This post is to alert readers that a new military circumstance has heightened the danger of war breaking out in the Mideast. This recent development would involve a different military front than an Israeli-Iranian one.
According to this Fox News account, Syrian artillery killed innocent Turkish citizens inside Turkey’s border in an unprovoked attack and Turkish artillery forces shelled Syrian territory in reply. Given that Turkey now hosts about 90,000 Syrian refugees and the border area is very tense, this is, as Secretary Hillary Clinton accurately noted, “a very, very dangerous situation.” What makes this even more dangerous is that the Syrians shot down a Turkish warplane in June, killing two Turkish pilots. The anger in the Turkish military and government must be reaching the boiling point over these Syrian attacks against Turkey, and Turkish desire for revenge must surely be growing.
At some point a future attack by Syrian forces against Turkish targets could justifiably bring an overwhelming Turkish military response and lead to open warfare wherein Turkey will have the objective of overthrowing the regime of Syrian President Assad. Given NATO’s agreement among its members that an attack against one of them is an attack against all of them, any further attacks by Syria vs. Turkey could activate NATO backing for a Turkish war against Syria. Such a war would be OK under international law and it would bypass any need for a UN resolution (eliminating the ability of Russia and China to stop action against Syria at the UN Security Council level). Turkey might actually welcome a reason to launch an all-out war against Syria as it may desire the restoration of part of the old Ottoman Empire. Syria used to be ruled by Turkey during the Ottoman Empire period. If Syria keeps provoking Turkey, it may just find itself ruled by Turkey again. If a Turkish-Syrian war occurs, it is possible (indeed, likely) that Saudi Arabia and Jordan may attack Syria from the south to keep Turkey from expanding a new Turkish zone in Syria too close to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
It would be very hard to limit such a war to Syria and Turkey if all-out war breaks out between those nations. Syria and Hezbollah could attack Israel to try and transform the war into a Moslem vs. Israeli war. If so, Israel would attack Syria and Hezbollah very hard as well—which would make Turkey and Israel de facto allies in a war. Would this lead to Iranian intervention against Turkey and Israel? Iran is a staunch backer of the Assad regime. This Turkish-Syrian war tension is just one more smoldering fire that could lead to a larger Mideast war very quickly. Keep in mind that I’m not predicting anything. I’m simply calling readers’ attention to the expanding dangers of a large Mideast war breaking out in more than one way.
If Assad’s regime falls and is replaced by a Sunni Moslem regime friendly to other local Sunni national governments, it will be a major blow to the interests of the Gog-Magog alliance as Russia, China and Iran would lose a strategically-placed ally in the Mideast. I don’t see Syria specifically mentioned as an ally of the Gog-Magog alliance in Ezekiel 38:1-6 so this prophecy allows for the possibility of Syria’s regime collapsing and a new Mideast set of alliances emerging.
