With all that is occurring in the world today and the jostling of powers, could we be seeing a return of the old empires?
In a previous column I had speculated about a return of the old gods. This time I’m going to touch upon the return of the old empires – with thanks to Lt. Col. Ralph Peters.
A few months ago Peters delivered an interesting talk to the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Some of what he said resonated with me. For example, he observed that while the “West is still in the age of breakdown” in the Middle East and Russia we are seeing the “rebirth of the old empires.” He went on to mention Iran, and noted that the majority of Iranians are Persians.
My ears pricked up, obviously. I immediately thought of Israel’s return as a nation in 1948. Israel’s presence in the land is a major component of prophecies addressing the period preceding the return of Jesus Christ. These prophecies have much to say about Israel’s struggle to survive just before the return of the Messiah.
Doesn’t it seem more than coincidence that after nearly nineteen hundred years, Israel is a nation once more, and fighting for its life? It’s like the good old days and just like the old prophecies.
Peters spoke about ancient Greece and ancient Persia. The Persians were once one of the greatest civilizations in the world. Persia’s attainments exceeded those of ancient Greece even though the latter fought off the former empire’s attempt to invade it.
As a side note, Peters observes that many like to mention Greece’s Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey as the “keystone books, the wellsprings of our civilization.” While only scholars read the old Greek books, Peters claims the Iliad was about the joy of killing. In other words the Greeks loved war. Just look at Alexander.
In his view, the point of military discipline is to get “young men” to stop killing when given the order. He states that young men are inherently prone to violence, but that our democratic society (with some exceptions) has channeled this tendency well.
The current Iranian regime (with its Persian root core) is trying to rebuild or build a new Persian empire. Whereas versions of the older Iranian empires were often tolerant, the newer ambitious version is not.
Modern Iran is “overlaid with a ferocious, messianic, apocalyptic religion” – Shia Islam. In light of its nuclear program, he sees this as a “terrible threat.” Syria is a vassal state to Iran while the latter has also reached out to Iraq. Iran’s tentacles now reach into Lebanon, Hamas, Western Afghanistan and Yemen. Peters didn’t mention Hezbollah’s or Iran’s possible presence in South America. But he warns:
“It has been 2,500 years since the Iranians had an imperial presence over such a wide swath of the globe.” (Emphasis mine)
We now also have a resurgent Islamic Caliphate (like the good old days), and a concerned Saudi Arabia looking to acquire nuclear weapons to defend itself. Then there’s President Obama. Peters suggest that – because the Obama Administration insists on its own ill-informed definition of what constitutes Islam – the president has lost credibility. More to the point, does he even care?
Due north of these clashing, resurgent Middle East empires, you now have a Russian empire in the making. According to Peters, many of the elites in the West had written Putin off. Presumably this is because he didn’t go to the right schools or universities and “he chews with his mouth open.” One columnist even dismissed Putin as a petty bureaucrat.
As Peters notes, many change agents have often come from the outside. They were relatively unknown visionaries before changing the world. Among this unlikely list are: Lance Corporal Hitler; Junior Artillery Officer Napoleon; indifferent student Mao; dish washer Ho Chi Minh and an illiterate Muhammad. The one time obscure Senator Barack Hussein Obama shares that commonality.
Like other visionaries, Putin appealed to a limping proletariat. Russia was “flat on its back” when he came to power. Peters says that regardless of his willingness to use Stalinist methods, Putin isn’t a communist. He wants to restore a Czarist Russia. Above all he’s a Russian nationalist, just like Hitler was a German nationalist.
Putin was once an intelligence case officer. He is brilliant at sizing up westerners. Quite an irony when you think about it.
Peters briefly touched upon China. He doesn’t think they’re re-establishing an old empire. They’re building a new one overseas – in Africa and South America. Contrast that to the West, and especially the current White House Administration with its reduced American footprint and minimalist impact policy.
One of the things which Peters punctuated was that appeasement will not work with fanatics and empire builders. Strategic patience only serves to make the enemy stronger. It can only hope to delay the inevitable. This patience and “negotiation” has allowed Iran to gain dangerous footholds.
He warns that Israel is threatened as it hasn’t been since 1948. Unfortunately, Iran may have been able to bunker down too far where Israel cannot now successfully strike. Even if Israel did strike, Iran would respond by attacking the oil and gas fields of the Persian Gulf, thereby crippling the world’s economy. Naturally, Israel would get the blame.
One salient point Peters makes is the current unwillingness of an ideologically crippled West to confront the Islamic State. These inherently violent young men have been nurtured and trained by “radical Islam” and love what they do. Like other emerging regimes they don’t mind killing people. Think of the French Revolution. Like all visionaries, they won’t be appeased by rhetoric.
Where will America be in another five years if another Obama gets to lead it? What about Europe – how will it react to a resurgent, belligerent Russia and radical Islamists nudging its borders?
Will all these dynamics finally pave the way for a resurgent European Empire – a new Rome? Or perhaps a New World Order?
Whatever the case, it won’t be the Last Empire. The Bible speaks of the Final Order in the book of Revelation, chapters 20 to 22. I believe and place my hope in it.
Do you?
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