Kingdom Come

The U.S. needed to replace Iran, which we see happened immediately.

Egypt has been an important country for U.S. national security interests based on its geography…Egypt controls the Suez Canal, which opened in 1869 and is one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas. As of early 2022, an estimated 10% of global trade, including 7% of the world’s oil, flows through the Suez Canal…

Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel remains one of the most significant diplomatic achievements for the promotion of Arab-Israeli peace. While people-to-people relations remain limited, the Israeli and Egyptian governments have increased their cooperation against Islamist militants and instability in the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip…

Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing war have negatively affected Egypt’s food security, economy, and national budget. As a result, Gulf Arab States, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar have pledged over $22 billion in various forms of support to Egypt in some cases in return for stakes in Egyptian public entities and assets.

Since 1946, the United States has provided Egypt with over $85 billion in bilateral foreign aid (calculated in historical dollars—not adjusted for inflation)…Successive U.S. Administrations have justified aid to Egypt as an investment in regional stability, built primarily on long-running cooperation with the Egyptian military and on sustaining the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

Sounds to me that the US is bribing Egypt. What if someone else ups the ante? Like Russia or China?

We can easily discern the three Eastern rulers which America “subdued”  in the guise of mutual benefit and friendship, in contrast to most Moslems who hold firmly to “Friendship with the world is enmity with God.” 

But what is really shocking is that every one of the ten “kings” of all the ten “kingdoms” nations have been given power by the US for an hour, i.e. a short time, and evangelicals are blind to the significance this has for the end times. Alliances with these nations are not dependable for protecting American and Western bloc interests in the Middle East, especially the oil crucial for modern warfare and suppression of anti-West agitators by bribed governments. If biblical prophecy holds true to its 4,000 years pattern, the alliance of the Eastern leg will be the downfall of the Western Leg.

4. Iraq 1960’s to Present

U.S. policy toward Iraq and the entire Persian Gulf region…has changed more and more often over the years more than any other foreign policy…Current U.S. policy can be traced back more than half a century…when Great Britain decided it could no longer sustain its commitments east of Suez…Already overburdened by the war in Southeast Asia, the United States had neither the will nor the ability to fulfill the British role.

The result was a foreign policy in which the United States tried to protect its interests–then, as now, largely oil and gas along with the stability of traditional friends in the area–indirectly and inexpensively. The principal threat was the Soviet Union and Soviet-backed radicalism. The preferred policy instruments were maintaining a modest naval presence in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean and arms sales, especially to the so-called twin pillars of Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Iran’s revolution effectively removed the chief pillar of American strategy. Thanks to…the war between Iran and Iraq that served to distract and drain the region’s two most powerful states as well as the increasing weakness of the Soviet Union–the United States could get by and protect its interests in the region with little additional effort. The principal departure to U.S. policy was a limited tilt toward Iraq–then seen as the lesser of two evils–when it appeared as though Iran was gaining the upper hand in their conflict.

[After the Iran Iraq War ended in 1988] Desert Shield [in 1990] and Desert Storm marked a major departure in U.S. policy, though, to that of major and direct U.S. presence and involvement…

U.S. policy since the Gulf War has been marked by the reality that U.S. relations with the two strongest states of the region–Iran and Iraq–are adversarial. The problem facing the United States is that no combination of friendly local states can offset either…

U.S. ability to deal with a wide range of scenarios is essential. These include deterring and defeating conventional aggression, preventive and preemptive attacks against weapons of mass destruction, punitive strikes against state supporters of terrorism, and interdiction on behalf of sanctions…The point is a simple one, that U.S. diplomacy can only succeed against a backdrop of the availability of military forces and the will to use them. What makes fulfilling this need more difficult than would be the case in other regions is the requirement that our presence not become too large or visible lest it cause as many problems for our friends as it is designed to manage.

5. Sudan 1990’s to Present

Sudan is geostrategically important to U.S. interests in both Africa and the Middle East. The country’s military rulers, Lt.-Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy Lt.-Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (also known as “Hemedti”), are banking on that fact…

U.S. policy toward Sudan has evolved over the past 25 years. Starting in the 1990s, the Clinton administration followed a policy of regime change, attempting to undermine the National Islamic Front (NIF) regime…by supporting the domestic Sudanese opposition and including Khartoum on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST). Following the failure of this policy, the U.S. subsequently shifted its focus to working with the [military] regime to ensure stability…

The Sudanese military has deepened its security relations with Israel in the hope that Israel will press Washington to restart its financial assistance to Khartoum, worth $850 million, and for the international community to reinstate its forgiveness of Sudan’s $60 billion debt…

Burhan and Hemedti have also used the potential establishment of a Russian naval base in Port Sudan, in eastern Sudan’s Red Sea coast, as another means of pressuring the U.S. to acquiesce in backing their rule…Sudan has had an expansive relationship with Russia for years…acquired $1 billion of weaponry from Moscow. This has been a cause for concern for the U.S…

The security of navigation of the Red Sea is of prime importance for the U.S., as it links Africa and the Middle East…leave the U.S. open to accommodating Sudanese military rule, provided that Khartoum does not allow Moscow to build a naval base.

