----- Original Message ----- From: "John Bizwas" <bizwas at lycos.com>
So are American VOTERS very aware of foreign policy issues? I'd say, yes, quite obviously. The most ardent supporters of the Repugs and Demoncrats strongly believe in American dominance through military and intelligence spending--and now homeland security--and this has huge foreign policy implications. It's basically a projection of domestic politics onto a world stage where the US has hegemony--a financial superpower, with HUGE stocks, bonds and futures markets, and unlisted equity holdings--backed with enough firepower to destroy the world many times over. The problem is it's a very consciously self-serving (GREEDY) but ultimately subconsciously nihilistic foreign policy. Things are not going to end very well for the American superpower (and its European and E. Asian backers), but I guess the larger question is: will the world survive? See, it's the ultimate fusion of domestic and foreign issues.
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But to a not insignificant number of the Xtians who actually build the WMD's etc., it's not nihilism because the Book tells them the world will end violently. So for them it's totally ok if US foreign policy operationalizes the apocalypse. There's no variety of historical materialism that can compete with that right now. Heck even religious pastors who deplore the use of Revelation[s] have a hard time getting their peers to see the nihilism implicit in the message.
Here's just one sample of the stuff that's out there that goes beyond the 'Left Behind' series:
Beyond Iraq: The Next Move Mike Evans
Format: Paperback Pub. Date: May 2003
Beyond Iraq: The Next Move FROM THE PUBLISHER This war had a much deeper significance than originally reported!
Award winning journalist and Middle East specialist for more than 20 years, Dr. Mike Evans, has been a confidant to every prime minister in Israel over the last decade-and-a-half. His articles have been published in more than 150 countries, including The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, and The Jerusalem Post. This expertise gives Dr. Evans an insider's perspective to the liberation of Iraq.
In this book, Dr. Evans clearly defines the roles that America, Iraq and Israel play in the fulfillment of end times prophecy. Breaking through the cluttered, and often confusing, information overload on this topic, Dr. Evans presents the Scriptures and current events side-by-side. As he does this, he makes a compelling and convincing argument to justify his vigorous call for Christians to wake up and pray.
About the Author:
Dr. Michael David Evans is the author of 17 bestselling books on the Middle East. He is the founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team, a national intercessory prayer movement to mobilize one million intercessors to pray for revival in the Middle East according to 2 Chronicles 7:14. He is also the founder of Evangelical Israel Broadcasting Network. Dr. Evans is Chairman of the Board of the Corrie ten Boom House in Haarlem, Holland. For over 34 years Dr. Evans has been building a bridge between the evangelical community in the United States and the nation of Israel. As a result, he is widely respected for his tireless efforts, and has been awarded the Ambassador Award for over 25 years of service to Israel. FROM THE CRITICS Publisher's Weekly With the Bible's various prophecies of the downfall of Babylon, one would think Christian eschatologists would have a field day with the war in Iraq. But apart from a few perfunctory prophetic exegeses-Jeremiah's "arrows of expert warriors" are laser-guided bombs, the "plunderers of the North" are looters at Iraq's National Museum, Isaiah's "chariot of men with horses" is an Abrams tank-this poorly organized, fundamentalist screed touts the Bible less as a crystal ball than as a rationale for a Wolfowitzian grand strategy against the Muslim world. On the temporal plane, Evans argues that the U. S. should use its control of Iraqi oil to break OPEC, and employ Iraq as a base ("only a short reach from the throat of Syria and Iran") for the war on terrorism. On the spiritual plane, because Islam is "a religion conceived in the pit of hell" and terrorism is orchestrated by demons, he advocates the use of Christian prayers summoning angelic intervention to root out the evils of terror and Islamic fanaticism. Evans, founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team ministry and author of Why Christians Should Support Israel, is especially concerned with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He opposes Bush's "road map" initiative and insists that God apportioned the West Bank and Gaza to the Jews of the land of Israel, whose modern consolidation is a prerequisite for the Second Coming. Evans's one-sided account of Middle East conflicts, based on fancifully symbolic readings of obscure Bible passages, concedes virtually no legitimate grievances or non-demonically inspired motivations to Muslims and Palestinians. His book is a disturbing addition to the debate on these critical areas of U. S. foreign policy. Photos. (June)