Draft agreement sets U.S. troop withdrawal date of June 30

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iraqi
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari - Getty Images
A news article from today at USAToday.com announced that Iraq and the U.S. have reached a preliminary agreement to withdraw American forces from Iraqi cities by next June.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is quoted as saying, "We're not... talking about an agreement to try to get out of a bad situation... This agreement is based on success."

If the withdrawal occurs as a consequence of the agreement, and her assertion remains true, that withdrawal is not an abandonment to "get out of a bad situation", we can be sure then that the current conflict in Iraq is NOT the fulfillment of the ancient prophecy of doom upon Babylon as found in chapters 50-51 of the book of Jeremiah in the bible.

The reason? The withdrawal of the occupying forces from the land of Babylon, as prophesied by Jeremiah, will be a direct result of frustration over the failure to "heal" her -- "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven..." (Jer 51:9).

This giving up, admitting failure and going home will be precipitated by disaster -- the burning of the cities with fire: "I shall set fire to his cities, and it will devour all his environs... Her high gates will be set on fire, so the peoples will toil for nothing, and the nations become exhausted (because of the) fire" (Jer 50:32; 51:58).

Should the troops withdraw by next June, reconstruction hailed as a success, and no firestorm having had raged through Iraqi cities, then I will be the first to admit this current conflict has no relation to Jeremiah's prophecy.

Just as I was willing to admit that if the U.S. had killed Saddam on March 20th, 2003 before the fall of Baghdad 20 days later, that event would also have proved my premise false. But Saddam was not dead, as I strongly suspected and as we all found out 9 months later on December 14th, when he was found hiding in a rat hole in Tikrit.

And so, should the cities of Iraq burn before the withdrawal, and the coalition forces then leave, not in celebration at the success of reconstruction, but rather by outright abandoning Iraq in frustration that rebuilding has failed, the parallels of this conflict to Jeremiah's sequential prophecy will continue to prove out milestone after milestone.

For nine months I waited for Saddam to be found. I can wait another nine months.