I am not a biblical scholar, but The Book of Revelation, or The Apocalypse of John, in the New Testament predicts the end of affairs as people have known them since the dawn of humankind, and the beginning of the Kingdom of God on Earth. Specifically, Revelation 16:16 predicts Armageddon, the final battle of the forces of evil against an ultimately victorious God.
Now, I only bring that up because in a few hours, President Trump may enact his own version of a secular Armageddon, in which the forces of the U.S. wage a final battle against the “evil” rulers of Iran. Just this morning he predicted that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
All of this is Trump 2.0. The man is not used to losing, so he is doubling down on what always worked for him — threats and intimidation. He has set a now-infamous deadline of 8 p.m. tonight, Eastern Time, for Iran’s leaders to accept a deal — or at least signal an intent to do so through negotiations — or Trump will have U.S. forces take out all of Iran’s bridges and energy infrastructure.
Unfortunately for Trump, and perhaps for civilization itself in economic terms, Iran’s leaders are also doubling down. They are now ordering civilians to form human shields around the country’s power plants. Trump will thus be forced to wipe out civilians while attempting to bring a regime to its knees. These leaders also appear to be arming the nation’s youth to help defend Iran’s military assets.
Meanwhile, Iran’s direct response is no doubt going to be missile and drone strikes on neighboring countries’ oil facilities to ensure a dark future for the entire world if Trump does indeed carry out his threat.
All this, in my view, is an offshoot of the success Trump had in his Venezuelan campaign to effect change in that country, i.e., to gain control of Venezuela’s oil assets. As a result, he actually thought, when he embarked on his Iranian campaign, that within two to four days an Iranian Delcy Rodriguez would emerge to do Trump’s bidding in the Islamic Republic. When that didn’t happen, he kept doubling down on air strikes and threats, bringing us to this point in time.
I still believe that Trump will find some way to postpone his apocalypse. No matter how successful the U.S. might be in bringing Iran back to the “Stone Age,” that country will still have enough resources to enact its own Armageddon in the Middle East and throughout the world, principally through a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
I doubt Trump wants to create a worldwide recession — or depression — so I believe he’ll find some face-saving way not to destroy a “whole civilization … never to be brought back again.”
Mr. Trump, you are literally playing with fire, and it will spread globally if you’re not careful. Find your offramp, and find it now.
[PICTURED: A Book of Revelation papyrus from the 4th Century]
