As the Mideast becomes ever more dangerous and confusing, some strange new alliances are being formed. It is my view that this is happening because the USA is not acting decisively any longer in the region and is becoming less engaged and more unpredictable under the Obama administration. I believe that the role of Obama and the USA in destabilizing Egypt and Libya has made the USA an unreliable ally in the eyes of all the nations in the region.
Consider the information in these links (most of them from a single news source). The first link reports that Iran is periodically sending thousands of soldiers, tanks, etc. into northern Iraqi territory to send a warning message to the ISIL/ISIS terrorist army. It is not clear if the Iranians have engaged the terrorist army yet, but their motivation is obvious. The terrorist ISIL/ISIS army is a brutally extremist Sunni force and it is threatening the central Iraqi government, which is Shiite like Iran. The Iranian army is a de facto ally of both the Kurds and the Iraqi central government against ISIL/ISIS.
Germany has announced that it will send a few armored vehicles, much-needed anti-tank weapons and other weaponry to the Kurds by the end of September (second link). That help for the Kurds is apparently still a month away. US air strikes have pushed the ISIL/ISIS army away from the Kurdish homeland and helped the Kurds seize the vital Mosul Dam, but there has still been no strategic action by the Obama administration vs ISIL/ISIS and Obama himself amazingly admitted he has no plan yet vs. ISIL/ISIS. Obama’s indecision and strategic inaction is now reportedly even worse than anyone previously realized. The third link reports that Obama has been warned by US intelligence services for over a year about the danger of an ISIL/ISIS army coming into existence and Obama did nothing until the terrorist army was overrunning much of Syria and Iraq. Obama does seem to be the most helpless and inept president the US has ever had. He seems paralyzed by indecision when decisive action is what is needed. The world needs US leadership and Obama can’t give it.
Indeed, how is the ISIL/ISIS army having such success and how is it being supplied? The fourth link asserts that Turkey is acting as a secret supporter of the ISIL/ISIS army. This is most bizarre as Turkey is a NATO member, but it is aiding the terrorists under the leadership of its currently-Islamist government. That link has some very revealing information. It states much of the ISIL/ISIS army is composed of foreign fighters and that Turkey is supplying many of them. This link also includes an analysis that Turkey and Iran are heading for a confrontation in the Mideast and that this could rearrange alliances in the region. It may even unite the Iranians, Saudis and other nations vs. ISIL/ISIS and Turkey. It even reports that Turkey betrayed the USA by giving intelligence information to the Islamic Caliphate (another name for ISIL/ISIS) so the US raid to rescue captive James Foley would fail. If this report is true, Turkey can no longer be considered to be a US ally.
The final link is related although it deals with the Islamic terrorists that are operating near the Syrian-Israeli border region. Islamist Jihadis have kidnapped UN peacekeepers in that region, but the link reports that Syria and Israel cooperated to rescue some of the UN soldiers. This is also a remarkable development. It indicates that both Syria and Israel would rather be facing each other across that border than have a wild-card Jihadist group in the region that opposes both Syria and Israel. It also demonstrates that UN “peacekeeper” soldiers are “for show” and are actually so weak that they can’t even defend themselves wherever they are placed.
The Mideast is really coming unglued as alliances shift and new developments place old allies at odds and create alliances among old enemies. The eventual outcome of this rearranging of the region’s alliances will ultimately partially fulfill the prophecy in Ezekiel 38:2-6 about which nations are and aren’t going to be in the final Gog-Magog alliance. Iran (“Persia”) is definitely going to be allied with Russia and China, but Egypt, the Ishmaelites (the Arab nations), and Edom (Turkey) are not mentioned as eventual allies of Russia and China. Israel and Iran are implacable enemies, and an Iranian-Turkish clash or rivalry would seem to push Israel and Turkey together (as they once were), but the current Turkish leader (Erdogan) is so anti-Israeli and pro-Hamas that Turkey has driven Israel away as an ally.
As one of the links observes, The Mideast seems destined for a wild ride as the future unfolds.
- http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/08/26/kurds-say-iran-sent-combat-units-tanks-northern-iraq/
- http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/09/01/germany-send-armored-vehicles-8000-assault-rifles-kurdish-peshmerga/
- http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/02/source-obama-given-detailed-intelligence-about-rise-isis-for-year/
- http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/08/26/turkeys-critical-role-rise-latest-islamic-caliphate-whats-coming-next/
- http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/09/01/israel-syria-provided-support-fire-un-observers-rescued-golan-heights/
