At the Crossroads

Often a change of government brings with it new hope. Despite the challenge of the left to the legitimacy of George W. Bush’s win in the U.S. presidential elections, President Bush is now firmly seated at the helm of the world’s greatest single nation.

Many have commented that this presidency’s greatest challenge will be that of foreign policy in a world seeking new global alliances. It is said that President Bush’s advisers are divided in their vision of foreign policy. The world awaits evidence of whether America is set for a new era of isolationism, or an era of containment, and where it will seek to assert itself as the dominant world power.

The president has increased expenditure on arms in his first budget. Will this spur a new arms race? The new administration has signaled its determination to proceed with building up a national missile defense system, to the chagrin of other world powers. It has drawn back on international environmental initiatives, changed America’s approach to diplomacy in the Balkans, Middle East, Russia and China. Is America standing at a foreign-policy crossroads?

Changing Roles—Confusing Policies

By the end of the 19th century, a century of peaceful progress, Britain was unchallenged as the world’s singular superpower. Its vast empire was secured by the possession of most of the world’s crucial sea gates based upon the sea-power of its seemingly impregnable navy. Progress and prosperity for its own peoples, its colonies and dominions and their native peoples were unprecedented.

Behind this protective and benign shield, the United States was free to pursue unprecedented expansion of its great democracy.

Few, if any, could have predicted that the Anglo-Americans would be forced to join in a united effort to, within the next 15 years, defeat the “volcanic energy” of “the mighty strength of the Teutonic race” (Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, vol. 4, p. viii). The assertions of Prussian hegemonic power put an end to the vision of “purposeful, progressive, enlightened, tolerant civilization” (ibid.) which obtained in 1901. Thirteen years later, the world erupted in war.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, only 21 years of peace were to ensue before the world entered the even greater bloodbath of World War ii. After five years of brutal conflict in Europe, northern Africa, Russia and the Pacific, the world literally exploded into the post-war era by the unleashing of the horrific power of a new weapon: nuclear technology, in the form of the atom bomb.

In his famous address given at Westminster College in Fulton, U.S., on March 5, 1946, Winston Churchill dramatized the commencement of the standoff between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union by declaring, “An iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” An era spanning over 40 years, termed universally the “cold war,” followed. This was to maintain a balance of power across the globe, involving the United States, Britain and their allies in the West, Russia and its Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, with varying support from China, in the East, and a whole grab-bag of “non-aligned” nations in the middle.

This all changed in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came crashing down. Germany united, and within two years the Soviet Empire collapsed.

What followed in the decade of the 1990s, Professor Francis Fukiyama of George Mason University described as the “end of history,” maintaining that liberal democracy had finally triumphed as the chosen means of government of most nations. This is pure fiction. It may be true that most nations claim to sport democratic governments at present, but dig under the surface and you will see the rampant corruption, the gross violations of human rights, the raping of the environment and the destruction of the quality of life, and know that Francis Fukiyama’s claim to the world having reached an end to history is a false dream.

The final decade of the 20th century is now renowned as a decade of new world disorder, leaving many foreign-policy gurus, ignorant of history, grasping for precedents. With the collapse of the bipolar balance of power between the U.S. and Russia, nations and groups of nations spent ten years jockeying for influence and alignment within the new order.

Foremost of these groups was the European Union. Upon entry into the 21st century, we see the U.S. pushed into second place, economically, by the EU, and seemingly “all at sea” in the foreign-policy arena.

Foreign-Policy Dilemma

Two factors are fundamental to the traditional American approach to foreign policy: 1) the naïve assumption that all peoples think like Americans; 2) the infamous American tendency for even-handedness. These have inevitably led to the consistent failure of America’s foreign policy since its inception as a nation.

A third factor has been added to this mindset since World War ii, exacerbated by the foreign-policy failures in Korea and Vietnam: the unwillingness of successive U.S. administrations to fight skirmishes or wars, at any level, in a configuration which risks American casualties. The strike power of U.S. forces, despite the unfortunate impact of the Clinton administration’s anti-military policies, remains awesome, compared to that of any other country. Yet what is lacking in America is the will to use that firepower in any situation which risks an outcry from the living-room electorate viewing images of body bags containing U.S. servicemen. The American soldier is simply losing his reason for being—to place his life at risk by going to battle for the protection of the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of his country.

War is simply war! It is a contest between two opposing sides, fought for the victory of one over the other. It seems that Americans just cannot grasp the mentality of their traditional enemies. The oft-stated intentions of these enemies—be they Islamic, Oriental, or, as has been the case in the two greatest wars America has fought, Teutonic—is to not just have the victory in battle; it is utter conquest to the extent of completely vanquishing their enemies! Such a concept seems foreign to the Anglo-American mind. Winston Churchill summed up the Anglo-American approach to war thus: “In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity; in peace, goodwill.”

