U.S. military: Arab-Kurd friction now "greatest threat to security" in Iraq

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, identified tensions between the relatively affluent, peaceful Kurdish North and Iraq's al-Maliki government as the "No. 1 driver of instability", according to an Associated Press report by Anne Gearan published today, July 29, 2009 as seen at news.yahoo.com.

Gearan reports that "concern is growing that North-South tensions over land and resources could become a shooting war once U.S. forces leave." Her article quotes Defense Secretary Robert Gates as saying both sides had spent "too much in blood and treasure" since the 2003 U.S. invasion to risk losing it now.

North-South. Treasure. Interesting choice of words, since Jeremiah's prophecy says a "horde of great nations from the land of the north" will bring a sword "against (the Chaldeans') treasures, and they will be plundered."

The report says that most U.S. combat forces -- more than 100,000 troops -- will "remain in the country until after Iraqi national elections in January."

But according to Jeremiah's prophecy, the occupiers will abandon Babylon out of frustration, as a consequence of the cities burning and reconstruction failing -- "'I shall set fire to (the) cities... so the peoples will toil for nothing'... 'We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country.'"

Gearan reports that the "Kurds have been locked in a dispute with Baghdad over control of oil resources and a fault line of contested territory in northern Iraq, particularly the flash-point city of Kirkuk" and that "U.S. officials have warned that Arab-Kurdish tensions could erupt into a new front in the Iraq conflict".

And so after the burning of the cities and the abandonment by the occupation forces, as prophesied by Jeremiah, the Kurds will "draw up their battle lines against (Babylon), from there she will be taken captive, and Chaldea will become plunder; all who plunder her will have enough."

Invasion. Capture. Execution. Burning. Abandonment. Civil war. Plundering. Flood. Drought. A complete desolation, as seen by Jeremiah 2,600 years ago, coming true in our time. Three down, burning and abandonment up next. And after that, the Arab-Kurdish conflict, north against south. It is so decreed.

Turkey Prime Minister Erdogan to preempt Ocalan with his own 'road map' for solving the 'Kurdish Question'


A Kurdish boy holds a poster of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan
during a demonstration of Kurdish nationals living in Cyprus at Eleftheria
Square (Freedom Square) in Nicosia, Cyprus, 12 November 2007

A July 22, 2009 article from the Sofia News Agency in Bulgaria published at the English language novinite.com web site revealed that Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan plans to lay out his own 'road map' to solving the Kurdish Question before jailed Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan presents his on August 15th:

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is going to come up with a plan for the solving of the Turkish Question before the jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Ocalan, a former leader of the Kurdish Workers' Party PKK who has been jailed for life over terrorism and sedition, intends to present a plant for solving the problems of the numerous Kurdish population in Southeast Turkey on August 15, 2009.

The Erdogan government, however, is going to come up with a plan of its own earlier than him, according to an unnamed source from the governing Justice and Development Party, as quoted by the Radical newspaper.

The source has indicated that the ruling party is discussing issues about the Kurds that had been taboo, and that Erdogan's plan enjoyed the support of the USA and of Iraq, where the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan is located.

It is incredible that a man who is jailed for life in virtual solitary confinement, who had been sentenced to death, who is considered Turkey's number one terrorist, could still wield the kind of influence that evokes such an immediate response from the Ankara government.

An estimated 12 million Kurds live in eleven provinces in the mountainous regions of southeast Turkey.

Imprisoned Marxist Kurd leader Abdullah Öcalan to present 'road map' to solving Turkey's 'Kurdish question'

The Hürriyet Daily News announced on July 19, 2009 that Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the outlawed PKK terrorist organization, has set August 15, 2009 as the date he will present a four-step "road map" for solving Turkey's "Kurdish issue."

According to reports, Öcalan's road map suggests that Turkey establish a "strategic alliance" with the Kurds and adhere to a full cease fire between the PKK and Turkish military forces. His plan will also include a call for replacing the September 12-coup Constitution with a "democratic constitution." His PKK group had been waging a guerrilla war against Turkey, in which 40,000 had died, for 25 years as Turkey engaged in a campaign of cultural genocide against the Kurds.

