Revelation 13:14 - The Constructed Image of the Beast - Where AI Meets Non-Human Intelligence

UPDATED 25 October 2017: It's been almost five years since the original post below about "the image of the beast" was published. A lot has changed since then, and an update is mandatory, not primarily for most born-again Christians, but for those who will suddenly find themselves in a post-Harpazo world.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) and human intelligence interact on pretty much a routine basis. We human beings now regularly talk to Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant or even the artificial intelligence embedded in your car, your refrigerator, or even your entire house. The AI talks back and responds directly to us about whatever ever it was that you wanted to know from it or to do for you. So, human daily interaction with AI has become common place in 2017 and is growing by leaps and bounds, technologically speaking. In three to five years time there will likely be another quantum leap in the technology driving AI. Futuristic thinkers are even telling us without any reservation that AI/Human Intelligent interactions will become even greater very soon. This isn't SciFi anymore, it's become Sci-Fact. 

However, what no one is thinking about, and what virtual none of the most well-known prophecy teachers have touched yet with a ten-foot pole is to discuss what will happen when AI and non-human intelligence are linked together in the very near future of the 70th Week. The Revelation of Jesus Christ tells us this will be the fact-of-the-matter during the 70th Week, and that man-made artificially intelligent construct empowered by a non-human demonic entity (i.e. Satan himself) will have the power of life or death over every individual living on the planet.

"[the second beast] was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or[f] the name of the beast, or the number of his name." (Revelation 13:15-17)

[Perhaps if you've not read the original post form December 2012 before, now would be a good time to do so, or to refresh, and then come back up to see where we are today in 2017.]

Think about the prophetic terminology God first used 2,600 years ago to describe what this AI coupled with satanic (non-human) power of the Antichrist and False Prophet will be, and that is "shiqquwts shamem," whose full-meaning would best be expressed as "a thing of detestable, abominable filth that will cause desolation and waste" upon the earth. This thing will be stood up in the Holy Place of the coming Jewish 3rd Temple approximate;y 42 months after the Antichrist confirms a covenant among many. 

The technology that will be brought together by men at the direction of the False Prophet (the second beast from the earth) to create this abomination of desolation, the artificial creation of the created to honor and cause worship of Satan in God's Temple, is all around us. Imagine, if you will, Artificial Intelligence that includes holographic capabilities, ultra-life-like cybernetic appearance, virtual reality; a near omniscient situational awareness capable of global control over inanimate things from finance and routine commerce,  to global fleets of drones and superhuman soldiers and robotic war machines, to animate things like human beings and the ability to kill them forthwith. (This super-soldier capability is Vladimir Putin's worst nightmare!)  The ultimate in oppression and totalitarian control of every aspect of life on planet earth. And millions of our future brethren will die professing Jesus Christ, refusing to take the mark of the beast or worship his abominable image of the beast stood up in the the Jerusalem Temple. (Matthew 24:15-22)

No, this is not a plot merger of the Terminator Sci-Fi movie series and George Orwell's 1984, this is what the Bible says will take place in the very near future, and it may well be far worse than described here. The blessed hope for all mankind is the Harpazo, the sudden catching away of the bride of Jesus Christ, to escape all these things, the likes of which have never before occurred on the earth, and never will thereafter for all eternity. The only time anyone has to make a decision for Christ is right now, while there is time to do so before the Harpazo. What will you do?

 

18 December 2012: One of the things in Revelation 13:14-15 that has always fascinated me is the God-breathed prophecy that the second beast, the False Prophet, will issue a command to all mankind inhabiting the earth that they must construct an image of the first beast, the Antichrist.

"And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed."

The key sequential Greek words in verse fourteen are poieō eikōn thērion, meaning that the fully deceived men of the earth of that time will be called upon by the False Prophet to construct a likeness of the Antichrist. Understand this completely: mankind will be called upon to create an image of Satan incarnate as was man created in the image of God. This will occur shortly after the Antichrist will appear to have sustained a mortal head wound yet he will pseudo-miraculously not die as a result of it. This image of the Antichrist will be constructed by mankind to honor him.

