Global Research: Afghanistan: Victory in Defeat

Afghanistan: Victory in Defeat

by Eric Walberg

Global Research, June 30, 2011

There are many parallels between Vietnam and Afghanistan. The recent American mayors’ resolution to “bring our war $$ home” and Obama’s announcement that troops are now being withdrawn are fresh reminders, but the story they tell is grim.

In Baltimore, the nation’s mayors debated and passed a War Dollars Home Resolution at their annual meeting, the first time they have taken a stand on war since they passed a similar resolution in 1971, during the Vietnam war. The anti-war resolution even made the TV news, which has downplayed the fact that the majority of Americans have wanted an end to their illegal wars for years.

It is a moment flooded with nostalgia for those who cut their political teeth 40 years ago during the Vietnam war, though it is hard to even recognise the State of the Union 40 years on. The “War on Poverty” of LBJ has been replaced by a “war on terror”. Today’s America has a black president, yet is mired in recession, and promises only falling living standards, collapsing infrastructure, and more and more violations of civil rights.

Though Jewish Americans are still an essential part of today’s much less flamboyant and less powerful anti-war movement, the pro-war movement is now loudly pro-Israel, unlike the earlier pro-warriors. This reflects the new times, where Israel is no longer just a naughty, temporary occupier of Palestinian land, but America’s most devoted ally, a respected (or rather feared) imperialist in its own right, and a key player in orchestrating the US wars in the Middle East.

At the same time as the mayors called for an end to the endless wars, Congress censured Obama over his new undeclared war against Libya, now in its third month, though stopping short of denying him funds. Neither the mayoral nor congressional resolutions have any teeth. But, with his generals breathing down his neck, the astute Obama was able to use these two protests to protect his rear as he announced his plans to withdraw 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by September 2012, including 10,000 by the end of this year: “America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home.”

Obama’s announcement brings to mind another parallel with Vietnam -- Nixon’s announcement in 1972 during his re-election campaign that “peace is at hand”, that he too would wind down the war after negotiations with the enemy, provided that the people gave him his second term. He went on to win one of the largest majorities of any US president in 1972. After winning the election, he was able to convince Karzai (excuse me, Thieu-Ky) to agree to a deal with the Taliban (excuse me, the Communists), which culminated in a memorable evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon by helicopter in 1975, finally freeing Vietnam of its American occupiers. It was not a pretty “plan”, but it worked.

Just as the majority of Americans by the late 1960s had turned against the war in southeast Asia even at the risk of “losing” Vietnam to the Communists, so 56 per cent of Americans today want an immediate pull-out from Afghanistan, though 56 per cent also predict there will be no stable government there and that the Taliban could well return to power. But, like 40 years ago, Americans have lost interest.

The parallel is not exact. Obama would have pulled out of Afghanistan in 2009 if the generals had let him. “Obama had to do this 18-month surge just to demonstrate, in effect, that it couldn’t be done,” Bob Woodward quotes an aide in Obama’s Wars. As expected, the surge was a spectacular failure, more like a surge of sitting ducks. Chief warrior Stanley McChrystal was fired in disgrace last year and his equally gung-ho replacement David Petraeus has been shunted off to the CIA, where he has already been told to continue the war by covert means. The remaining generals are furious but are putting on a brave face, with Hillary taking about “reaching out” to the Taliban, no doubt counting on winning their “hearts and minds”.

Obama, while disappointing those who expected him to slay the dragon, drive the moneychangers out of the temple, and bring peace on earth, is nonetheless a wily politician worthy of his predecessor Nixon. Like Nixon, he knows perfectly well that it’s time to move on and he’s playing to the crowd: “We are starting this drawdown from a position of strength,” he told Americans solemnly. This pretense and the assassination of Bin Laden will almost certainly give him a second term.

The drawdown is none too soon, as defections from the ranks of the coalition started last year with the Netherlands and are continuing, with Canada, German and Italy having deadlines (which, it’s true, shift depending on electoral strategies and US arm-twisting). Britain is already reducing its contingent and a delighted French President Nicolas Sarkozy immediately declared French troops would be home by next summer.

“The war is lost. Reaching out to the Taliban is in no way a demonstration of a ‘position of strength’, but a clear sign of America’s weakness,” writes commentator Boris Volkhonsky, though he admits Obama has handled a difficult problem well, calling his speech “an astute recognition of the fact”. Indeed, the only public criticism of Obama is coming from crackpots such as Senator John McCain who said that Obama is denying military commanders in Afghanistan the ability to finally defeat “a battered and broken enemy”. President Hamid Karzai described the announcement that American troops would depart as “a moment of happiness for Afghanistan”.