That is not the mindset that could initiate a holocaust. It’s not the mindset of a Stalin, Pol Pot or Saddam Hussein. See how they treat their own people, let alone their enemy! No, there’s something quite different about the Anglo-Americans. They are at heart peace-loving peoples—and their enemies know this, and play it to their own advantage.

High Risk and Heavy Odds

World leaders have blazed a trail to the White House the past few months. They are worried. Worried about confusing signals from Washington.

In a destabilized world, foreign policy is played out often at high risk against heavy odds. Rumor has it that the president’s foreign-policy advisers are divided. Certainly, it is known that differences of philosophy and approach exist between Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell. In addition, presidential adviser on foreign policy Condoleeza Rice exhibits a certain liberal ethos in her views. Such a mix of minds may well provide a confusion of views that will frustrate decision-making for the new president.

Whatever the reason, the Bush administration is off to a shaky start in the foreign-policy arena. The deportation from the U.S. of over 50 Russians accused of spying, while no doubt designed to send a signal to Russia of a more hard-line stance, has simply driven Russia closer to the EU diplomatically. The stated intention of the U.S. administration to proceed with the development of a national missile defense capability has only served to drive a deeper wedge between Russia and the U.S., and resulted in agreements between Russia and the EU to share technology for the development of Europe’s own missile defense umbrella. This spells danger for the U.S., considering the decoupling of America from the Continent which is already taking place.

Japan, highly insulted by the previous U.S. administration’s treatment, at real loss to its ailing economy, lost more face when a U.S. naval submarine speared a trawler, resulting in loss of Japanese life. This incident has not gone down well with the Japanese public and has not helped the new administration’s early efforts at Japanese diplomacy, particularly considering that the condition of that nation’s economy is largely held to ransom by the Federal Reserve’s fiscal policies.

A weak-willed U.S. approach to maintaining order in the Balkan Peninsula allowed civil war in Macedonia to spark. This will only serve to influence a policy of U.S. disengagement from the Balkans. Condoleeza Rice virtually promised a U.S. troop withdrawal from Yugoslavia as part of President Bush’s electoral platform.

America, by condemning the lack of current German investment in national armaments, has greatly misread the European scene. This will only serve to encourage an emboldened German administration to take the U.S. at its word and more aggressively militarize, at the appropriate time, with the full backing of its old enemy!

The spy plane incident with China has further strained relations between the U.S. and that rapidly developing nation while giving it, free of charge, access to the very latest U.S. secret surveillance equipment to add to the stolen technology that China obtained under the Clinton administration. In the meantime, China delivered a blow under America’s belt by having its president, Jiang Zemin, visit Latin America in an effort to win business away from the U.S. Despite this, Secretary of State Powell continues to insist that the Panama Canal, back-door to the U.S. (and for all intents and purposes now owned by the Chinese), has “no strategic value” to the U.S. Something’s amiss here.

Following the Rice philosophy, the Bush administration has accepted a basically hands-off policy on Balkan, Mideast and Irish affairs—all the subject of intense, if inept, diplomatic activity under the previous administration. Someone had to fill the vacuum. Guess who? The EU slipped in quickly to seize the advantage and is speedily taking over the Middle East peace process, while the Germans are coming out from under the table to take the lead in the Balkans (see pages 9 and 20).

Even as Washington focuses its gaze on China, which is hardly in a position to rattle sabers at the U.S. in terms of the relative size of its military power, the heat is being inevitably turned up on the U.S. across the Atlantic.

America is focused on the wrong horse! Bible prophecy declares that in the short term, in the foreign-policy arena, this will develop into a one-horse race. The front runner is a Trojan horse. The European Union, busily filling the foreign-policy gaps left in the changeover of U.S. administrations, presents itself still as a benign, peace-loving trading empire, all the while working avidly, within its own backyard, to set up an infrastructure that will propel it to the fore in high-tech rocketry and space warfare technology. America sleeps as the Trojan horse emerges. The time fast approaches when it will disgorge its hidden cargo to the incredible shock of the slumbering American giant.

Leadership Vacuum

“Ye fools and blind” was how Jesus Christ addressed the intelligentsia of His day (Matt. 23:17, 19). These words aptly describe those at the same level in today’s society. Too few of our leaders look with unblinded eyes at the national health of the United States and see this once-great nation for what it has now become: a nation wallowing in the flab of its acquisitive, self-centered, materialistic culture. A nation rotten at its moral core, the stench of its sins reaching to heaven. A nation living off a hollow economy, built upon the greed and fear that drive its stock market, awash with the plastic dreams created by a billion credit cards, with the piper greedily waiting to be paid—with interest—as consumers dance to his empty tune.