Öcalan had been captured by Turkey in 1999 with help from U.S. and Israeli intelligence while under Greek diplomatic protection and sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life in prison after Ankara dropped the death penalty as a concession under its bid to join the European Union. Since then he has been the only prisoner on the island of Imrali, although plans are now underway to rebuild the prison and add additional prisoners.

The Jeremiah prophecy of doom on Babylon describes the three "great nations" of the Medes, "Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz", which correspond to the Turkish, Iranian and Iraqi factions of the Kurds, as aligning in a military campaign against Iraq and achieving a decisive and bloody victory over its army. At present, only the Iraqi and Iranian factions of the Kurds are allied under the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, while the Turkish Kurds remain embroiled in conflict with and under the suppression and authority of the Turkish government.

In order for Jeremiah's prophecy to come true, the "kingdom of Ararat" -- the Turkish Kurds -- will need to join their Iraqi and Iranian brethren in the Kurdish alliance in some fashion. The movement to create a "road map" towards solving the "Kurdish problem" in Turkey may be the start of such a shift in the power structure of the Kurds, who are to be infused with the "spirit of the kings of the Medes" by God so as to develop into a coalition of the "hordes of great nations of the north."

It seems so improbable. And that is what makes the prophecy so fascinating.

Comments to "Iraq is gone. Now what?"

Back on November 13, 2006, I posted a reference to an article from Monica Duffy Toft, entitled, "Iraq is gone. Now what?" In my post, I described the prophetic vision of Jeremiah as he saw "a horde of great nations" from "the land of the north" drawing up battle lines against Babylon, who then defeat her and plunder her treasures. I identified these nations from the prophecy itself as the three factions of the Kurds, the Iranian (Mannaeans - "kingdom of Minni"), Iraqi (Adiabenes - "kingdom of Ashkenaz") and Turkish (Urartians - "kingdom of Ararat") Kurds, allied and empowered with the "spirit of the kings of the Medes."

I received the following comment, to which I offered a reply, that I think bears noting at this juncture in the unfolding of the events:

Anonymous said...

Ridiculous interpretation of the Prophecy. THE prophecy stated that 'A horde of great nations from the land of the north'.
The Kurds has never been nor will be a great nation nor it is part of horde of nations.

1:47 AM

yephiah said...

The Kurds descend from the Medes, and the Median empire was not too long removed from Jeremiah's day a great empire. It is true that the Kurds have been downtrodden for many centuries most recently, but your skepticism that the Kurds "never... will be a great nation" is what makes this prophecy so intriguing. From our perspective, this part of the prophecy does seem preposterous.

Now IF the Kurds have a decisive military victory over the Iraqi army, ask a defeated Iraqi if they think that nation is "great" or not. From their perspective, the victors will be greater than the defeated. Won't they? "Great" is certainly a relative term, but the relation is between Babylon -- Iraq -- and other nations.

As for the reference to "nations" plural, the prophecy segments the Medes into three kingdoms, "Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz." That coincides with the existing three factions of Kurds, the Turkish, Iraqi and Iranian Kurds. The Iranian and Iraqi factions under Barzani and Talabani fought each other for decades in fratricidal wars, but now have joined the two parties into one government, and rule the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government together. IF the Turkish Kurds are able to unite with their western brethren, the prophecy of the three kingdoms of the Kurds will have become literally fulfilled. Wouldn't that be something?

You see, all that needs to happen for my "interpretation" to be truly "ridiculous" is for the prophecies of Jeremiah 50-51 not to happen here in this present conflict.

Please come back then and give me "ridiculous." I will deserve it.

In the next couple of posts, I'll explore the current state of the Kurds relative to their empowerment and relationship to Turkey and Iraq. Interesting things happening on the horizon.

"Why Kurds vs. Arabs could be Iraq's next civil war"

This was the headline of a July 22, 2009 article at Time.com, written by Andrew Lee Butters. The headline almost got it right -- it should have said, "Why Kurds vs. Arabs WILL BE Iraq's next civil war."