A major difference between Vietnam and Afghanistan is the plan to maintain bases in Afghanistan after pulling out. Afghanistan’s neighbours Russia (almost-neighbour), China, Iran, Pakistan -- even the puppet government in Kabul -- vow that this will not happen. As if on cue, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad invited Karzai and Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari to Tehran this week to a conference on terrorism and for one-on-one talks. Apart from US plans for Afghanistan, Zardari’s talks dealt with completing the Iran-Pakistan gas “Peace Pipeline” project, which is strongly opposed by the US. But the US should hardly be surprised at this budding friendship: the downside of the surge and assassination Bin Laden is that Pakistan can finally extricate itself from its deadly American embrace without any apologies.

As for Karzai, he sees the writing on the wall, and is eager to survive a few more years, which means courting his neighbours to take the place of the hated Americans. All of them have indicated they will support him. His trip to Tehran should also come as no surprise. The US will almost certainly have to abandon its freshly paved military bases in the north of Afghanistan, prepared as part of the Bush-era “Blackwill plan” to split Afghanistan in two. This neocon fantasy would cede the south to the Taliban with the understanding that they can play at creating a “greater Pashtunistan” if they let the US keep the predominantly Tajik north. Neither Karzai nor Zardari will go along with this. Neither will China, Russia nor Iran. It is very unlikely the Taliban will either.

Iranian Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi visited Kabul just last week and told Afghanistan’s Vice President Mohammed Fahim, “The great and brave nation of Afghanistan is capable of establishing its security in the best possible form without the interference of the trans-regional forces.” Signing a bilateral security cooperation agreement with his Iranian counterpart, Afghanistan’s Defence Minister Abdulrahim Wardak gushed, “We believe that joint defence and security cooperation between Iran and Afghanistan is very important for establishing peace and security in the region.”

The most important -- and very disturbing -- parallel between these American wars is in the perception and the reality of who “won”. The popular perception is that the US lost Vietnam and that it has lost in Afghanistan. But this is misleading, as the US achieved “victory in defeat” in both cases.

In the case of Vietnam, it destroyed any possibility of successful developing a strong socialist country as a catalyst in the non-imperial transformation of southeast Asia. Like Cuba’s Fidel, Ho Chi Minh was well-educated and highly respected by his people and -- just as important -- by both the Soviet and Chinese leaders. Without the US invasion of Vietnam, all of southeast Asia would most likely today be communist (in more than just name). The world would look very, very different.

Similarly, in the Middle East, the US, following Britain’s imperial lead in the Middle East, cultivated the passive and inward-looking Wahhabis and the anti-communist Saudi monarchy, who let the imperialists run roughshod over the region for over a century, all the time providing the West with precious oil. Together with Saudi Arabia, the empire undermined its secular challengers in Iran, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya (still a work-in-progress), and the Islamist challengers in Algeria and post-revolutionary Iran, ensuring that they do not become models for the region -- and threats to the empire.



Like Vietnam in 1975, Iraq and Afghanistan now lie in ruins. Egypt is fatally compromised after four decades of neoliberalism and rampant corruption under US tutelage. Iran’s Islamists have miraculously survived a decade of war with Iraq under US sponsorship, and two more decades of sanctions and subversion by the US, Israel and the gang, but the harsh, austere regime there is not much of a model for, say, Egypt with its Westernised elite and many intimate ties with the decadent West. Without the wars and subversion by the US (not to mention Israel), all of the Middle East would most likely today be united as a latter-day Islamic caliphate, sharing the oil wealth as Islam requires and telling the empire to go to hell.


So even if the helicopters have to evacuate Karzai and the last US diplomats from Kabul in the near future, the flag-wavers and their neocon henchmen can still celebrate “victory”; in a sense, they are right.

Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/ You can reach him athttp://ericwalberg.com His Postmodern Imperialism: Geopolitics and the Great Games is available athttp://www.claritypress.com/Walberg.htm

Eric Walberg is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Eric Walberg

A bad romance: Pakistan and US

A bad romance: Pakistan and US
By Imran Khan in

* Asia

on Sun, 2011-09-25 15:22.

Photo by EPA

Like all great lovers' tiffs, this one started with frustration. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, decided to make his feelings public.