How will mankind construct such a thing? Through the all types of emergent technological know-how that mankind will have at its disposal. It will be a 21st century technology that many are seeing greater and greater glimpses of in these pre-70th Week days: the fusing and absolute convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, artificial intelligence, robotics and instantaneous global communications that provide instantaneous global situational awareness. Mind-boggling to be sure even by 2012-2103 state-of-the-art technological advancements. 

This will be the high-tech 21st century equivalent of the statue of Zeus-Olympus that the forerunner antichrist, the Hellenic Seleucid Empire's absolute ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes stood up in the 2nd Temple on the 25th of Kislev, 168 BC. The difference between this coming outrage and the latter will be that the False Prophet will be able to supernaturally embed a demonic spirit (Greek: pneuma) within this human construct so that it will be a virtual, physical being, a totally aware and communicating entity in the service of Satan which will be capable of killing both Tribulation Saints and all of mankind who will dare to refuse it the requisite worship. Perhaps it will be the demonic spirit known as Abaddon/Apollyon who will inhabit this constructed thing; the penultimate of demonic and gentile desecration of God's Temple?

As Jesus declared in the Olivet Discourse, referring the the prophecy given to Daniel by the angel Gabriel, this action will define the mid-point of the 70th Week. He has made it unambiguously clear that this utterly detestable thing will be literally stood up in the Holy Place within the 70th Week (Tribulation) Temple; that this will be the "Abomination of Desolation." This event, Jesus tells us, will be the final sign for the Jews to flee Jerusalem with extraordinary haste; to flee in the direction of the mountains of Judea meaning 'take nothing with you, just get out of the city of Jerusalem!'

the Holy Place within the 70th Week Temple

I believe there can be little confusion or wonderment as to why the wrath of God is thereafter poured out upon the earth in such a way as there has never been anything of this scope previous or ever will there be anything like it again. And there is no further mention of the image after this. We can only assume that God utterly annihilates the "Abomination of Desolation" and it passes into oblivion without further notice.

Global SITREP D6-17: A Few Things That Need Addressing...

21 October 2017: Its been a month since the sign of Revelation 12:1-2 was literally and gloriously fulfilled in the heavens above, yet the depression among the bride of Christ that's due to the Harpazo not occurring is quite obvious if not palpable. I think the remedy to this is to realize that listening to the musings of men regarding the things wholly within the domain of Almighty God the Father is something that Scripture has endeavored to teach us since we each were babes-in-Christ. 

It's very much the same reason Paul was obliged to write II Thessalonians 2, (Read it!) and that was because his earlier Spirit-filled teachings to the Corinthians were largely cast aside by a significant number of believers who had listened to and believed the non-Spirit-filled teachings of non-Spirit-filled men and the attendant rumors which followed in their wake. Wolves in sheep's clothing. Snake oil salesmen. And you know what, some of them, even a month later are still at it; still date-setting the utterly un-date settable, and some brethren are still listening to them and their calculated musings. 

Cleave ONLY to what the Word of God teaches - it really is that simple. "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle." (II Thessalonians 2:15)

There's something else that just as disturbing if not more so. I'm talking now about all of this plant 9, Nibiru, planet X, Babylonian enuma elish garbage that has been invading mainstream Christian discussion of late. It's all abject nonsense and outright deception based upon unproven theory that originated in the non-Christian secular world. Simply put this topic has no place in Christian discourse except to dismiss it outright as garbage to be ignored. FoxNews publishes a report and that makes Nibiru real? Really??

Brethren, especially those of you lending an ear to this nonsense, listen up, and I'll explain it as simply and as truthfully as possible. The ancient Akkadian word NI-BI-RU simply refers to a crossing, something which intersects an established baseline. That baseline is the ecliptic plane our solar system which God created and set in motion the specific parameters thereof for all the heavenly bodies orbiting around the Sun. 