The reason? It is fated by the prophet Jeremiah. And the outcome? Overwhelming victory by the Kurds -- "For behold, I am going to arouse and bring up against Babylon a horde of great nations from the land of the north, and they will draw up their battle lines against her; from there she will be taken captive... And Chaldea will become plunder" (Jer. 50:9-10).

How do I know the "nations from the land of the north" refer to the Kurds? Jeremiah himself defines these nations -- "The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon to destroy it... Consecrate (these) nations against her, summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz... Consecrate (these) nations against her, the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their prefects, and every land of their dominion... for the destroyers will come to (Babylon) from the north" (Jer. 51:11, 27-28, 48).

The "Medes" are the modern-day Kurds: "(W)hich ethnic groups can claim to be the descended from the Medes? If it mattered--and I do not believe it does--then Kurds along with a few others can make this claim" writes Professor M. R. Izady at Kurdistanica.com. While the professor does not believe it matters, it does matter when it comes to fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy.

According to the JewishEncyclopedia.com, Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz are "paraphrased" in the "Targum to Jer. li. 27" as "Kurdistan, Armenia, and Adiabene", and "Adiabene" itself is described there as "a district in Mesopotamia between the Upper Zab and the Lower Zab" whose chief city was "Arbela", and that city is, according to livius.org, "modern Arbil or Erbil", the "capital of Iraqi Kurdistan" as described by Michael Totten.

"Ararat" then would refer to the Turkish Kurds, "Ashkenaz" (or better "Adiabene") would refer to the Iraqi Kurds, and "Minni" (or "Mannaeans") would refer to the Iranian Kurds. Three "great nations" allied for the purpose (from God's point of view) of destroying Babylon, modern-day Iraq. Presently, only the Iranian Kurds and Iraqi Kurds are united under the Kurdistan regional government. The mention of Ararat in the prophecy would suggest the Turkish Kurds may join the Kurdistan alliance prior to the outbreak of this predicted civil war with Iraq.

The Time.com article describes the factors in place for the Arab-Kurd animosity. In summary, "Kurdish-Arab dispute has become the most worrisome fault line in Iraq."

Jeremiah's prophecy is NOT about a "dead city called Babylon"!

Michael Totten, a "foreign correspondent and foreign policy analyst", writes a blog about his travels in the Middle East. He recently (July 8th, 2009) posted an article describing a walk-about he took in Baghdad, Iraq with several U.S. soldiers, prior to the troop withdrawal from Iraqi cities. One of the soldiers made the statement, "When we pull out of this country, this place is going to burn." Totten was less pessimistic.

And so I wrote a comment to his article on his blog site:

Staff Sergeant Christianson said, "When we pull out of this country, this
place is going to burn." But you weren't so sure: "No one can know if it really
will burn," you said.

But Jeremiah the prophet saw it burning 2,600 years ago: "Summon the
(hordes) against Babylon,... encamp against her on every side, let there be no
escape... For your day has come, the time when I shall punish you... I shall set
fire to (the) cities, and it will devour all (the) environs" (Jer. 50:29-32).

Then an Iraqi stopped you: "Please don't hand us over to the Iraqi Army,"
he said. "Look," your escort lieutenant said, "We aren't just going to abandon
you."

Unfortunately, the Lieutenant doesn't know the rest of Jeremiah's prophecy,
for after the cities burn, the occupiers are most certainly going to abandon
Iraq -- "(Babylon's) high gates will be set on fire, so the peoples will toil
for nothing... '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. 51:58,9).

It is fated by the Prophet!

Totten replied to me by e-mail, stating, "I don't think biblical prophecy about a dead city called Babylon has anything to do with the modern city in the same location. " (Bold emphasis mine.)

So I wrote back: "The Jeremiah 50-51 prophecy is not about any one city, dead or modern. Never was. It is about the land. The 'land of the Chaldeans.' The nation."

Totten's reply exemplifies how pervasive the totally erroneous viewpoint has become, that Jeremiah's prophecy against "Babylon" -- as found in chapters 50 through 51 in the bible -- deals narrowly with a single city once also called "Babylon."

