February 19, 2009
Steve Collins
The link below (from USA Today) relates the de facto surrender of portions of Western Pakistan to the Taliban. While diplomats will not want to acknowledge this fact so bluntly, this is what has occurred. At the urging of the USA, Pakistani forces had fought battles in western Pakistani territories to try and bring those regions under Pakistani government control. If those efforts had been successful, it would have made the USA’s Afghan War more viable and winnable. Those Pakistani government efforts have apparently failed.
The Taliban will now impose Sharia law on those regions of western Pakistan effectively ceded to its control. Pakistan has apparently thrown in the towel, “rejecting Washington’s call for tougher measures against the militants.” It has long been known that many elements in Pakistani society and the Pakistani government are openly anti-American and pro-Taliban. Ceding de-facto control of its western territories to the Taliban indicates which way Pakistan is going to go in the future. Say “Hello” to Talibanistan.
This action has an immediate ramification. This makes it even more dangerous for the USA to pursue its Afghan War because the Taliban will now have an even freer hand to attack US supply columns trekking their way through western Pakistan to the USA forces in Afghanistan. It was already very dangerous and now America’s overland supply route to its troops in Afghanistan could close altogether unless President Obama orders scarce US army troops to escort all supply convoys across western Pakistan into Afghanistan. The American war in Afghanistan is becoming steadily more costly, dangerous and unwinnable.
This turn of events also indicates that the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 is not just predicting, but controlling, modern geopolitics. God always acts to fulfill his prophecies (Isaiah 41:21-26), and Ezekiel 38 is the Bible’s most detailed prophecy about individual nations in the latter days. As readers of this blog know, Ezekiel 38 prophesies that an alliance of mostly-Asian nations will coalesce in the latter days of this age and be led by Russia, China and Iran in a global military attack upon the western world (led by the USA, UK and other nations of the modern ten tribes of “Israel”).  As I have noted in several previous blogs, Ezekiel 38:5 prophesies that “Cush” (misleadingly called “Ethiopia” in the KJV) will be allied to Russia’s alliance in the latter days. The border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan includes the “Hindu Kush” mountains, named for Cush, a son of Ham and Noah’s grandson (Genesis 10:6). This region was the stronghold of Al Queda and the Taliban before the events of 9/11. The USA made the mistake of staying in this region after its military quite rightly went in and destroyed the Al Queda training camps. As long as this region is not utilized by Al Queda to attack the USA, our forces have no real reason to be in Afghanistan or West Pakistan as it matters little to US interests what warlords rule these rocky, medieval regions. President Bush mistakenly got the USA bogged-down in a “no-win” war in Afghanistan, and President Obama has announced he will send more thousands of US troops into this medieval wasteland to pursue amorphous goals that no one seems able to identify.
Two things seem certain. This region of the world is sliding steadily into Russia’s orbit. Even President Karzai, the USA’s hand-picked leader for Afghanistan, is now negotiating with the Russians. The longer US troops stay in this region and fight the local tribes, the more enemies the USA will have. This war plays directly into the interests of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. It continues to wear out the US military, exhaust the US Treasury and make more enemies for America in Central Asia. The USA’s Afghan War is therefore, “win-win-win” for Russia and “lose-lose-lose” for the USA. The second certainty is that Ezekiel 38’s prophecy is being fulfilled. This region is slipping steadily into Russia’s anti-American orbit, just as Ezekiel 38 prophesied.