The Polish Connection

Who would have thought it? Poland, the biggest state in Europe in the 17th century, yet almost wiped off the map by the 18th century. Poland, in the midst of the tug of war between Russia to the east and Prussia to the west, enslaved by Nazi Germany, “liberated” by Russia from Nazidom, only to be plunged into the abyss of tyranny under the bootheel of Russian Soviet communism. Poland, its gdp in 1950 equal to that of Spain, now, thanks to the legacy of half a century of communism, two and a quarter times smaller.

Who would have thought that this Poland would suddenly rise to center stage in the great political struggle of the emerging new world order in the 21st century?

Following the Iraq campaign, the latest event to deepen the fracture in the Atlantic alliance, Poland has hit the headlines. “Poland Upstages European Powers,” declared the International Herald Tribune on May 14. The article led, “For Poland, these have been heady times. Not since the country liberated itself from Soviet control has it assumed so visible a role on the world stage, or one so defiant of the wishes of its most powerful future partners in the European Union, which Poland is scheduled to join next year.”

Poland? But then again, why not? To the most astute students of world events viewed in the light of biblical prophecy, this has not really come as a surprise. Just connect the dots.

The Polish Pope

Since he gained the papal throne in 1978 as Pope John Paul ii, Polish priest Karol Wojtyla has labored tirelessly to use his largely Catholicized home country as a major pawn in the great Eurogame. His aggressive papal diplomacy connected his Jesuit intelligence system with the cia and the Communist resistance movement in Poland to create the scenario that split the Soviet Union apart. The pope’s and President Reagan’s foreign-policy aspirations coalesced, and their combined treasury and intelligence systems lit the Polish fuse that sparked the Soviet implosion. The rest, as they say, is history.

But Poland has suffered a reality check since the pull-back of Soviet tyranny from its soil. No sooner had the Reds departed than the old Prussian thorn in Poland’s flesh began to penetrate its borders once again.

Taking advantage of the depleted Polish economy, German investors plowed welcome funds into Polish infrastructure to the point where the Poles suddenly realized that their old antagonists to the west were gobbling up huge tracts of Polish real estate (read the November 1999 Trumpet article “Poland: Sold to Germany” under Issue Archives at www.theTrumpet.com). But the Poles, aspiring members of the European Union, were in a Catch-22. Their economy drastically needed capital investment, and the Germans were the most willing to give it. Would the price be too much for Poland to bear? Poles began to fear that they had escaped one great totalitarian power only to find themselves being dragged into another—a federalized European Union.

The U.S. Hook

Then, right at the very moment that the Poles were feeling most uncomfortable with the encroachment of their Teutonic “EU” neighbors, along came the war in Iraq. With the Franco-Germans opposed to that campaign, Poland seized the moment to assert its sovereignty: It threw its hat into the ring with the U.S.-led “coalition of the willing” and promptly dispatched troops to support the allied effort against Saddam Hussein. It was but a small token, compared to the U.S. and British contribution, a mere 200 special forces troops. Yet they fared well, securing the Iraqi oil fields in the far south with zero casualties.

U.S. diplomacy then came into play. Seizing the moment to play off “new Europe” against “old Europe,” the U.S.-led team designated one of the four operational sectors of occupied Iraq to Polish jurisdiction. The Poles then committed to sending up to 2,000 more troops to assist in this effort.

The French and Germans were irate! Had they only been willing to support President Bush in the Iraq campaign, they would have been in the prime position within Iraq—not the Poles!

Franco-German Reaction

The first to mock the Poles in their role as “America’s greatest friend in new Europe” were, you guessed it, the Germans. “The German media has gushed with mockery, jeers and cynicism about its Polish neighbor …. The occasion was last week’s news that the U.S. wanted to entrust Poland with one of the three occupied zones in Iraq” (Deutsche Welle, May 9).

But there’s more to this than meets the eye. With the EU’s leading duo, France and Germany, so unwelcome in Washington, Poland is now able to play advocate for each in any efforts to patch up differences across the Atlantic.

Beyond that: Not only does the EU find itself playing a key role in Afghanistan, on Iran’s eastern border, but if it plays its cards right, with Poland up for EU membership next year, it will still find itself in a box seat in Iraq. In addition to being strategically placed on Iran’s western flank, it will also be barely 200 miles from the plum for which it has crusaded since the time of Charlemagne—Jerusalem!

Here’s how it works.

The peacekeeping force in Afghanistan is under German leadership. Germany is the EU’s leading nation. Recent history shows that when the German-led EU forces move into a region, they do not leave—witness the Balkan Peninsula. The Germans, with the support of the Vatican, created the confusion in 1991 that led to the Balkan wars. U.S.-led forces fought the resultant Balkan wars of the 1990s, only to hand the fruits over to a German-led EU.