But the words of Jeremiah's prophecy themselves define what is "Babylon", the subject of the prediction of doom -- "The word which the LORD spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet" (Jer. 50:1). Babylon, the Babylon of Jeremiah's prophecy in these two chapters in the bible, is defined right there in the prophecy itself -- "Chaldea will become plunder" (Jer. 50:10), not just some one city also called at one time 'Babylon'.

According to James E. Smith of Florida Christian College, Chaldea is synonymous with the Babylonian empire:

CHALDEA, CHALDEANS

In Jeremiah's day Chaldea was synonymous with Babylonia.
Forty-six references are made to this land and people in Jeremiah. [1]

According to history-world.com, Babylonia was the "ancient country of Mesopotamia... lying between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers."

So when Jeremiah writes of "Babylon", he is not just speaking of some "dead city" once the capital of ancient Babylonia, he is speaking of the "land" of Babylon, the nation, the "country", that aligns with the region once populated (and still is) by the peoples known as the "Chaldeans" --

"Behold, (Chaldea) will be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a parched land, and a desert" (Jer. 50:12).

"I am going to punish the king of Babylon AND HIS LAND" (Jer. 50:18).

"It is a work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the LAND OF THE CHALDEANS... There is a sound of fugitives and refugees from the LAND OF BABYLON" (Jer. 50:25,28).

It is not just against one "dead city", it is against the "cities", plural -- "I shall set fire to his cities" (Jer. 50:32), "her cities have become an object of horror" (Jer. 51:43).

It is against "the whole land" -- "And her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst" (Jer. 51:47).

Jeremiah's prophecy of doom on Babylon is not about some one time dead city of long ago, it is about the land, the nation, the country, that resides over the region of the land of the Chaldeans, between the Tigris and the Euphrates. It is about the present-day country called Iraq.

Iraq is Babylon of Jeremiah 50-51.

"Baghdad will burn"

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki was quoted by a U.S. military official as saying "Baghdad will burn" if U.S. President Barack Obama were to release detainee abuse photos from Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a June 1, 2009 article by Nancy A. Youssef, published at McClatchydc.com.

After Maliki's warning to defense officials that Iraq would "erupt into violence" if the photos were released, Obama decided not to release the photos, despite an ACLU lawsuit requesting their release.

Iraq will burn, just as Maliki predicts. Just as Jeremiah foresaw 2,600 years ago: "It is a work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans... the time of their punishment... Your day has come, the time when I shall punish you. (After) the arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to raise him up,... I shall set fire to his cities, and it will devour all his environs" (Jer. 50:25,27,31-32).

And so Iraq will burn. The only question now is, what tiny spark will ignite the fire? A photo? A speech? An insult? Time will tell.

Referendum to annex oil-rich Kirkuk by Kurdistan delayed yet again

From day one the new Iraqi constitution required local border regions to hold referendums defining whether they were to be part of Iraq proper, or whether they were to be consolidated into the autonomous Kurdistan region, which has its own regional government and security forces. The deadline for holding the referendum has passed without the oil-rich Kirkuk region deciding its own allegiance, blocked by the Iraqi parliament in violation of the constitutional requirement, over concern the vote would favor joining Kirkuk to Kurdistan, thereby stripping Iraq of direct control over its vast oil reserves.

Last month, according to an article published today (July 14, 2009) at radiofranceinternationale (rfi.fr), the Kurdistan regional assembly passed the text of the draft constitution which would officially join Kirkuk and other parts of Nineveh and Divala provinces into Kurdish territory.

Once again, the Iraqi parliament, which must approve a regional vote on the measure, is expected to delay the procedure, according to Mahmud Othman, a Kurdish parliamentarian. According to the rfi.fr article, on July 6th Iraq's electoral commission "ruled out holding the referendum on the same day as parliamentary and presidential polls" that are to take place July 25th, 2009.

In response to the draft constitution, "Turkmen residents of Kirkuk are now seeking the right to arm themselves in self-defence", implying the results of such a vote would spark violence between the Kurds and Turkmen, as well as Arabs, living in the region located to the north of Iraq proper.

