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Posted on 03/03/2007 5:39:01 AM PST by NYer
Despite the daily carnage on the streets of Baghdad and other Iraqi towns and cities, despite worldwide and nationwide public exhaustion with the war which has degenerated into a civil war— between two warring Islamic factions— despite the defeat of his Republican Party in the midterm elections last Novembxer as a result of public disenchantment with the war, United States President George W. Bush continues to enjoy the support of some 35 percent of the American adult population of 209 million.
That translates into 73 million adult Americans who are unwavering Bush supporters. Not by coincidence, that number is only slightly higher than the 70 million voters whom Christian Evangelicals, also known as Christian Fundamentalists, under the leadership of TV evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, have claimed as members.
Christian Fundamentalists have been Bush’s biggest single base of political support since the 2000 presidential elections, and their continued endorsement of Bush is likely to remain steadfast, and even increase, as the Bush War Party in Washington prepares to attack Iran.
That is because Christian Fundamentalists believe that the state of Israel is a creation of God and has a key role to play in the Final Battle between Good and Evil, as foretold in the Book Revelations in the Bible.
They believe that this Final Battle— which may have already begun—will reach its zenith in the hills around the valley of Megido (from which the word “Armageddon” is derived) and as a result, “the valley from Galilee to Eilat will flow with blood” and 144,000 male, virgin Jews will convert to Christianity, and this will be the signal for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
So Israel has to be defended at all cost because it has a special role to play in their apocalyptic vision of the End Days, even if most of the Jews will be wiped out. (See my article Understanding Bush, Oct. 15, 2003).
And just in case the End Days extend beyond the Bush presidency which ends in 2008, the Christian Fundamentalists are nurturing a connection with the 2008 presidential candidate whom they think will succeed Bush: Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona .
In a Feb. 23, 2007 posting in www.alternet.org, Bruce Wilson wrote: “A few weeks ago, to little notice, Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee, founder of the new “Apocalypse Now!” national lobbying group Cufi [Christians United for Israel] met with presidential candidate and US Senator John McCain and, over breakfast, discussed Israel and ‘other matters.’
“Pastor Hagee declined to detail in the e-mail he sent out to members of the Cufi mailing list because “this newsflash goes to the ends of the earth and I don’t want to read it in the media tomorrow.’
“But at the July 19, 2006 Washington DC inaugural event for Cufi, after recorded greetings from George W. Bush, with four US Senators and the Israeli ambassador to the US in attendance, Pastor John Hagee stated:
“’The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West… a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation and the Second Coming of Christ.”
On the other hand, there is a sub-sect in Shia Islam that has a similar apocalyptic vision. Shia Muslims trace their doctrinal roots to Imam Hussein, a prophet and martyr who was killed by the Sunnis at about 834 AD in the holy city of Kerbala in what is now Iraq. This Shia sub-sect also believs in a Muslim version of the End Days, including the Second Coming of Imam Hussein.
A Malaysian fundamentalist sect, the al-Arqham, which became very popular in the ’90s but was outlawed and dispersed in 1995 by then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, taught its hundreds of thousands of believers that a Great Leader will soon emerge in Uzbekistan to lead the Muslims of the world in a Final Battle with the infidels, meaning the Christians. And he will be easily identified by true believers because he will be wearing a blue turban.
For a while, Al Arqham watchers were convinced that this was none other than Osama bin Laden, holed up in Afghanistan which is right next to Uzbekistan . But so far, Osama has chosen to hide in the tribal border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan. But, who knows, he may yet move his mailing address to Uzbekistan, and he may yet adopt a blue turban as his signature fashion accessory.
A blue turban is only a shade different from the green turban assigned by Nostradamus (1503-1566), the French astrologer-physician, to the Third Anti-Christ. (In Nostradamus’ quatrains, the First Anti-Christ was someone who fitted the description of Napoleon, the Second Anti-Christ was someone named Hister, which is usually interpreted as referring to Adolf Hitler.)
In the ’80s, there was speculation that the Third Anti-Christ was none other than Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, who surrounded himself with female bodyguards wearing green turbans. But sometime in the ’90s, after the Americans bombed his desert tent and killed one daughter, Gaddafi seems to have retired from the apocalypse business and has hung up his green turban, if he ever owned one.
But Apocalypse Soon refuses to die in Christian culture. When Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005, the predictions of an Irish bishop, Saint Malachy, were resurrected by media.
Bishop Malachy is said to have visited Rome in 1139. While there, he is said to have had visions of the long list of popes “who were to rule till the end of time,” which, ominously stopped at pontiff no. 268, who would be the pope after the then recently elected Benedict XVI.
As the Associated Press tells it, Malachy’s predictions included short sketches of pontiffs nos. 240 to 268, some of which had striking details that uncannily coincided with historical minutiae. (See my article The Last Popes, April 20, 2005).
