The Trumpet (Link) - Joel Hilliker (May 26, 2010)
Does the world seem a bit out of control? Here is President Obama�s idea to get a grip on things: He wants to help �shape an international order,� with �stronger international standards and institutions.�
He couldn�t use �new world order,� since that was already taken.
The president issued this latest homage to supranationalism this past Saturday, at a commencement speech at West Point. �[W]e have to shape an international order that can meet the challenges of our generation,� he said. �As influence extends to more countries and capitals, we also have to build new partnerships, and shape stronger international standards and institutions.�
He speaks as though this has never been tried.
But it has. Again and again and again. We have an alphabet soup of globalist institutions to prove it: UN, IMF, WTO, G-8, G-12, G-20, et cetera, ad nauseam. Each represents a Babylon of competing, conflicting national interests and is generously steeped in human nature. Perhaps even worse than the individual nations that comprise them, these bodies are plagued by epic financial and moral corruption. The best of the statements they produce accomplish nothing, simply for having had to be watered down so much to achieve consensus. The worst of them are weapons wielded by the most hostile of these groups� participants against the others.
Meanwhile, in the real world, economic meltdown, atrocities of all varieties, wars and rumors of wars stubbornly proceed apace.
Yet somehow, globophiles interpret each failure of these institutions as proof that more transnationalism is needed. That stronger international standards and institutions will solve the problem.
They also view America�s strength as something of an obstacle to the pursuit of this utopian fantasy. �Whether we like it or not, we [America] remain a dominant military superpower,� President Obama said at the 49-nation Nuclear Security Summit last month, explaining why the U.S. remains obligated to intervene in global conflicts. How much happier a multilateral world would be.
Thus, the president is vigorously working to move America into the cosmopolitan wash of the international community. He is consistently working to put at ease those nations uncomfortable with the U.S. taking bold, independent stands. In crisis, he toes the international party line�regarding Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Pakistan, Honduras, North Korea. His new pick for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, may be inclined to consult international law in search of wisdom in interpreting the U.S. Constitution; Mr. Obama�s choice for legal adviser to the Department of State, Harold Koh, certainly is. On questions of national interest, the president sacrifices for the global community, no matter the cost�regarding financial regulation and oversight, global warming, nuclear capability.
�No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons,� Obama said in Cairo last June. �No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation,� he told the UN General Assembly last September. �No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed.� He envisions a �world order� with international standards and institutions governing a global tribe of equals.
Some observers apparently believe the president aims to increase America�s influence in the world�to undo the international isolation suffered as a result of his predecessor. If that is his aim, his strategy is already a proven failure. Since President Obama came to power, America has been repeatedly ignored, snubbed and spurned. In apparent efforts to court unfriendly nations, the Obama administration has trashed key alliances, including those with Britain, Israel, Turkey, Honduras, Poland, the Czech Republic and Japan. It has supported authoritarian regimes, including those in Iran, China and Russia. Muslim nations, despite Obama�s robust outreach, mistrust or hate the U.S. about as much as ever. Iraq�s government�upon which Washington has bestowed untold resources�has taken on a decidedly anti-American flavor. Europe has failed to support the president�s enlarged Afghanistan initiative. Several countries are beginning to abandon their use of the dollar, and Europe has gained regulatory control over America�s financial institutions via a G-20 agreement. Gestures of friendship with China, to whom America is deeply indebted, achieved no concessions. Russia apparently helped orchestrate a coup in Central Asia that will likely result in the U.S. having to close down an important military base there. Rogue states Iran and North Korea ignored American pressure and flaunted international law without repercussions. Last week�in complete defiance of America�s efforts to stop Iran�s nuclear program��allies� Brazil and Turkey made an agreement with Iran to enable its uranium enrichment.
This president isn�t increasing America�s influence. It�s far more accurate to say the president aims to undercut America�s leading global role in hopes this will enable him to see other nations eye to eye. In this aim, his strategy is a wild success.
As America visibly declines in strength, three significant power blocs have emerged: an integrating Asia led by Russia and China, a uniting Europe anchored by Germany, and a radical Islamic resurgence driven by Iran. Efforts to dethrone the U.S. are visible in all three.
The infatuation with supranationalism will not produce anywhere near the �international order� the president envisions. This world is hurtling toward a time when American influence will be not just eclipsed by these three power blocs, but eliminated from global politics. Then these three superpowers-in-waiting will scramble for the lead. In fact, the seeds of future competition among the three have already begun to sprout. And that competition, history shows, is destined to get increasingly violent.
Believe it or not, that competition among them was specifically prophesied by Jesus Christ.
He warned of a period, to grip this world just before His Second Coming, called �the times of the Gentiles��a time of suffering �such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time [the end time�our day today], no, nor ever shall be� (Luke 21:24; Matthew 24:21).
That is the world we are entering. The Bible says unequivocally that if God Himself did not intervene to stop it, mankind would annihilate itself! (verse 22). The fact that God will intervene is the only hope for a world bent on its own destruction. But it is a sure hope!
This seismic shift in geopolitical momentum�away from America and toward a clutch of non-Israelite, or Gentile, powers, accompanied by an escalation in brutal violence and war�is actually one of the visible signs Jesus Christ gave of His imminent return!