Every year at the time of the spring (March) and fall (September) equinox when our Sun rises above or falls below the ecliptic plane as seen from Earth, that particular day was known to the ancient Mesopotamian peoples - the Akkadians, Sumerians, Babylonians - as the nibiru, the crossing. Nibiru is not a planet, it is the day on which our Sun crosses the ecliptic plane year in and year out every March and September.  That's all this is, everything else is non-scholarly mis-translation of cuneiform texts and made-up nonsense from unqualified and unlearned charlatans like Zechariah Sitchin, et al. 

Again, none of this planet Nibiru, planet X nonsense has any place within Christian talk or any discussion about specifics within The Revelation of Jesus Christ about these last days prior to the establishment of our Lord's millennial kingdom, except to abruptly and soundly dismiss it as something added to that text. Adding something to the God-breathed prophecy of the Revelation of Jesus Christ is addressed in Revelation 22:18-19.

We are all alert and looking at and for the signs of His coming for us the bride of Christ. It's a "day and hour" which only God the Father knows. Yet, according to the Jewish betrothal tradition upon which the Harpazo/Rapture of the bride is derived, once the Father instructs the Son to begin the wedding by collecting His bride, one of the Grooms procession would lead the way loudly proclaiming, "Behold, the bridegroom comes!" The sounding of the shofar (trumpet) accompanies. This is what we are waiting for, this will be how our departure will occur, with an angelic shout and trump to announce His coming. 

There is no need to look at any calendar for this, that would be a completely futile endeavor to engage in because neither the day or the hour are recorded in any book, not even the Holy Bible. Therefore, there is no way to count or to calculate the number of days before its occurrence. We encourage one another with the knowledge that we are today living in the very season of its occurrence; that it will happen at any moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

Global SITREP D5-17: The War Continues... Part II

Kurdish Peshmerga front line facing Iranian-led PMU southwest of Kirkuk

UPDATE 18 October 2017: This is very likely the final update for this SITREP. In support of all that has been written here on this particular subject, I submit a Threat Matrix blog report by Bill Roggio of the very highly respected Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) Long War Journal. I urge you to read the linked report for yourselves.

This report confirms what has been independently posted here in contradiction to the obvious politically-motivated statements made by CJTF-OIR spokespersons over the course of the past few days. Those statements clearly expressed the propaganda of the Shi'a-dominated Government of Iraq (GoI) in Baghdad and their terrorist Iranian overlords. These CJTF-OIR statements are diametrically opposed to what President Trump announced concerning Iran and the IRGC last week. 

The glaringly obvious disconnect between the Commander-In-Chief in the White House and the U.S.-led CJTF-OIR HQ in Baghdad is extremely distressing. Since when does the United States provide political cover for the terrorist Ayatollah Khamenei of the Islamic Republic of Iran and his various Iranian and Iraqi sock puppets? These are the same Iranian terrorists responsible for the deaths and maiming of thousands of American troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and as recently reported here, continue to kill American troops serving in Iraq.

17 October 2017: Why is this SITREP important? Because Jesus said it would be important. Matthew 24:7 records our Lord saying "For ethnos shall rise against ethnos, and basileia against basileia ..."  This prophecy precisely defines what is occurring across the world, but especially in the MidEast, and particularly in Iraq. In this battle of Iraq there are Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Persians ethnic groups. Within them there are Christian, Sunni, Yazidi and Shi'a religious groups; some fighting to conquer the other, some fighting for their very survival. The importance of this should be as self-evident as it is prophetic.

What led to the Kurdish defeat and retreat at Maktab Khalid junction, Tuz Khurmatu and Kirkuk? Within the militias that make up the Kurdish Peshmerga there are eastern Iraqi Kurds loyal to the family clan in Suleimaniya, and then there are those loyal to western Kurds of Erbil and Dohuk. The Kurds are, and have been in the past, a house divided.