In a nutshell, he accused Pakistan of state sponsored terrorism, alleging that its Inter-Services Intelligence backs the Haqqani network. The Haqqanis are a fearsome bunch of fighters whose lineage goes back to Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Back then, their leader, Jalaludin Haqqani, was seen as a hero, even sitting in the White House with the then President Ronald Reagan. But it wasn't just the US. The Pakistanis nurtured and encouraged him to go fight in Afghanistan, supplying him with weapons and safe havens.

That was 20 years ago and, like all bad marriages, things left unresolved often explode. And so Pakistan's affair with the Haqqani network has created a split in the US-Pakistani marriage.

The Pakistanis are furious and are on the offensive, at times saying the US is not helping; at other times saying the US is simply blaming Pakistan for its own failings in Afghanistan.

As ever, finding the truth is tricky business. Perhaps more difficult for both parties is figuring out what the real issue is.

Assumptions

That the US needs Pakistan, and vice-versa, is not in dispute. What is, is how you fix this broken relationship. Let us, for example, make certain assumptions that the US holds true:

Firstly, the Pakistani are indeed sponsoring the Haqqani network. Should the Pakistanis stop? On the surface at least it would go a long way to fixing things.

However, Pakistan cannot just publicly say it has stopped supporting the Haqqani network, because then it would have to admit it supported them in the first place.

Secondly, Pakistan needs the Haqqani network. Once the US pulls out of Afghanistan, and it will sooner rather than later, Afghanistan, history has repeatedly shown us, is a cauldron of competing interests and bloodthirsty rivalry. Pakistan needs a dog in that fight. That's what ultimately drives Pakistani support for the Haqqani network.

But with the Haqqani network involved in a bitter and bloody fight with American forces in Afghanistan, the Americans simply want them gone.

So let's take a look at the Pakistani position. Officially it denies any support for the Haqqani network and therefore cannot stop supporting it. It also says the Americans are getting defeated by the group and are looking for someone to blame. The world's most powerful army is effectively being routed by bearded men with light weapons and an unshakeable faith in God.

That simply does not play well in the 'good ole US of A', so there must be someone to blame - the Pakistanis in this case.

Stalemate

Then the Pakistani army steps in. It says by playing up Pakistan's connection with Haqqani, the US is stomping all over the sacrifice Pakistani soldiers have made in the so called war on terror. Thousands of Pakistanis have died and terror attacks are an almost daily occurrence. In short the Pakistanis say they are the victims here, not the aggressor.

So things are at a stalemate. A solution is needed. Pakistan and the US are at loggerheads and at stake is billions of dollars worth of aid for Pakistan, and a decisive victory in Afghanistan for America.

Seasoned diplomats and observers of the US-Pakistan relationship are divided on the subject. A few point to the fact this stalemate may well be the only solution and instead of fighting it, you should embrace it.

One diplomat on the Pakistani side spoke to me candidly but refused to be identified. He said: "Privately a deal should be offered by the US to back away from the Haqqani network, offer us a bigger role in post-occupation Afghanistan to temper the Indian influence. Limit India's role in our neighbour and we won't need any networks, Haqqani or other wise."

But angering India is not on the US agenda. It has a close working relationship with the country and sees its support for the US as key in the wider, global scheme of things. So that option is off the table.

Increasing drone strikes and firepower to go after the Haqqani network is another option. General Petraeus, the new head of the CIA, understands this. That's why many say he is in that job. A military general in charge of an intelligence-gathering organisation can only mean one thing: the CIA is now effectively a military wing in its own right, and one with drone strike capability.

All bets off

But a decade of war and death from the skies has not weakened any of the parties in Afghanistan. So, is there a diplomatic solution? Bring the Taliban and therefore the Haqqanis to the table for talks. It's been mooted and back channels are open, but many Afghans don't want the Taliban anywhere near power so those talks remain tentative and slow moving, shall we say.

Finally, then Pakistan and the US are living in the same house, but not sharing the same bed. What will ultimately split them up is not what happens in Afghanistan. The two countries' fate and that of Afghanistan are far too closely tied to each other.

What about a terror attack on US soil that can be tied back to Pakistan? To a group some in the US say Pakistan sponsors? Then all bets are off. That's the nightmare scenario. So Pakistan-US relations need to be strengthened and forged in steel to stop these two uneasy allies from having to face each other in that scenario.

Publicly it's a war of words right now, but one would hope a backstage deal is being done that will put a stop to this escalation of words. However, as a long-time reporter in the region and of the politics I can tell you the US and Pakistan only have a narrow self interest at heart.

Both sides should be careful for what they wish for, and once again Afghanistan could well be another graveyard of empire.

What the Israelis are doing right now!