Wrote Malachy of Pontiff no. 268, the Last Pope: “(Under) extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Empire will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will lead the sheep through many tribulations. In the end, the City of Seven Hills will be destroyed and the Formidable Judge will judge his people. The End.”
In that April 2005 article, I wrote: “This suggests that the pope after Benedict XVI will choose the papal name Peter, which current Church tradition does not allow.
“As for Rome being destroyed in the next 20 or so years, given the actuarial odds on the [80]-yr old Benedict XVI, this is not a total impossibility in the event Armageddon does break out as foretold [in] the Bible, and some crazy fires a nuclear-tipped missile westward from somewhere in the Israel-Iraq-Iran cauldron, a mere 2,500 to 3,000 kms from Rome, which could be someone’s idea of ultimate revenge against the Crusaders.”
The ironic thing about this Apocalypse Soon scenario is that it is not being pushed along in the corridors of power by gibbering Christian Fundamentalists, but by the very secular Vice President and Oilman Dick Cheney and a neo-conservative cabal of mostly Jewish (and secular) intellectuals who are motivated, not by the Second Coming of Christ, but by the perceived need to establish American control of the Middle East and its precious oil.
In the past two months, the Americans seem to have been fishing for evidence of Iranian meddling in Iraq to justify an American attack on Iran. Iranian diplomats have been arrested and detained. Much has been made of a deadly new weapon used by Iraqi insurgents and Iranian-armed Shia militias, the Explosively Formed Projectiles or EFP, that can penetrate armored Humvees and even Abrams main battle tanks, said to have been developed by the Iranian-armed Hezbollah in Lebanon. In a four-week period starting Jan. 20, the Americans have also lost an unprecedented eight helicopters to enemy ground fire, suggesting that the insurgents and Shia militias have acquired new surface-to-air missiles from, where else, Iran.
While denying that the US intends to attack Iran, contingency plans for such an attack have been leaked to media—without doubt, deliberately—to pressure Iran into dropping its ambitions to develop nuclear weapons. The latest media leak is that Israel has asked US permission for Israeli bombers to fly through Iraqi air space on their way to and from their bombing runs on Iran. In the meantime, two carrier battle groups are on station in the Persian Gulf, and a third is said to be preparing to sail.
The Iranians have responded that they are ready to stop enriching uranium if other countries (such as the US , the UK and Israel ) will do the same. Meaning, never. Dick Cheney has repeated the warning that Iran will not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, with the blunt warning that all options, including pre-emptive attacks on Iran , “remain on the table.”
So if these moves and countermoves are to be taken seriously, Apocalypse Soon remains a distinct possibility, with the Second Coming of either Jesus Christ or Imam Hussein or both in the Glorious Finale, as the price of oil crashes through the roof to an estimated $242 per barrel. There goes… whatever.
If Hillary wins I might just welcome "Apocalypse Now"
That translates into 73 million adult Americans who are unwavering Bush supporters. Not by coincidence, that number is only slightly higher than the 70 million voters whom Christian Evangelicals, also known as Christian Fundamentalists, under the leadership of TV evangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, have claimed as members.
Art Bell has moved to the Philippines.
There might be 70 million Ford owners. Who knows ?
Yo!
I thought it was the Muzzies who looked forward to Armageddon-at-Megeddo.
It's sometime after somebody crawls our of their well or something...............................
He hasn't been in hiding by his choice..... He's dead, Jim.
You're awake early on a Saturday! F & F Saturday were talking about Fred Thompson and an exploratory committee.......
.
/sarc
This Christian fundamentalist supporter of Israel will never vote for McCain. And just for the record, God will end the war at Armageddon and save Israel without our help.
I may support President Bush and the war in Iraq,but I am sure wavering a hell of a lot on his domestic policy of allowing the Mexican invasion.
More murders in this country by illegals than troops dying in Iraq.
More people killed on America's roads by illegals.
Border Patrol agents being locked up with Mexican killers.
US Justice Department making decisions prodded by Mexican politicians.
Border town kidnappings.
M-13 in most parts of the country.
Billions in taxes being lost by Mexicans who work on the cuff and send those billions back to Mexico. Then they want Social Security.
We are being sold out folks.
It amazes (and sickens) me on a daily basis how every bit of news, developments, results, everything on the planet is Bush's fault. These leftists truly would be content to see Americans die by the millions as long as they could follow up with "It's Bush's fault!"
But don't question their patriotism...
I've been sick all week, hacking away, and not getting much sleep. I might as well be doing something instead of just laying there awake.
Could the Manilla Standard be an insane asylum in the Philippines?
Christian Fundamentalists have been Bush’s biggest single base of political support since the 2000 presidential elections, and their continued endorsement of Bush is likely to remain steadfast, and even increase, as the Bush War Party in Washington prepares to attack Iran.
You and me both. Can't smell or taste and can hardly breathe. Not used to being sick even though I live in the northeast.
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