The eastern Kurds were visited prior to shots being fired by IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani who issued his own ultimatum to the Kurdish PUK militia to stand down as his Shi'a Turkomen Hashd al-Shaabi militiamen advanced in state-of-the-art American M1 Abrams tanks and combat vehicles acquired from stocks given by the U.S. to the Iraqi government in Baghdad. So, the PUK abandoned their posts on the southern Kirkuk front leaving the YPG and other Kurdish militia exposed in indefensible positions in the center and western fronts around Kirkuk.

For it's part the U.S. did nothing except to plead for the Iraqi government and the Kurdish government in Erbil, both of whom are supposed to be U.S. allies with the CJTF-OIR, to dialog with each other and not fight.  The offset here is that from the get-go back in 2014 when IS rampaged through Iraq the U.S. provided mechanized brigade equipment to the Kurdish Peshmerga while providing heavy armored division equipment to the Iraqi ISF. Hands-down the Kurds would be no match on a future battlefield against the forces of Iranian-dominated Iraqi government forces. The Shi'a government in Baghdad had no qualms about letting the IRGC Qods force terrorist share in the American military largesse of war-winning equipment.

The Kurds are natural allies to the West and America in particular. So too the Israeli's. However, the American government has yet to understand and foresee or to do anything constructive to halt Iranian penetration into what remains of Iraq. This issue is dealt with in detail (for those who pay attention to details) in a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs January 2016 article entitled The Iranian Penetration of Iraqi Kurdistan. America has been more concerned about its failings in the Obama retreat of 2010 and ignored the Iranian threat to the whole of Iraq entirely. As a result the Kurds and (remnant) Assyrian Christians in Erbil and Dohuk are paying the price.

16 October 2017: Early this morning the Iranian-led PMUs initiated an all-out assault on the Kurdish defenders of Kirkuk. 

The Eschatology Today assessment of the designed purpose of IRGC general Qassem Soleimani's gambit in Kirkuk appears to have at least two primary objectives:

1) To destroy the cohesion within the United States-led CJTF-OIR Coalition headquartered in Baghdad by forcing the Iraqi Army into battle against Iraqi Kurds. An Iraqi civil war in layman's terms which pits the two primary military forces within Iraq against each other. 

2) To create a self-fulfilling prophetic condition which is a pillar of Shi'a Hojjatieh eschatology - a chaotic warfighting situation in Iraq which hastens the arrival of their mythical al-Mahdi figure. Of course Qassem Soleimani is well-positioned to inherit that coveted Shi'a mantle.

This gambit has the potential to backfire in a very big way, and that depends largely on how the United States and its allies as well as the State of Israel react to this fighting. How the Iraqi army itself reacts to fighting against the Kurds, many of whom are within its ranks, is also a critical potential to backfire. Sunni Arabs and Kurds being led into a war by scheming Shi'a is an extremely risky gambit for Iran to undertake.

Also overnight, the IAF attacked and almost certainly destroyed a Syrian SA-5 SAM site near Damascus. The potential for a full-scale three-ring circus of war in the Middle East may be in the offing, which is something most of us have been expecting for some time. More to come, obviously.

15 October 2017: Fighting has erupted between the Shi'a Popular Mobilization Unit (PMU) Hashd al-Shaabi militia and the Kurdish Peshmerga at a strategic junction south of Kirkuk known as Maktab Khalid. There are also confrontations which amount to Iranian ethnic cleansing of Kurdish families in Tuz Khurmatu, about 40 miles south of Kirkuk. The initial combat engagement at Tuz Khurmatu went on for at least five hours. Thus far Iraqi regular army units have not attacked the Kurds, but have their weapons pointed at them.

The Peshmerga have stood their ground in rejecting the PMU ultimatum to withdraw by midnight Baghdad time (9 PM in London, UK). The Peshmerga have been ordered to defend their hard won territory "at all costs." The Maktab Khalid junction controls access to a nearby airbase and oil production facilities south of Kirkuk.