The First Amendment: Map of "Promised Land"

Go here -

The First Amendment: The Hidden History of Zionism - Chapter 12 Strategy for Conquest

Communist World Government: United Europe, the EUR, the Triad and the powers behind the scenes.

Communist World Government: United Europe, the EUR, the Triad and the powers behind the scenes.

BABYLON - THE HARLOT

The EUR - just outside of Rome, Italy - Mussolini's Capital of a United Europe - they are planning on it being just that.

The EUR is dedicated to sumptuous wealth.

Garish architecture.

Including pagan obelisks. It is the planned on Capital of a United Europe to rule the world through the tyranny of the serpent's head, the Antichrist, in Jerusalem.

One World Government is an invention of the Illuminati who found it difficult to embroil the United States in their plans - but after a lot of effort they managed to.

From Terrorism and the Illuminati by David Livingstone - World War One

…

Largely because of the efforts of Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, who saw through Wilson’s plan, the United States didn’t join the League, and in 1921, made a separate peace treaty with Germany and Austria. Weakened by the failure of the United States to join, and the dissatisfaction of nations such as Japan, Italy and Germany, the League failed. The League had little impact on international affairs, and ceased to exist in when the United Nations was established.

The Illuminati then realized that America would not join any scheme for world government without a change in public opinion. Therefore, Round Table members Lionel Curtis, Balfour, Milner and others, formed the Royal Institute for International Affairs (RIIA), for the purpose of coordinating British and American efforts. Arnold Toynbee later became director. They also formed an American branch, known as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), founded by Col. House, with Rockefeller family funding, and including members like J.P. Morgan, Paul Warburg, and Jacob Schiff.

In Tragedy and Hope, late CFR member Carroll Quigley, stated, “The CFR is the American Branch of a society which originated in England, and which believes that national boundaries should be obliterated, and a one-world rule established.” Rear Admiral Chester Ward, for sixteen years a member of the CFR, warned of the organization’s ultimate intentions:

"The most powerful clique in these elitist groups have one objective in common — they want to bring about the surrender of the sovereignty of the national independence of the United States. A second clique of international members in the CFR comprises the Wall Street international bankers and their key agents. Primarily, they want the world banking monopoly from whatever power ends up in the control of global government."

....

The next step was to link the United States to Russia and Red China as the Military Industrial enforcer Triad of the New World Order - One World Government. That was accomplished in 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was staged for that purpose.

The Triad is linked behind the scenes. The Triad is the Military Industrial Power - The United States, Russia and Red China. Behind those three is the Pan European Union Illuminati Royal Houses (Coudenhove-Kalergi etc.) and their Political Financial groups - the United Nations, GATT-NAFTA, World Trade Organization, World Bank, etc. American branches of that Political Financial grouping include the CFR and its American parent organization established in 1913, the Foreign Policy Association. A Russian equivalent on the world scene is the Socialista International Headquartered in Rome Italy. The Chinese operate through Chinese Military Intelligence and businesses. The Illuminati Intelligencia Socialista Devil puppet in the Middle East is Communist-Zionist "Israel." Laced through and through are the Black Nobility Illuminati Judaist and other affiliated bankers and the Vatican and its subversive organizations such as Opus Dei. The plan is to rule the world with a brutal iron fist and enslave mankind to Lucifer (Satan, the Devil) with the head of the serpent enthroned in Jerusalem - the Antichrist, ad-Dajjal. They will stop at nothing. Al-Qaeda is nothing but a CIA organization composed in part by Black Sayan (Mossad term for Arab 'assets' [people they use]).

They employ various, including high level, outlets to circulate propaganda to continue their "War on Terror" which is only a bloody ploy to dominate the world. The Northern Western African desert (al-Maghrebi) was to be their next target and then they snagged on Gaddafi in Libya.

Obama and the United States Congress are providing the sardonic comic relief of "will they break the United States economy or not" (something already done under Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush). The real intention is to keep the war machine going.

_________________________________________

All copyrighted sources are quoted and used for comment and education in accord with the nonprofit provisions of:
Title 17 U.S.C., Section 107.

This posting is in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C., Section 107 and is protected under:

The First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, ….

The Catholic Creed

The Catholic Creed: The sons of Israel and Esau.

The sons of Israel, today are the believers in the Gospel of Our Only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Is-ra-El is Hebrew for "the one who sees God" - Jesus Christ said that if we see Him we see the Father. Believers see Him in our hearts now. We will see Him face to face at the Resurrection of all men when He returns to judge all men.

Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge - so it is with all who depart from the true God and His Messiah, Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

Communists are those who are the sons of Esau.

This would effectively and completely excommunicate the entire Vatican II Council and all pretended Catholics who really are agents of Communism and Freemasonry such as John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II.

__________________________________


Decree against communism

Pope Pio XII

Decree of the Holy Office in 1949

Q.1 Utrum licitum sit, partibus communistarum nomen dare vel eisdem favorem praestare.

[By chance is it licit to give name or to make favors to communist parties?]

R. Negative: Communismum enim est materialisticus et antichristianus; communistarum autem duces, etsi verbis quandoque profitentur se religionem non oppugnare, se tamen, sive doctrina sive actione, Deo veraeque religioni et Ecclesia Christi sere infensos esse ostendunt.

Q.2 Utrum licitum sit edere, propagare vel legere libros, periodica, diaria vel folia, qual doctrine vel actioni communistarum patrocinantur, vel in eis scribere.

[By chance is it licit to publish, promulgate or read books, journals or leaflets which defend the action or the communist doctrine, or to write for them?]

R. Negative: Prohibentur enim ipso iure

Q.3 Utrum Christifideles, qui actus, de quibus in n.1 et 2, scienter et libere posuerint, ad sacramenta admitti possint.

[Can Christians who perform the acts mentioned on n.1 and 2 be admitted to the sacraments?]

R. Negative, secundum ordinaria principia de sacramentis denegandis iis, Qui non sunt dispositi

Q.4 Utrum Christifideles, Qui communistarum doctrinam materialisticam et anti Christianam profitentur, et in primis, Qui eam defendunt vel propagant, ipso facto, tamquan apostatae a fide catholica, incurrant in excommunicationem speciali modo Sedi Apostolicae reservatam.

[If Christians declare openly the materialist and antichristian doctrine of the communists, and, mainly, if they defend it or promumulgate it, “ipso facto”, do they incur in excommunication ("speciali modo") reserved to the Apostolic See?]

R. Affirmative

Comments

Therefore, all catholic who votes for a communist party (which is a way to make favor) or who affiliates into a communist party, or who writes filo-communist books or magazines are excluded from the sacraments.

Those who defend, promulgate or declare the materialism from the communists are also automatically excommunicated.

This decree from Pius XII’s Holy Office, confirmed by John XXIII in 1959 is still valid. In fact, Pius XII worked personally against communism in Italy.

Such a condemnation of communism adds up to other condemnations made by Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Pius XI, Pius XII (who have condemned it in other opportunities), John XXIII, Paul VI, the Council Vatican II (which reiterated the preceding condemnations) and John Paul II.

It has been more than 100 years that the Catholic Church condemns communism, socialism and any kind of materialism and material egalitarianism. The penalty for those who disobey the prohibition of aiding communism (or its variants) under any aspect (including voting for filo-communist parties) is automatic excommunication.

"Religious socialism, Christian socialism are contradictory terms, for no one can be, at the same time, good catholic and true socialist." (Pio XI)

Pope Pio XII - "Decree against communism"

MONTFORT Associação Cultural

http://www.montfort.org.br/index.php?secao=documentos&subsecao=decretos&artigo=anticomunismo〈=eng

Online, 30/04/2010 às 13:51h




Eclectically assembled interesting links

http://www.archives.gov/

http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/

http://senate.gov/

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta/

http://europa.eu/

http://www.gov.ru/

http://duma.ru/

http://www.loc.gov/index.html

http://www.house.gov/

http://countrystudies.us/

http://www.jfklibrary.org/

http://www.nasa.gov/

http://nixonfoundation.org/

http://www.supremecourt.gov/

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/

http://www.meforum.org/

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/

http://www.voltairenet.org/en

http://www.terrorism-illuminati.com/content/complete-online-version

http://www.ssrn.com/

http://www.prosecutionofbush.com/

http://www.gerryspence.com/

Look up, your redemption is at hand: The return of ancient murdering lies

Look up, your redemption is at hand: The return of ancient murdering lies

The return of ancient murdering lies in the sacrifice of children – today it is abortion, then it was divination.

The Revelation of The Lord God Jesus Christ

The Book of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist of the Revelation Given Him by the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.

THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST
{WHO IS THE LAST PROPHET OF THE BIBLE UNTIL SAINT ENOCH AND SAINT ELIJAH RETURN AT THE CONSUMMATION OF DAYS – Muhammad is a prophet of God, Allah (SWT), but his Holy Scripture that God gave him to preach is the Qur’an}

The Apocalypse is a revelation of things that were, are and will be. We are actually witnessing some of the events foretold in this book, but many still lie in the future. It is Christ who commands John to write to the seven churches, opens the seven seals, reveals the sufferings of the saints, opens the little book, overcomes the beast, reigns during the period of the first resurrection, judges the dead, both great and small, according to their works at His Second Coming, rules over all things from the beginning, presides over all the changing scenes of earth’s history, and is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

The book was written in Greek by St. John the Evangelist, on the island of Patmos, about the year. 96 A.D.

Note on parallel passages and commentary. The parallel passages are based on the full concordance thereof relating to, from the Council of Trent; the commentary is late 1940’s Catholic from the full consensus of the Church Fathers on the seven within seven structure of the book.

Note on parallel passage notation – the ! after a scriptural reference means that is the emphasis or central point for explanation of the passage.

Rev:9:
1 ¶ And the fifth angel sounded the trumpet: and I saw a star [1] fall from heaven upon the earth. And there was given to him the key of the bottomless pit. … Scripture reference – Rev.: 8:7, 10!; 20:1
2 And he opened the bottomless pit: and the smoke of the pit arose, as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke of the pit. … Scripture reference – IV Esr.: 7:36; Gn.: 19:28
3 And from the smoke of the pit there came out locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.

21 Neither did they penance from their murders nor from their sorceries nor from their fornication nor from their thefts. … Scripture reference – Rev.: 2:21; 16:11

21 Neither did they penance from their murders nor from their sorceries -

sorceries here in Greek is

Rev. 9:21 …sorceries

farmakeiwn

pharmakeiOn

G5331

n_ Gen Pl f

DRUGS

enchantments

sorceries is the same root word in Greek (pharmakeia) and with the meaning and context of it included as is used in Rev. 18:23 below: witchcraft (pharmakeia)

Rev. 18:23 …witchcraft

farmakeia

pharmakeia

G5331

n_ Dat Sg f

DRUGging

enchantment

The angel’s promise of God’s vengeance upon the sorcerers and their merchants buying and selling men’s souls.

Rev. 18:21. and a strong angel took up a stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, “with this violence will babylon; the great city, be overthrown, and will not be found any more. 22. and the sound of harpers and musicians and flute-players and trumpet will not be heard in thee any more; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in thee any more; and sound of millstone will not be heard in thee any more. 23. and light of lamp will not shine in thee any more; and voice of bridegroom and of bride will not be heard in thee any more; because thy merchants were the great men of the earth, for by thy witchcraft (pharmakeia) all the nations have been led astray. 24. and in her was found blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain upon the earth.” – from Apocalypse chapter 18

v. 23 “…witchcraft (pharmakeia)…”

pharmakoi: sorcerer (or sorceress); pharmakon: sorcerer’s sacrifice; pharmakos: sorcery; pharmakeia: witchcraft – all the foregoing offered to Satan via idolatry (idoololatreia); in this description, especially including the idolatry of mammon, but based on the worst – that is Satanic worship via child sacrifice and pedophilia all of which Jesus Christ absolutely condemned as being damned eternally.

In the below, St. Justin Martyr, shows a prime example of child sacrifice in the ancient world (immaculate children). The modern writers that harp about a golden by-gone halcyon aeon of ancient natural goodness are willfully blind to the immense amount of innocent blood which was routinely shed by the ancients, especially in their religious ceremonies. Fornication and depravity were always intertwined therein.

ANF-01 Schaff et al

St. Justin Martyr

The First Apology of Justin

Chapter XVIII.-Proof of Immortality and the Resurrection.

For reflect upon the end of each of the preceding kings, how they died the death common to all, which, if it issued in insensibility, would be a godsend 36 to all the wicked. But since sensation remains to all who have ever lived, and eternal punishment is laid up (i.e., for the wicked), see that ye neglect not to be convinced, and to hold as your belief, that these things are true. For let even necromancy, and the divinations you practise by immaculate children,37 and the evoking of departed human souls,38 and those who are called among the magi, Dream-senders and Assistant-spirits (Familiars),39 and all that is done by those who are skilled in such matters-let these persuade you that even after death souls are in a state of sensation; and those who are seized and cast about by the spirits of the dead, whom all call daemoniacs or madmen;40 and what you repute as oracles, both of Amphilochus, Dodana, Pytho, and as many other such as exist; and the opinions of your authors, Empedocles and Pythagoras, Plato and Socrates, and the pit of Homer,41 and the descent of Ulysses to inspect these things, and all that has been uttered of a like kind. Such favour as you grant to these, grant also to us, who not less but more firmly than they believe in God; since we expect to receive again our own bodies, though they be dead and cast into the earth, for we maintain that with God nothing is impossible.

immaculate children - Footnote 37 Boys and girls, or even children prematurely taken from the womb, were slaughtered, and their entrails inspected, in the belief that the souls of the victims (being still conscious, as Justin is arguing) would reveal things hidden and future. Instances are abundantly cited by Otto and Trollope.