Certainly such a conflict is inevitable, as foreseen by the prophet Jeremiah -- "I am going to arouse and bring up against Babylon a horde of great nations from the land of the north, and they will draw up their battle lines against her; from there she will be taken captive... And Chaldea will become plunder; all who plunder her will have enough... A sword against her treasures, and they will be plundered... The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon to destroy it" (Jer. 50:9-10,37; 51:11).

The Kurds live in a mountainous region once populated by the ancient peoples known as the Medes, and may even claim direct descendancy from them. The treasures of Babylon -- the rich oil fields of Kirkuk -- are becoming a flash point for conflict between them and the Chaldeans, the present-day arab Iraqis.

"This place is going to burn"

"When we pull out of this country, this place is going to burn." That was the sentiment U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Christianson expressed to independent journalist Michael Totten as reported at michaeltotten.com in his July 8, 2009 blog post. The two were touring Adhamiyah neighborhood in Baghdad prior to the withdrawal of troops from Iraqi urban areas.

In his post, Michael Totten follows up the pessimism with his own shadow of optimistic hope: "No one can know if it really will burn."

I respectfully disagree with Michael; we all can know with certainty it will burn, for Jeremiah foresaw the burning of Iraq 2,600 years ago: "Summon the (hordes) against Babylon,... encamp against her on every side, let there be no escape... For your day has come, the time when I shall punish you. And the arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to raise him up; and I shall set fire to his cities, and (the fire) will devour all his environs" (Jer. 50:29-32).

As Michael was being escorted by a Lieutenant Eric Kyulman, an Iraqi man walked up and asked to speak to them. "Please don't hand us over to the Iraqi Army," he said. "Look," the Lieutenant said. "We're not running away. We aren't just going to abandon you."

Unfortunately, the Lieutenant is unfamiliar with the rest of Jeremiah's prophecy, for after the cities burn, the occupiers are most certainly going to abandon Iraq -- "(Babylon's) high gates will be set on fire; so the peoples will toil for nothing. And the nations become exhausted (because of the) fire... '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 and towers up to the very skies'" (Jer. 51:58,9).

And so as Totten records, "From the look on the Iraqi man's face, he was not at all convinced..."

The occupiers have withdrawn from the cities, and the cities may now burn. And after that, we abandon Babylon out of frustration that our healing has failed to heal.

Bush told Chirac: "This confrontation is willed by God.. to erase his people's enemies"

In a May 22-24, 2009 article at counterpunch.org, Yale University Visiting Professor Clive Hamilton reveals that U.S. President George W. Bush had lobbied French President Jacques Chirac in 2003 to join the Coalition of the Willing by describing the Iraq invasion plan as a "confrontation... willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins".

According to Hamilton's article, the story, which first emerged in a University of Lausanne review article of September 2007 by Professor of Theology Thomas Römer, has been confirmed by Chirac in a new book by journalist Jean Claude Maurice, published in France in March. Speaking of the book, Hamilton writes, "Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush's invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq..."

As mentioned earlier in this blog, Bush had also reportedly told the Palestinian foreign minister in 2003 that he was on "a mission from God" to remove Saddam Hussein from power and, as Hamilton writes, was "receiving commands from the Lord."

Hamilton continues: "There can be little doubt now that President Bush's reason for launching the war in Iraq was, for him, fundamentally religious. He was driven by his belief that the attack on Saddam's Iraq was the fulfillment of a Biblical prophesy in which he had been chosen to serve as the instrument of the Lord."

And so as the prophecy of judgment on Babylon -- modern-day Iraq -- found in Jeremiah 50-51 describes, "Behold,... a great nation and many kings will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth; they seize their bow and javelin; they are cruel and have no mercy... marshalled like a man for the battle against you, O daughter of Babylon... Behold, one will come up like a lion...; for in an instant I shall make them run away from it, and whoever is chosen I shall appoint over it... Therefore, hear the plan of the LORD which he has planned against Babylon... At the shout, 'Babylon to be seized!' the earth is shaken, and a protest is heard among the nations" (Jer. 50:41-46).

Apparently, when one is chosen to serve as the instrument of the Lord, one knows it, and can't resist telling others, no matter the stupified outcry over that revelation.