The PMU is a collection of Iraqi Shi'a militias which are under the direct control of IRGC Qods Force General Qassem Soleimani. The Peshmerga cites hard intelligence that IRGC officers and troops are embedded within the PMUs. These foreign-led troops are the only forces thus far to exhibit aggression against the Kurdish people. 

The Peshmerga are the primary military force of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and have been an integral component of the U.S.-led CJTF-OIR in the fight against the Islamic State. U.S. special forces are known to been embedded with Peshmerga and other Kurdish units. In the Kurdish language Peshmerga means "those who face death." They are obviously very highly-regarded Kurdish soldiers.

Given President Trump's very recent casting of the IRGC as terrorists as part of his Iran Doctrine, it therefore follows that all IRGC-led militias would also fall under the terrorist categorization as well. The PMF attack on the Peshmerga could well be seen in the White House as an Iranian terrorist attack upon a component of CJTF-OIR. This is something that was predicted in SITREP D4-17 less than 48 hours ago.

General Geographic Area of Conflict

More as developments occur...

Global SITREP D4-17: The War Continues...

Update 13 October 2017: As expected, and strongly hinted at in the previous update, in an important policy speech this afternoon President Trump de-certified the JCPOA. More importantly this speech should be regarded as (coining a phrase here folks) the "Trump Iran Doctrine" or (TID). The TID went well beyond the provisions of the JCPOA to include naming the Iranian Shi'a Hojjatieh regime itself and its primary support mechanism, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. 

The Trump Iran Doctrine outlined key items, specifically acts of war by Iran against the United States of America, that have occurred over the course of the past 39 years. These acts of war, thus specifically enumerated, constitute the casus belli for a formal declaration of war in the future. The United States Congress has 60 days to determine a course of action, failing which President  Trump can act under his Constitutional Authority in the manner he deems proper as the U.S. Armed Forces Commander-In-Chief.

Most media are decidedly playing down the gravity of what President Trump announced today. That is not done on Eschatology Today. This is extremely serious business, and in all likelihood will probably result in direct acts of military aggression by Iranian forces against American military forces and interests anywhere in the world.   

11 October 2017: This is not new news, but within a finite number of hours President of the United States Donald J. Trump will decertify the JCPOA (Iran Nuclear Deal). As expressed on this blog from the get-go, the JCPOA was an absolute disaster; it was the still-born baby of the godless Global Elite. It is an international agreement which is diametrically opposed to the considerable national security interests of the United States. 

As many may already be aware, the mere threat of this action taking place has the Global Elite, (the Global Oligarchy to long-time Eschatology Today readers), and their global corporate media lapdogs, simply besides themselves in hand-wringing angst. If you want to understand global who's who in the run up to the 70th Week simply look to see if a given individual or organization is for the JCPOA. Those individuals and organizations will be the Antichrist's slavish followers. Nobody in their right mind gives apocalyptic Iranian Shi'a mullahs or North Korean dictators the ability to construct nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. That kind of thing is inherently suicidal for the people who allow it to happen.

The Global Elite plainly see that an American President is about to pull that still-born baby off of life support, and they will fight his action tooth and nail, at least for a while or until the point of the JCPOA has been made moot by the fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:34-39 and Ezekiel 38/39 or global thermonuclear warfare engulfs the earth..

What will president Trump's decertification of the JCPOA mean in real terms? It will be a defining moment. It will make clear the the U.N. IAEA has been unable to verify, as required by the JCPOA, from day one that Iran has been in compliance with the provisions of the agreement. How so? Because an America decertification of the JCPOA will make clear that Iran never halted its nuclear weapons program as required; that the nuclear weapons program has been going full-steam ahead within Iranian military infrastructure as well as within North Korea. This has been stated here many times over: a North Korean nuclear test is an Iranian nuclear test.