Too few see the lust in the eyes of the nation’s enemies as they gloat over its secrets stolen under the nose of naïve, ignorant, liberal-socialist bureaucrats and administrators who gullibly think that Gentile minds will readily embrace the principles of a free and peace-loving democracy. Too few hear the swell of voices across the Atlantic, across the Pacific, to the north, south and east, rising to a full tide of hatred for all things American. Too many gullibly embrace the soft-porn, drug-inducing sub-culture peddled by the media, music and movie moguls who rape the country’s youth of all sense and sensibility and lead their minds to dwell upon the crazed and demented dreams of deviates, sapping them of the vigor and vision that once pioneered a nation to greatness with the dream that nothing was impossible for those who dared.

King Solomon declared, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Prov. 29:18). The Prophet Hosea declares, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!”

Where is the nation’s strength of leadership? Where is its sense of purpose?

Where is its vision of its future?

Churchill, not long ago, described America as “a very great country…not pretty or romantic but great and utilitarian, [where] everything is eminently practical and things are judged from a matter-of-fact standpoint.” Americans, he said, were a “great, crude, strong, young people,” who conduct their affairs “with a good-hearted freshness which may well be the envy of older nations of the Earth” (Smithsonian, April 2001).

How then did America come to the brink of moral collapse so rapidly? The answer lies in the visionary words of another ancient prophet: “O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths” (Isa. 3:12).

The close of the 20th century saw the American economy at the cusp. Emerging into the 21st century, it is in decline, and its economy which led the post-war world for 55 years is now relegated to second place behind the powerhouse economy of the new global power—the European Union.

The United States may well go down in history as the shortest-lived of the singular superpowers which have strutted this world’s stage since Babylon, the world’s first great empire.

The U.S., which last January tipped over the edge and commenced its descent from a political economy of singular greatness, is destined to slide into second-rate power status. This process will not take a century. In all probability it will not even take a decade.

Americans face the gravest of risks. Their corporate economy is overinflated and undercapitalized. America’s infrastructure is aging. Drug money floods through the clearinghouse of its stock market and into the economies of its southwestern states. The U.S. military is demoralized, weakened within its moral fiber by the inane policies of politically correct politicians, judges and academics. America’s intelligence networks and major channels of communication remain greatly exposed, startlingly vulnerable to attack by terrorist computer hackers. God is legislated out of America’s schools. American women are taken out of their God-designed mothering, homemaking roles to sink their energies into jobs that steal work opportunities from youth. American men are becoming largely feminized.

This is a nation going the way of ancient Rome—the way of all great powers of the past. America is a nation in decline whose impending fall from greatness will soon ring with a resounding crash that will shake this world politically, economically, financially and commercially.

Watch!

Jesus Christ commanded His disciples, “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping” (Mark 13:35-36).

What you read in the pages of this magazine are signs of the imminency of the dramatic intervention of God in the affairs of man.

Watch America! Watch for its decoupling from Europe—soon! Watch for the European Union (EU) to fill the global leadership void—soon! Watch for America’s role as peacemaker to be taken over by a peace enforcer—the European Union, via its emerging rapid reaction force. Watch for nato weapons and military matériel to be taken over by the EU army. Watch, and prepare for, the future great crash, as American economic growth, at some time in the future, grinds to a thunderous halt, and quickly reverses into a recession that will trigger a national economic collapse greater than that of the Great Depression, far more quickly and with much more devastating results.

Above all this, watch for international foreign policy to be taken over and run by the new world superpower, the German-led federation of Europe, currently known as the European Union. Watch for the emergence of the world’s final three great power blocs: the prophesied king of the north, a Vatican/German-led European combine extending from Spain to the Middle East, from the Nordic countries to northwest Africa; the king of the south, the Islamic crescent sweeping from Libya to the Caucasus in the north to Pakistan in the south; and the kings of the east, incorporating Asia, China and the rebuilding Russian empire.

But as you watch and see this new world balance of powers emerging, remember that Jesus Christ and the prophets of old foretold that these great, climactic world events would be but signs of a far greater event—the imminent installation of a Superpower that will overcome all world governments and, indeed, enforce peace on all nations: the coming, world-ruling government of the eternal Creator of man!

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isa. 9:6-7).

As we anticipate this great event, desired of many for so long, as we see the great acceleration of fulfilled prophecy, forecast in your Bible millennia ago and publicized daily in the news of worldwide current events, recognize that it is time to heed the words of the greatest of all prophets, Jesus Christ Himself, King of kings, the coming Prince of Peace: “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13:37).