Another source of concern for the Biden administration is Sudan’s part in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Sudan and China have deep economic ties in various fields, including agriculture, energy, and mining. Sudan’s exports to China in 2020 reached $766 million, accounting for 19% of its total exports and making China its second-largest trading partner…China’s regional role is furthered by other countries in Africa, including Egypt, which see it as an alternative to the U.S. or pursue a hedging strategy between the two to maximize their own interests. This allows China to carve out a sphere in the region and challenge U.S. influence.

6. Jordan 1949 – Present

Biblical accounts of the area, dating from the Middle Bronze Age onward, mention kingdoms such as Gilead in the north, Moab in central Jordan, and Midian in the south. At the time of the Exodus, the Israelites tried to pass through Edom in southern Jordan but were refused permission. They were at first repelled by the Amorites, whom they later defeated…settled in the conquered territory of the Ammonites, Amorites, and Bashan and rebuilt many of the towns they had partially destroyed. A record of this period is the Mesha (or Moabite) Stone found at Dhībān in 1868, now in the Louvre Museum in Paris…Ammon with its capital, Rabbath Ammon (modern Amman), regained independence on the death of David (c. 960 BCE). Solomon had a port on the Gulf of Aqaba at Ezion-geber (modern Elat, Israel), where copper ore was smelted from mines in the Wadi al-ʿArabah…

During World War I, two of the Arab tribes descended from Ishmael son of Abraham, living in the Arabian peninsula, allied with the British to successfully drive the Ottomans from the region. In payment, the larger tribe ruled by the Saud family was granted rule over most of the Arabian Peninsula. To pay the Hashem family, the British split the territory of Transjordan (across the Jordan River) out of their Palestinian Mandate. In order words, the British gave away land that didn’t belong to them. 

The United States…established diplomatic relations in 1949.…

Jordan annexed the West Bank in April 1950 

Jordan’s 1950 unification was one of the most fluid and best-designed political annexation processes in modern history. All Palestinians in the West Bank immediately gained Jordanian citizenship and were recognized politically in its parliament, with 30 seats for both the west and east banks. Moreover, they enjoyed the same rights as Jordanians from the East Bank.

During the Six-Day War [1967], Israel seized the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt, took the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and conquered the Golan Heights from Syria. Yet these areas are considered occupied territory because they were not part of Israel before the war, and territorial conquest is forbidden by international law…

in May 1967 there were not any Israelis living in the West Bank, which was then home to about 1 million Palestinians, who had been living under Jordanian control for two decades and whose ancestors had lived and farmed in the West Bank for many centuries. It can be argued, ironically enough, that because the Israeli annexationist right likes to claim that “Jordan is Palestine,” then they should support giving Israeli-occupied Palestinian land to back to Jordan.

Indeed, the best hope for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict is to revisit King Abdullah I’s elegant solution: annex the West Bank and grant Jordanian citizenship to every Palestinian. But now, include the Gaza Strip as well—and any Jewish settlers who wish to remain.

In light of ongoing regional unrest…Jordan was designated a U.S. major non-NATO ally by the United States in 1996.

The United States is Jordan’s single largest provider of bilateral assistance, providing more than $1.65 billion in FY 2021, including…$425 million in State Department Foreign Military Financing funds…A strong U.S. military assistance program is designed to meet…regional stability…

7. Afghanistan

Afghanistan, like Sudan, is significant for its location. Smack at the boundary of the Western Great Powers and Russia in the East, it is permanently at war.

