Globalism and US Entanglement in Iraq

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By Christopher Patton (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s)

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For OpEdNews: Jonah2015 - Writer

or, "Is America the End Times Babylon of Bible Prophecy?"

President George Bush is sending thousands of additional troops to Iraq, and there is nothing that Congress can or will do about it. The primary reason for Congressional impotence goes back to the first time the President sent troops into Iraq. The seemingly intentional misdirection in regards to "Weapons of Mass Destruction" originally obscured the real economic and political reasons for US involvement in Iraq. The fact is that the same objectives drive this new influx of troops just as much as they did the original invasion. For this article, I will set aside discussion on how the United States' continuing Iraqi adventure into the "Middle Unknown" typifies US foreign policy's traditional arrogant ignorance of other peoples and cultures in its service of elite economic and hegemonic interests.

On pure speculation, I intuit a lively ongoing debate-competition is unfolding on the world scene within the globalist power elite. Some seem to be using their influence (and other resources) to unify the world's trade and political structures under an American military hegemony. Others desire a humbled United States balanced by equally powerful players in the European Union and the emerging Asian nations within the context of the United Nations. Both sides will use the unfolding events in Iraq to foster their goals at the expense of the Iraqi and American peoples. Iraqis are paying with their lives and their wallets, and the inhabitants of the United States are likely to experience the most difficult economic collapse in recent history: her days of opulent excess finally demanding payment when the situation in Iraq finally forces the massive withdrawal of US troops.

You will find a little additional background in my recent article posted on January 9, 2007 and titled, Some Thoughts on the US Dollar and Interest Rates.

Congressional Impotence
Congress did not follow the US Constitution in sending troops to Iraq. Bush sent US troops on the authority of United Nations' resolutions seconded by Congressional vote. Some will debate this point citing the opposition of UN members to the US military invasion of Iraq, but fact is that there was no Congressional declaration of war, so Congress lost much of its leverage over US military operations and "reconstruction" in Iraq. The troops are under presidential command executing international purposes at the cost of American lives and financial well-being.

Congress gave up its rights at the start of the Iraqi adventure and will not admit today that it ignored constitutional requirements in order to avoid their proper responsibility for the war underway right now. When will progressives, moderates and hypocritical "conservatives" ever learn that abiding by the Constitution is the best protection of the interests of all citizens and the nation as a whole? In the face of multidimensional Congressional inability to act, the President will pursue the same, original unchanged core agenda that sent the troops over to the depleted uranium sandstorms of Iraq to begin with.

Peace Through International Trade and Prosperity
In many ways wealth is an artificial reality constructed to achieve socio-political purposes. The Globalist vision entertains the dictum that universal prosperity will bring universal peace. Tie people up with a decent job, a mortgage and social obligations, and radical behavior will disappear. "No one kills their customer," is one unproven platitude one often hears or reads. In fact many historical enemies were trading partners: one side just wanted a bigger cut of the exchange, so they took it by force.

To drive this globalist objective, the world economy must continue to expand at rapid pace. Vital to an expanding economy is cheap energy. Cheap energy powers economic expansion of every nation's industries. It enables millions of new Chinese and Indian middle class families to buy new autos and the gas to fill their tanks. It is not so much that the US wanted to steal the Iraqi petroleum reserves as it was to get increasing amounts of their oil and gas flowing into the world markets in order to keep prices low and reduce the leverage of any one oil producer, some of who are already or potentially anti-American.

Cheap energy also helps to keep the American consumer solvent enough to manage their debt payments and continue to buy foreign goods and services. To a large extent, a growing world economy benefits the United States disproportionately. It enables and extends the shared fantasy of the American government and consumer that one only needs to make the monthly payments and not worry about the total cost and its eventual pay-off.

The value of the US dollar, or any currency, is largely a matter of perception. A strong dollar also supports the American consumer economy. As long as it is not so strong as to cramp American exports, a strong dollar keeps inflation and interest rates low in the United States. It sustains the continuation of massive trade deficits as wealthy US businesses and consumers enjoy even further benefits from "every day low prices." Those nations benefiting from American over-consumption have amassed enormous profits that are still mostly kept in dollars and reinvested in US government debt. This situation is already changing as announcement follows announcement of planned dollar diversification into other currencies and/or commodities.

America's wealth pays for her military exploits, even though our nation is a big deficit spender. Contrarian opinion states that one should consider the relative values of debt versus economic production rather than the gross amounts; however, even the relative value of our national debt has doubled (now four times) in comparison with our Gross Domestic Product since the year 2000. Destroy her wealth, and her military will wilt away. At the present world without US military dominance would likely be even more unstable than present. Political and economic instability would in some ways retard and in other ways accelerate movement towards global government. Elite powerbrokers have often used crises to manipulate political policy and achieve internationalist objectives.

The outcome of America's Iraqi adventures will greatly impact America's prestige and influence in the world, and as a consequence the dollar's strength and state of the US economy. A depressed US economy would negatively impact the growth rate of the world economy, which could be a source for even more political instability. The price of oil is also in play, but less so than who controls access to the known reserves. Access to energy supplies is a matter of strategically critical importance as the recent European vulnerability to the interruption of Russian oil and gas supplies. It is not merely a theoretical question of temporary inconvenience and price negotiation.

Globalist Outcomes
The growing concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a diminishing few, though a changing who, demonstrates the long-term success of the globalist initiatives. At present the American public is unaware of their nation's role in the globalist agenda. What happens in Iraq could strongly influence the configuration of the economic and political structure of the world for years to come. The risks are great. An American failure in Iraq would most likely unwind the American hegemony over the space of only a few years. The United States could well see its dominance of the global economic and political system decline in a manner not unlike what has happened to the United Kingdom when she lost her empire.

I suspect that there are many elite powerbrokers of both major parties who do not want to see America become an equal among others or second tier nation, as it would probably negatively affect their interests and aspirations. Consequently, President Bush is sending over 20,000 more troops to Iraq. They are not likely to come home victorious - even if they come home sooner instead of later. The strategy in play seems to be to declare victory over "Islamic Radicals" and prop up the Iraqi government long enough to give an illusion of stability to tactfully permit the withdrawal of most US troops before an obvious disaster occurs that could topple US prestige and the dollar in a way that could set off an economic collapse in the US and an economic recession, or worse, in the rest of the world.

For students of Bible prophecy who believe we are living in the End Times, the outcome of the American adventure in Iraq could determine whether this nation is the precursor of "Mystery Babylon" or world governance system of Antichrist, or merely the cultural precursor of the same. Either way, there is no doubt of the US role in birthing Globalism. The rest of this article is excerpted from an article I wrote and publish in April-May 2003 titled, Israel, the Last Rogue State I quote it at length here in order to add some historical perspective to the great events now unfolding on the world stage:

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http://apocalypseprophesied.blogspot.com/

Christopher J. Patton is the president of Faith in the Future Foundation and is an evangelist with the International Ministerial Fellowship. Formerly a biblical archaeologist, he holds a Masters in Archaeology of the Land of Israel from the Hebrew (more...)

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