Armageddon sick of this!

Please don't interpret the last paragraph of the last post to mean that Walt is in favour of going to war to protect Israel from the forces of Islam. Not at all. If we (the West) are going to wage war, let us pick on weak little countries where we know we can win -- like Libya and Afghanistan. [Is this right? Ed.]

As for the Zionist entity, let's see if Ahmedinajad can make his prediction about the world of tomorrow come true, with or without the help of the 12th imam. Perhaps the Hidden Imam will turn out to be one and the same as the Antichrist predicted in the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine. Perhaps we should take more seriously -- and more literally -- Apoc. 16:16. "He shall gather them together into a place, which in Hebrew is called Armagedon."

"Armagedon" is the late Latin spelling of the Hebrew הַר מְגִדּוֹ‎, Har Megiddo, literally Mount Megiddo. What and where is that? Mount Megiddo is a "tell" on which ancient forts were built to guard the main highway, the Via Maris, which connected Ancient Egypt with Mesopotamia. Megiddo was the location of various ancient battles, including one in the 15th century BC and one in 609 BC. Modern Megiddo is a town approximately 25 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee in the Kishon River area. That would be in ... wait for it ... Israel.

And what will happen at this place? Apoc. 16:13-14: "And I saw from the mouth of the dragon, and from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits.... For they are the spirits of devils working signs, and they go forth unto the kings of the whole earth, to gather them to battle against the great day of the Almighty God."

"False prophet", eh? Would he have a name? Beginning with M? As for the dragon and the beast, some interpret "the beast" as a great bear, the modern icon for Russia. And the dragon is the symbol, ancient and modern, of China.

Not that China, Russia and Islam have any monopoly on false teachings and unclean spirits. There are more than enough of those to go around, even within Holy Mother Church.

So what the vision of St. John the Divine seems to foretell is that the whole lot will one day get together at Megiddon -- Armageddon -- to duke it out. And then? Keep reading! Think of it as "cramming for the finals".

The secret of Iran's success

Walt has become more than a little bored with the neverending turmoil in the Middle East. It appears that the Muslims' plans to overrun Europe on the way to North America may be slowed down somewhat by their propensity to fight with each other. How many westerners understand the divisions within Islam? I sometimes think there's more diversity amongst Muslims than amongst Baptists! But I digress...

While the Muslim Brotherhood is fomenting revolution in North Africa, the fundamentalist Islamic government of Iran has its eyes -- and its gunsights -- fixed firmly on "the Zionist entity" to the west. That would be Israel, land of the self-chosen people and darling of the Zionist-lovers in Washington, London and Ottawa.

The Iranians deny the existence of Israel. Their maps just show a gap between Jordan and the Mediterranean. The forces of the Ayatollahs would like to fill in the blank with the word "Palestine". Rumour says that they have (or almost have) the nukes with which to inflict a bit of payback for the Seven Day War, and generally blow the chosen people into the next kingdom -- not meaning Jordan!

According to the ultra-liberal British newspaper The Guardian Iran's barking mad president Ahmadinejad is getting help not just from his friends in Saudi Arabia but from the dark forces of "unknown worlds". He stands accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies amid an increasingly bitter power struggle with the country's "supreme leader", Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Ahmadinnerplate, it seems, is obsessed with the supposedly imminent return of the Hidden Imam Mahdi -- the saviour of Shia Islam, whose reappearance is anticipated by believers in a manner comparable to that with which Christian fundamentalists anticipate the second coming of Christ.

Ahmadinabind's obsession with the hidden imam is well known. He often refers to him in his speeches and in 2009 said that he had documentary evidence that the US was trying to prevent Mahdi's return. A video has been circulated in which he is heard telling a leading ayatollah of having felt "a light" coming from the imam, while making a fiery speech to the UN on Iran's nuclear programme.

Mr. Ahmadinejad is unabashed about his robust beliefs on the hidden imam. "His name is known and he will emerge and establish justice in the world," the prez told a press conference. "I'm proud of this belief. It's not just a religious belief, it's very progressive. A belief in the 12th imam is a belief in the world of tomorrow."

The world of tomorrow... Judging by the wimpy way the West is standing up to the Muslims, he might just be right.