Can America Reverse Its Decline?

Britain’s Independent called it the “most profound financial change in recent Middle East history.” Arab states, in collusion with Russia, China, Japan and France, had secretly agreed to a plan that would eventually abandon the U.S. dollar as the currency used in oil trading.

While Arab nations were quick to dismiss the Oct. 6, 2009, report, it had a ring of truth to it considering the many international voices now calling for the dollar to be replaced as world currency. In September, for example, the head of the World Bank warned that the dollar might soon relinquish its position as the world’s favored reserve currency. The euro, he said, offers a “respectable alternative if the dollar is weak.”

Between March and October of 2009, the value of the U.S. dollar depreciated by 14 percent. The price of gold is at a record high. Oil is now over $80 per barrel.

But rather than panic, those controlling the purse strings in Washington continue spending “money” like they just won the lottery. The Obama administration is now hard at work trying to pass health-care reform that would cost over $1 trillion. This year’s federal budget deficit, an incomprehensible $1.42 trillion, is nearly as large as Canada’s entire economy—and three times bigger than any previous U.S. deficit.

Incredibly, President Obama has pledged to reduce deficit spending only after the recession ends. The worse it gets, the more we spend!

The impact of such fiscal insanity, which has been the status quo for decades, is now beginning to hit home. And as Charles Krauthammer wrote in October, it “could ultimately lead to a catastrophic collapse and/or hyperinflation” (Weekly Standard, Oct. 19, 2009; emphasis mine throughout).

The Trumpet has been forecasting this for decades. Dollar devaluation, the collapse in America’s banking system, the housing bubble burst, astronomical debt and out-of-control spending—these are all signs that the U.S. economy is now well past the point of no return.

Losing Iraq—Helping Iran

In the war against radical Islam, the once-feared United States has humbly accepted surrender and defeat on nearly every battlefront. Upon becoming president, Barack Obama immediately announced, presumably with a straight face, that the “global war on terror” would be renamed an “overseas contingency operation.” During his much-ballyhooed Cairo speech in June 2009, he never even mentioned the word terrorism.

In Iraq, the U.S. footprint has been steadily shrinking. In his October meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, President Obama reiterated his vow to remove all American combat troops from the region by August. Iraq, Charles Krauthammer wrote, is a prize “of great strategic significance that the administration seems to have no intention of exploiting in its determination to execute a full and final exit” (ibid.).

And when America surrenders Iraq, Iran will waste little time devouring the spoils of war.

January 16 marks Iraq’s first national election since 2005. Iran signaled its plan to dominate that election back in August. Its leaders, including Ayatollah Khamenei, convinced its main political allies in Iraq to form a single coalition, known as “the party of Iran.” The electoral success of this bloc, the Iraqi National Alliance (ina), would broaden Tehran’s influence in Iraq just as the U.S. begins to pull out. The ina is headed by former Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, who appears to be Iran’s candidate for prime minister. Jaafari’s political stance is clear from a statement he made in October while visiting Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran: “The American era is ending. We must prepare for a new era in which Islamic forces set the agenda.”

Iraqis can see the writing on the wall. As Ahmadinejad says, America is a “sunset” (ofuli) power—Iran is a sunrise (tolu’ee) one. Iraqi politicians who have campaigned on building the alliance with Washington look like fools. Even Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s present prime minister, is distancing himself from the U.S., largely for political reasons. “If Obama wants to run away, no Iraqi can afford to appear more pro-American than the U.S. president,” said a political adviser to Maliki. Sadly, that’s not very pro-American.

Last August, the Washington Post’s David Ignatius quoted an Iraqi intelligence source saying what his country would look like, without American help, in five years. His words: “Iraq will be a colony of Iran.”

As for Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons and its repeated threats to destroy Israel, here again, appeasement is Washington’s policy of choice. Judging by his words and deeds since the inauguration, President Obama is far more concerned about dismantling America’s nuclear arsenal than he is with preventing a madman from acquiring one.

Pull Back, Blame Others

Afghanistan, until this past August, had been the left wing’s baby—the real battlefront in the “overseas contingency operation.” But over the last few months, the Obama administration has backpedaled away from what used to be the “war of necessity.”

