Does the title of this post sound surprising to anyone? It shouldn’t. Even President Obama has stated his administration’s goal is to have all US combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Given the recent tragedies in Afghanistan, much public, political and media pressure is coming to bear on the Obama administration to get the troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2013, if not sooner.
There were two tragedies, but the second one has dwarfed the first one. The first tragedy was when a highly-trusted Afghan executed two Americans who were working in a highly-guarded facility where only Americans, NATO allies and the most trusted Afghans are allowed to enter. One of the “most trusted Afghans” turned out to be a Taliban agent or sympathizer, and not only executed two Americans, but even got away unapprehended! The second tragedy was when an American soldier went from Afghan home to home and killed 17 Afghan civilians in cold blood, the majority of which were children. The first link, printed soon after the second tragedy, made the observation that it was a “fatal hammer blow to the US military mission in Afghanistan.” The source sounds like a leftist one, but I think that judgment is accurate. So do many others. The second link, from USA Today, cited Democrat Bob Beckel and Republican Cal Thomas as agreeing that the Afghan war “isn’t working,” a comment just short of stating it is a lost cause.
Put yourself in the positions of an American stationed in Afghanistan and an a Afghan villager who has just heard that an American soldier willfully killed Afghan civilians, including many children. If you were an American, would you truly trust any Afghan after realizing that even one of the “most trusted” Afghans allowed access to an ultra-secure facility turned out to be a Taliban agent and executed two Americans? I think the answer is “no.” That the killer was able to get away uncaught indicates that other “most trusted” Afghans must have helped him do his deed. Diplomats will say all the right things, of course, but no American will ever look at even their most trusted Afghan counterparts with much trust any more. And as news of the American soldier’s rampage against Afghan civilians spreads from village to village and from tribe to tribe, the Afghans will not look at any Americans with much trust either. This tragedy also highlights the issue that one cannot assign soldiers to endless combat tours of duty and not expect some of them to “snap” in a way which destroys the strategic goals of any war itself. Reportedly, the soldier who did this horrible deed was in his fourth combat tour.
Given that Obama has said all American combat troops will leave by the end of 2014 and that the US public supports a withdrawal essentially “right now” in polls, the Taliban know that they have won the war, no matter how many individual battles they lose before the US leaves. The Taliban could just “lay low” and unleash their power on the Karzai government as soon as the USA leaves. I wonder how many of Karzai’s troops will actually fight for him when the US troops are gone, and how many will take their weapons and return to their tribal regions to either join the Taliban or fight each other. The second link calls the Karzai government “irredeemably corrupt” so I doubt very many Afghan government soldiers will be willing to die to keep it in power.
Also put yourself in the position of a US soldier stationed in Afghanistan. If you know that the US will be leaving soon, why would you want to fight and die when you know the USA will be “retreating” from Afghanistan no matter what you do? The US army, a highly-trained volunteer force, will no doubt, do its duty, but, inwardly, morale must be pretty low.
For years, my posts have asserted that the Afghan war would not come to a good end for the USA, and that both Afghanistan and Pakistan will eventually be in the Gog-Magog alliance described in Ezekiel 38-39 of the Bible. That God-Magog alliance is prophesied to include Russia, China and Iran (who are already allies) and that “Cush” will be one of their allies as well. The modern descendants of Cush (too narrowly called “Ethiopia” in the King James Bible) are located in the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan and other Asian locales. However, the name of their forefather Cush (a son of Ham, Genesis 10:6), is most prominently placed on the modern nations of Afghanistan and Pakistan as the “Hindu Kush” mountains straddle both nations. That fact led me years ago to conclude both nations would eventually be in the Gog-Magog alliance that is also prophesied to attack the USA and other western nations in a surprise attack at the end of this age, as long-time readers of this blog know. As readers of my books and articles know,the term “Israel” in Ezekiel 38-39 applies to the modern descendants of the ancient ten tribes of Israel who are located in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The term “Judah” is applied to the Jews/Israelis in biblical narratives and prophecies, and that term appears nowhere in Ezekiel 38-39. The Israelis (“Judah”) are nowhere mentioned in Ezekiel 38-39. When the Bible refers to the modern Israelis, it uses the term “Judah,” as it does in Zephaniah 3, a prophecy about the founding of the modern Jewish nation in the latter days—which was fulfilled in 1948.
That a prophecy of the Bible penned about 2500 years ago is being fulfilled in remarkable detail in today’s events confirms that the Bible is the Divine Word of a Creator God who originally inspired the prophecy and who is shaping world events to fulfill it today. It also confirms that many of the major geopolitical events and the destinies of modern nations were pre-determined by God millennia ago. Many of today’s macro-trends or even individual events were also pre-determined by God millennia ago, and were set down in the Bible’s prophecies. No other so-called “holy book” can boast such a record of detailed fulfilled prophecies which are coming true. Only the Holy Bible can make that boast. It is God himself who challenged others to see his ability to fulfill the Bible’s prophecies as proof of his Divine reality, sovereignty and supremacy over all other “gods” (Isaiah 41:21-26). For a detailed look at many of the biblical prophecies coming to pass today, I urge new readers of this blog to examine my article, Are We Living in the Biblical “Latter Days?” It is impossible that so many ancient biblical prophecies are being fulfilled in detail in our modern world by coincidence. You don’t have to take the existence of God “on faith;” you can prove it!