• The United States established diplomatic ties with Afghanistan in 1935.
• In 1939 a British expeditionary force expanding from India were repelled by fiercely independent local factions supported by neighboring Russia’s resistance to Britain’s incursion into its sphere of influence,
• in World War II played both sides,
• in the Cold War played both sides,
• in 1973 overthrew the monarchy in a coup to establish democracy,
• in 1978 overthrew the President in a coup to establish communism,
• in 1979 started a civil war waged by guerrilla mujahideen (and smaller Maoist guerrillas) against regime forces countrywide,  After thousands of people went missing in a maelstrom of violence the Soviet Army invaded the country and set up a regime,
• beginning the Soviet–Afghan War which lasted nine years and caused the deaths of between 562,000 and 2 million Afghans, 6 million people became refugees mainly in Pakistan and Iran. Heavy air bombardment destroyed many countryside villages, millions of landmines were planted. The United States and Pakistan, along with smaller actors like Saudi Arabia and China, continued supporting the rebels, delivering billions of dollars in cash and weapons including two thousand FIM-92 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. “it has been reckoned that as many as 35,000 ‘Arab-Afghans’ may have received military training…at an estimated cost of $800 million in the years up to and including 1988.” Some of the CIA’s greatest Afghan beneficiaries were Arabist commanders…who were key allies of bin Laden over many years….[and] played an important role in the formation and growth of al Qaeda, Milton Bearden, the CIA’s Islamabad station chief from mid-1986 until mid-1989, took an admiring view of bin Laden at the time.
• in 1988 civil war broke out after the Soviet withdrawal. The militarization of society had led to heavily armed police, private bodyguards, openly armed civil defense groups and other such things becoming the norm in Afghanistan for decades thereafter. The traditional power structure had shifted from clergy, community elders, intelligentsia and military in favor of powerful warlords. 
• 1996 – 2001 An Islamic fundamentalist group of students (ṭālib) educated in traditional Islamic schools (madāris) under the leadership of Mullah Omar (r. 1996–2001) spread throughout most of Afghanistan, shifting power away from the Mujahideen warlords, rules 3/4 of the country as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
• 1999 – The Taliban provides Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda sanctuary in Afghanistan from which to lead his Islamic revolution 
• 9/11/2001 President Bush links the plane attacks to al-Qaeda and its sanctuary in Afghanistan, begings the War in Afghanistan allied with Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance militia and NATO–led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) seized parts of northeast Afghanistan, the Taliban fights back. 
• 2005 – 2021 The US gave a total of $18.6 billion of equipment to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF).
• 8/30/2021 the Taliban sweeps across Afghanistan in just 10 days as American forces scramble chaotically to get out of its longest war. More than 120,000 people are evacuated while thousands of Afghans who assisted the United States and its allies are left behind along with equipment worth $7.12 billion including aircraft, air-to-ground munitions, military vehicles, weapons, communications equipment and other materials This equipment is now at the disposition of an enemy the US was trying to destroy over the past twenty years. The next day, President Biden says the United States should learn from its mistakes and that the withdrawal marks the end of “an era of major military operations to remake other countries.” 

8. Pakistan – 1947 to present

In 1946, Britain announced it would grant India independence. No longer able to afford to administer the country, it wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

The population was about 25% Muslim, with the rest mostly Hindu but also Sikh, Buddhist and other religions…

“Partition seemed to be a quick and simple solution.”

About 15 million people travelled, often hundreds of miles, to cross the new frontiers.

And many were driven out of their homes by communal violence, starting with the 1946 Calcutta Killings, in which an estimated 2,000 died.

“The Muslim League formed militias and so did right-wing Hindu groups,” says Dr Eleanor Newbigin, senior lecturer in South Asian history at SOAS, University of London.

Between 200,000 and one million people are estimated to have been killed or died of disease in refugee camps.

Tens of thousands of women, both Hindu and Muslim, were raped, abducted or disfigured.

On 15 August 1947, one day after the independence of Pakistan… the United States became one of the first nations to establish relations with Pakistan. The relations are a very important factor in the United States government’s overall policy in South and Central Asia as well as Eastern Europe.

In many ways, the challenge of dealing with Pakistan is subsumed in the broader challenge of managing US relations with the Islamic world, especially with countries where the US has been allied with unpopular leaderships in the war on terrorism. The aid-based relationship with Washington strengthened these leaderships, as did the authoritarian measures taken by the latter ostensibly to fight this war. As these regimes grew in strength, so did the opposition to them, and by extension, to the war on terrorism and to the United States. It is not surprising that anti-Americanism has been strongest in those Islamic countries where the governments were close to Washington but distant from the population…

The US response to extremism after 9/11 was largely misguided and counter-productive. The US approach — conducting the campaign against terrorism as a war of ideas between the West and Islam, blurring the distinction between terrorists and the people they come from, and denigrating Muslim societies by designating them as failing or failed and needing help from the West — unwittingly caused Muslims to have to defend their religion and what it stands for. Extremists took up this cause and were tolerated, and even applauded for doing so. Specifically with respect to Pakistan, religious extremism thus came to find wider sponsorship and popular support…

Pakistan has the world’s sixth-largest standing armed forces. It is a declared nuclear-weapons state, and is designated as a major non-NATO ally by the United States. Over the country’s 75 years of independence, its democratic leaders have been repeatedly deposed in military coups, presidential dismissals, and disqualifications from holding public office. Shehbaz Sharif called for “unity” and vowed to repair the country’s damaged economy after he was sworn in as Prime Minister April 2022 following the ouster of Imran Khan.

“Unity,” Ha. If you want to foresee the future, look to the past pattern of history.