Russia failed in Afghanistan. U.S.-led military forces did a better job of routing the Taliban, and then installed a new regime. The German-led EU is now leading the military effort to secure stability in Afghanistan. They will not leave. Afghanistan presents an ideal bridgehead to the EU from which to stem the incursion of the Islamic hordes into Europe. The U.S. won the campaign. The EU will enforce the peace!

Will we see a similar situation play out in Iraq, with Poland already having its foot in the door? And, further, because Iran is after the same territory, might this point of contention be part of the spark that ignites the conflict prophesied in Daniel 11:40?

American Drawdown

The U.S.-led alliance invaded Iraq and took Baghdad in record time. But the U.S. needs relief—particularly as it is now forced to look to its Pacific flank with rumblings in North Korea becoming worrisome, and even more so those in Pakistan. Meanwhile, the prospect of a future nuclear-armed Iran looms large on the horizon. Two of the antagonists in the war on terrorism, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, remain on the loose. And then there’s al-Qaeda. This all must be seen in the light of the effect on American society of the continuance of a war against an elusive enemy, the arch-terrorist, on ill-defined fronts. The location of the next strike is entirely unpredictable. Thus, warning bells are sounding for the U.S. administration.

“The United States is exhausted by the Iraq campaign at all levels. … U.S. troops are exhausted. The military reserve system has been stretched to the limits. It needs radical surgery if it is to sustain the United States through the rest of the war” (www.stratfor.com, March 19).

It would not be surprising to see the U.S., stretched thin as it is in the effort to forestall and preempt terror attacks on so many fronts, increase the pace of the drawdown of its military forces in Western Europe. “With the Iraq war over, the Pentagon is again focusing on Defense Secretary [Donald] Rumsfeld’s favorite topic: reforming the U.S. military. Germany, home to the biggest U.S. bases in Europe, could be hard hit” (Deutsche Welle, May 13).

But the EU is not yet ready to lose the guarantee of security that the U.S. has so willingly and selflessly provided it for the past 58 years. It needs time to absorb its 13 candidate nations into full EU membership, time to consolidate its military security and policing structure. Thus, some degree of reconciliation with the U.S. by the EU’s leading lights, France and Germany, is necessary. In a speedy about-face (shortly after their jeering taunts at Poland’s status), France and Germany agreed to nato support of a Polish-led peacekeeping force in Iraq.

Enter Poland as the ideal mediator. What is the main strength of this Polish nation, still struggling to cast off the economic slough of decades of Communist rule over its economy? The Polish pope!

Polish Popish Diplomacy

Was it mere coincidence that, within just one week of the jeering German reaction to the Poles being granted jurisdiction over the southern Iraq sector, Pope John Paul ii announced his intention to canonize two Poles—Josef Sebastian Pelczar and Urszula Ledochowska? Or was this a publicity stunt timed by the Vatican as an endorsement of the Poles’ newfound role in diplomacy across the Atlantic divide?

The Vatican thinks long term. For almost 2,000 years they have sought to possess the prize of Jerusalem. The French and German leadership may have dropped the ball on this one—but this Polish pope won’t! Just connect the dots: the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq. With the handing of responsibility for peace enforcement to elements of the Catholicized EU in each of these theaters, the EU’s presence has moved south and east. That directly aligns with a prophecy for these times in your Bible.

Bible prophecy indicates that a leader will come upon the world scene intent on moving strategically south, east and into Jerusalem. “And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land” (Dan. 8:9).

That “little horn” represents the biblical king of the north of Daniel 11. That king will be a final revival of the ancient Holy Roman Empire—an entity rising before our eyes in Europe today! Track the progress of the EU’s strategic moves. The Balkan nations, Malta and Cyprus, all prime contenders for EU membership, will extend the strategic territory of the EU south and east. Further east they have a presence in Afghanistan. Soon they will have a legitimate toehold on Iraq, barely 200 miles from Jerusalem—within the “pleasant land”!

A Multinational Force—Prophesied!

“Five European countries—Italy, Spain, Denmark, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and Ukraine—have all agreed to provide troops to help the United States, Britain and Poland police post-war Iraq” (www.EUobserver.com, May 5). These are either existing members of the EU or they are aspirants to membership in the very near future.

To whom must these nations, within the scope of the newly drafted EU constitution, yield their military command and control? The draft constitution for the uniting Europe mandates that each country yield control of its military forces to a central command. Most influential in the direction of that central command will be the old, revived, German General Staff!

See the danger looming in the Middle East! Your Bible warns of the gravest of dangers, encouraging flight to a place of safety when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies (Luke 21:20-21).

A multinational force, significantly comprising nations associated with the EU, in reality a final resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire, will soon be on the ground in Iraq. Poland, powerfully influenced by the Polish Pope John Paul ii, controls one of four sectors of administration in Iraq. Watch for Poland to play mediator in mending the fences between the U.S., France and Germany. Then watch for the Franco-German connection to wheedle its way into peace enforcement in Iraq, only minutes away from Jerusalem by supersonic jet.

And, as you watch, think on these things in the light of the prophecies in your Bible. Think—and pray!