The problem and crises that are being experienced by the capitalist world arises within its own depths and are a logical result of the internal contradictions of the old society. In this sense capitalism negates itself as it develops. Unable to cope with the problems of the downside of the development of capitalism, the ruling circles of the imperialist countries are resorting to ways and means that they know are unable to save a society doomed by history itself...
All this cannot continue indefinitely. Needless to say, one cannot hope for miracles, the situation is not going to straighten out by itself. The military force that the U.S. counts on to maintain the status quo, to protect the interests of the monopolies and the military-industrial complex and to prevent further progressive transformations in the newly-liberated countries can only complicate the situation and engender new conflicts...
Finally, isn't all the experience accumulated by mankind enough for us not to want some future crisis, but to draw some fully valid practical conclusions right now? What does the United States hope to gain in the long run by advancing doctrines that no longer find room for American security within the modest dimensions of our planet?...
We proceed from the premise that the main area of struggle in present conditions is the creation of a truly worthy human material and spiritual living conditions for all peoples, the safe-guarding the habitability of our planet, and a thrifty attitude toward all resources. Above all, toward its chief resource--man himself and his possibilities. It is here we propose to compete with the capitalist system. To compete in conditions of a lasting peace...
Soviet military doctrine is also constructed in full accordance with the letter and the spirit of the initiatives we have advanced..."
__________
WEST BERLIN, The New York Times, June, 12___President Reagan sought today to undercut Europe's perception of Mikhail Gorbachev as a leader of peace, by bluntly challenging the Soviet Leader to tear down the Berlin Wall.
Speaking 100 yards from the wall that was thrown up in 1961 to thwart an exodus to the West, Mr. Reagan made the wall a metaphor for ideological and economic differences separating East and West.
"There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of peace and freedom," the President said.
"Secretary General Gorbachev, if you seek peace--if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe--if you seek liberalization: come here to this gate.
"Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate."
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." (He did).
Patrick Moynihan, in a brief outline on the Cold War, said: "Well, it didn't happen. In the end democratic will and democratic values proved stronger. THERE IS NOW NO COMPETING WORLD VISION. As President Bush told the congress, 'The end of the cold war has been a victory for all humanity.' The question as a nation, and as a party, is, 'What do we do with that victory? Now that we are free once again to choose?'"
Gorbachev's political and military overtures to the West, and then the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Order itself, further enhanced the illusion, or the delusion as Isaiah put it, that America and its capitalist ideology had indeed emerged triumphant in the battle for the soul of Western man; and all of it because of some intrinsic virtues of capitalism itself. Instead it just gave meaning to the words which say...
And they worshipped the Dragon which gave power unto the Beast: and they worshipped the Beast, saying, Who is like unto the Beast? who is able to make war with him?...(Revelation 13:4).
__________
MILAN, ITALY__As the first anniversary of the attempted coup by anti-reform Marxists against his government approached, the former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said true socialism promotes the values Christ preached.
In the Aug. 18 joint interview with an Italian and Spanish newspaper, Mr. Gorbachev said the Aug. 19, 1991 coup marked the death of "Stalinist Socialism," but not of true socialism.
True socialism, he said, "tied to concepts of social justice, freedom, equality, the general framework of human values,"
"In short: we promote the cause of Christ."
For a continuation of this chapter on the Book of Joel, please go back to Chapter 11, Part 3....
and then on to Chapter 14, Part 2: And Now George W. Bush Jr.