From:

St. Justin Martyr, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. I, The First Apology of Justin, Chapter XVIII

XVIII.-Proof of Immortality and the Resurrection. For reflect upon the end of each of the preceding kings, how they died the death common to all, which, if it issued in insensibility, would be a godsend36 to all the wicked. But since sensation remains to all who have ever lived, and eternal punishment is laid up (i.e., for the wicked), see that ye neglect not to be convinced, and to hold as your belief, that these things are true. For let even necromancy, and the divinations you practise by immaculate children,37 and the evoking of departed human souls,38 and those who are called among the magi, Dream-senders and Assistant-spirits (Familiars),39 and all that is done by those who are skilled in such matters-let these persuade you that even after death souls are in a state of sensation; and those who are seized and cast about by the spirits of the dead, whom all call daemoniacs or madmen;40 and what you repute as oracles, both of Amphilochus, Dodana, Pytho, and as many ...
http://www.bible.ca/history/fathers/ANF-01/anf01-46.htm

Abortion and New Age will lead to child sacrifice to Satan in the rebuilt temple of Remphan in Al-Quds, Jerusalem, when the Jews destroy the Dome of the Rock – that is if/when the world lets them do this.

That will be the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION that Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ warned of in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 24:

Verse - 15 When therefore you shall see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place: he that readeth let him understand.

See this compendium on early church references to abortion:

From: Abortion

"And the second commandment of the Teaching; 2. Thou shalt not commit murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not commit paederasty, thou shalt not commit fornication, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not practise magic, thou shalt not practise witchcraft, thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten." Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume VII, Apostolic Teachings and Constitutions, Chapter II. - The Second Commandment: Gross Sin Forbidden.

"And near that place I saw another strait place into which the gore and the filth of those who were being punished ran down and became there as it were a lake: and there sat women having the gore up to their necks, and over against them sat many children who were born to them out of due time, crying; and there came forth from them sparks of fire and smote the women in the eyes: and these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion." Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume X, The Apocalypse of Peter

"Among surgeons' tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs [of the child] within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire fetus is extracted by a violent delivery. "There is also [another instrument in the shape of] a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: They give it, from its infanticide function, the name of embruosphaktes, [meaning] "the slayer of the infant," which of course was alive. . . ." [The doctors who performed abortions] all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and [they] pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive" 210 AD Tertullian The Soul 25

"And near that place I saw another strait place . . . and there sat women . . . And over against them many children who were born to them out of due time sat crying. And there came forth from them rays of fire and smote the women in the eyes. And these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion" 137 AD The Apocalypse of Peter 25

"And now I should wish to meet him who says or believes that we are initiated by the slaughter and blood of an infant. Think you that it can be possible for so tender, so little a body to receive those fatal wounds; for any one to shed, pour forth, and drain that new blood of a youngling, and of a man scarcely come into existence? No one can believe this, except one who can dare to do it. And I see that you at one time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to birds; at another, that you crush them when strangled with a miserable kind of death. There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth." Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume IV, The Octavius of Minucius Felix, Chapter

"Christians marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring." 250 AD Letter of Diognetus ch.5, vs.6

"Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater lenity, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees" 314 AD Council of Ancyra canon 21

"He that kills another with a sword, or hurls an axe at his own wife and kills her, is guilty of willful murder; not he who throws a stone at a dog, and unintentionally kills a man, or who corrects one with a rod, or scourge, in order to reform him, or who kills a man in his own defense, when he only designed to hurt him. But the man, or woman, is a murderer that gives a philtrum, if the man that takes it die upon it; so are they who take medicines to procure abortion; and so are they who kill on the highway, and rapparees" 374 AD Basil the Great First Canonical Letter, canon 8

"I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the Church, their mother . . . Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder" 396 AD Jerome Letters 22:13

"Thou shalt not use magic. Thou shalt not use witchcraft; for He says, "Ye shall not suffer a witch to live." Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten; for "everything that is shaped, and has received a soul from God, if it be slain, shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed." Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume VII, Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, Book VII, Moral Exhortations