After receiving much criticism for its indecisiveness regarding Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s request for additional troops, the Obama administration lashed out at its predecessor in the White House. In October, the president’s chief of staff said the new administration is asking tough questions about Afghanistan “that have never been asked on the civilian side, the political side, the military side and the strategic side.”

In an October speech at the Center for Security Policy, former Vice President Dick Cheney offered this stinging retort: “In the fall of 2008, fully aware of the need to meet new challenges being posed by the Taliban, we dug into every aspect of Afghanistan policy, assembling a team that repeatedly went into the country, reviewing options and recommendations, and briefing President-elect Obama’s team. They asked us not to announce our findings publicly, and we agreed, giving them the benefit of our work and the benefit of the doubt. The new strategy they embraced in March, with a focus on counterinsurgency and an increase in the numbers of troops, bears a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them. They made a decision—a good one, I think—and sent a commander into the field to implement it.

“Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced.”

Pull back and blame others. These are choices that have “set us on a course for decline,” Charles Krauthammer argued in his essay.

But since decline is a choice, he wrote, “We can reverse the slide.”

On that point, he misses the mark.

Why America Won’t Reverse the Slide

Krauthammer believes that Washington’s radical swing left has set the United States “on course for decline.” The reality is that, while this radical administration is helping to accelerate America’s demise as a world power, the United States has been on this course for some time now—long before President Obama moved into the White House.

Why is that? Because God is against America. “Behold, I, even I, am against thee,” God wrote through His prophet Ezekiel, “and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations” (Ezekiel 5:8).

Many cannot conceive of a God who actually sends curses. But look at what He says. Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 outline the blessings that the modern-day nations descending from ancient Israel would receive, and the curses that God would send if they rebelled against Him (request a free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy to understand these prophecies).

“[A]ll these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee,” God says in Deuteronomy 28:15, going on to outline all manner of economic, weather, military and social curses. “I also will do this unto you,” God says in Leviticus 26:16-19, “I will even appoint over you terror …. And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. … And I will break the pride of your power ….”

That the most affluent and militarily-strong nation on Earth today can be on the back foot in so many arenas, and declining so rapidly, is evidence of these curses from God.

The World’s Next Superpower

America’s current leaders are vigorously pursuing a dream of a much weaker, less dominant America that plays on a level field with every other nation. This abandonment of international primacy abroad perfectly complements the massive expansion of Euro-style domestic programs at home. “At a time when hundreds of billions of dollars are being lavished on stimulus and other appropriations in an endless array of domestic programs, the defense budget is practically frozen,” Krauthammer wrote.

The Europeans, on the other hand, “made the choice long ago to devote their resources to a vast welfare state.” They’ve been able to afford their social democracies, Krauthammer explains, so long as America has been able to police the world.

But who will stand guard for America if we abandon our military might in favor of massive domestic expenditures, Krauthammer wonders.

Of equal concern: What will Europe—the world’s largest economy—do once it realizes that America no longer has its back? The void left by Washington’s abandonment of its role internationally will surely be filled somehow.

Prophecy tells! Europe will—for a brief, chaotic moment in history—come together to replace America as the world’s greatest superpower!

Already the new EU constitution creates the obligation for the Union to host a combined military force. Those who scoff at the thought of Europe’s disparate group of social democracies ever becoming the world’s next superpower fail to realize that this is exactly how God said it would happen. Daniel 2 describes this final resurrection of the ancient Roman Empire as being an unstable mixture of iron and clay. And we are now in the early stages of economic emergency that will bring these many nations together as the world’s next superpower. The Bible says they will receive their power for “one hour with the beast”—a period that only lasts for about two years. Though short-lived, this awakening beast will display all of the iron-like strength and force of its Roman predecessors.

The Bible shows how God will actually use this European power to correct America! It will usher in a violent—but thankfully brief—tribulation that represents the dismal culmination of America’s current slide. Our free book The United States and Britain in Prophecy provides a thorough scriptural explanation of these soon-coming events.

Yes, America’s decline is a choice—but it is also a curse. And these curses are prophesied to intensify, all for one end: to bring about the repentance of our peoples.