"If men fight, and hurt a woman with child, so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman's husband imposes on him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life" Exodus 21:22-23

"In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed" 210 AD Tertullian Apology 9:8

"Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years' penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not" 374 AD Basil the Great First Canonical Letter, canon 2

"Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does" 210 AD Tertullian Apology 27

"The embryo therefore becomes a human being in the womb from the moment that its form is completed. The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion, inasmuch as there exists already the rudiment of a human being, which has imputed to it even now the condition of life and death, since it is already liable to the issues of both, although, by living still in the mother, it for the most part shares its own state with the mother." Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume III, Tertullian, A Treatise on the soul, Chapter VII.-On the Formation and State of the Embryo

"The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion [Ex. 21:22]" 210 AD Tertullian

"The law, moreover enjoins us to bring up all our offspring, and forbids women to cause abortion of what is begotten, or to destroy it afterward; and if any woman appears to have so done, she will be a murderer of her child, by destroying a living creature, and diminishing humankind." Josephus, Flavius, The Works of Josephus, Flavius Josephus Against Apion, Book II, 25

"The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child" 150 AD Didache 2:1

"There are some [pagan] women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come down from the teaching of your [false] gods. . . . To us [Christians] it is not lawful either to see or hear of homicide" 226 AD Minucius Felix Octavius 30

"There are some women among you who by drinking special potions extinguish the life of the future human in their very bowels, thus committing murder before they even give birth." 170 AD Mark Felix, Christian Lawyer, Octavius chap. 30

"Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born." Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume I, The Epistle of Barnabas, chap. XIX, The Way of Light

"Thou shalt not use magic. Thou shalt not use witchcraft; for He says, 'You shall not suffer a witch to live' [Ex. 22:18]. Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten; for "everything that is shaped, and has received a soul from God, if it be slain, shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed." 400 AD The Apostolic Constitutions Apostolic Constitutions 7:3

"What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers? . . . [W]hen we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God's care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it" 177 AD Athenagoras A Plea for the Christians 35, Embassy chap. 5

"What reason would we have to commit murder when we say that women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give account of it to God? For the same person would not regard the fetus in the womb as a living thing and therefore an object of God's care, and at the same time slay it, once it had come to life." 177 AD Athenagoras Plea, ch.35

"When God forbids us to kill, he not only prohibits us from open violence, which is not even allowed by the public laws, but he warns us against the commission of those things which are esteemed lawful among men.. Therefore, let no one imagine that even this is allowed, to strangle newly-born children, which is the greatest impiety; for God breathes into their souls for life, and not for death. But men, that there may be no crime with which they may not pollute their hands, deprive [unborn] souls as yet innocent and simple of the light which they themselves have not given. "Can anyone, indeed, expect that they would abstain from the blood of others who do not abstain even from their own? But these are, without any controversy, wicked and unjust" 307 AD Lactantius Divine Institutes 6:20

"Wherefore I beseech you, flee fornication . . . Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit? -- where there are many efforts at abortion? -- where there is murder before the birth? For even the harlot you do not let conntinue a mere harlot, but make her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to prostitution, prostitution to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then do thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with His laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter? For with a view to drawing more money by being agreeable and an object of longing to her lovers, even this she is not backward to do, so heaping upon thy head a great pile of fire. For even if the daring deed be hers, yet the causing of it is thine" 391 AD John Chrysostom Homilies on Romans 24

"Who does not reckon among the things of greatest interest the contests of gladiators and wild beasts, especially those which are given by you? But we, deeming that to see a man put to death is much the same as killing him, have abjured such spectacles. How, then, when we do not even look on, lest we should contract guilt and pollution, can we put people to death? And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder?" Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume II, The Epistle of Barnabas, Chapter V.-The Christians Condemn and Detest All Cruelty

"Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excess wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!" 228 AD Hippolytus Refutation of All Heresies

Source: http://www.orthodox.net/gleanings/abortion.html

See this reference for ancient/modern witchcraft and abortion:

Witchcraft and Abortion

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Another place that the ancient murders have resurfaced is the Middle East where the sponsorship of the Antichrist invasion of the Middle East governed by the core of the Central European apostates, especially in occupied Palestine and Iraq, have caused huge murders of children by White Phosphorus in Gaza and Depleted Uranium in Iraq.

For an overall and detailed view of the Holy Land and how it is the special place that the Gospel was announced from and its invasion in modern times by the forces of Antichrist see:

PALESTINE CRY