It is the opinion of Eschatology Today that the impending U.S. decertification of the JCPOA opens the door to the military option of enforcing compliance in that Iran will 

a) not acquire the ability to indigenously produce a nuclear weapon,
b) honor commitments in countering proliferation of nuclear technology and delivery systems, and
c) end its destructive and destablizing role in the MidEast as the world's foremost sponsor of terrorism.

All of these are the end result of the aforementioned prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

10 October 2017: Just realized that this SITREP is the 500th post on Eschatology Today. Kind of a milestone I suppose, but there is much yet to be done, so now is not the time to pause in reflection.

Israel24 has published, as have other Israeli media, a report on comments made by Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman made clear that the next war will include all of Lebanon and Syria, as the correctly named "Northern Front." Lieberman also made clear that the old paradigm of northern sector fighting in either Lebanon or Syria is now dead and buried, never to exist again. From Lebanon's Mediterranean Coast clockwise to the Jordanian border is one, contiguous frontline that Israel will engage in warfighting operations with enemy forces.

Long-term Eschatology Today readers will recognize that these media reports mirror what has been posted here for a very long time now - that the next war will see the fulfillment of a flood of prophecies - one of which is key but unfortunately has long been ignored by other Bible prophecy teachers, websites and blogs. 

I am referring to Joshua 13, a chapter which belongs in a grouping of chapters 1-12, but for various reasons has been excluded from being grouped with those chapters. And this is just as well, because the chapter is actually a 2,700-year old prophecy for our time. 


5 October 2017: Most have probably heard by now the headline that burst forth at 4 AM this morning on the National Review that President Trump will de-certify that Iran is in compliance of the JCPOA nuclear agreement this coming Monday, 9 October.  The de-certification will effectively end the farce that has plagued the Trump Administration from the moment the president first certified that Iran has transparently, verifiably and fully implemented the agreement, and that the agreement is "vital to the national security interests of the United States."  

It has been beyond my ability to fathom why President Donald J. Trump would willingly continue with the deception and charade begun by the Barack Hussein Obama administration. The only recourse for a Christian is to state that God is in complete control and what is being done is being done because He wills it to be done. I accept this in faith; it is after all late in the 9th inning.

As the the title of this SITREP, take a moment to go over this report from Deutsche Welle issued a little over three hours ago. The so-called "de-confliction zones" have become killing zones for the Russian, Syrian and Iranian proxy forces in Syria. Indiscriminate slaughter and bombings of hospitals, schools and other critical civilian infrastructure has become rampant, intentional. Where's the antiwar crowd now? In Idlib there are now a half million civilians without and kind of medical institutions to turn to for care in a war zone.

If this kind of slaughter were done by American-led CJTF-OIR forces the antiwar crowd would be screaming for Trump's head on a silver platter. This is the kind of slaughter which could, and probably should, backfire on Russia, Syria and Iran. In all likelihood, it probably will.

Kurdistan and Israel are Allies

1 October 2017: Contrary to reporting in global corporate media of late, the war in Syria is not over. Nor is the war in Iraq. These obviously directly related wars are in fact the same war, but there is much more to come before either is resolved and not in favor of the most belligerent party driving both of them, the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

The war in Syria and Iraq, both of whom have governments completely dominated by the Islamic Republic of Iran, are integral to the international chaos being deliberately created by the Hojjatieh clerics of Iran. The Hojjatieh are Shia supremacists who instigated the revolution in Iran of the late 1970's, and who believe that the creation of international chaos will hasten the arrival of their long-awaited and entirely mythical al-Mahdi (the 12th Imam). 

The truth formula here is simple: the war in Iraq and Syria cannot end because neither war has yet managed to create the requisite level of international chaos (rampant war) to hasten their mythical al-Mahdi's arrival. They have managed to come tantalizingly close to bringing Russia and the USA into direct conflict, and that might occur at some point, but not due to the Hojjatieh's designs. As discussed in the previous SITREP, there's a truly Divine appointment book in progress to fulfillment.

Iraqi Kurdistan (Bashur), Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), Turkish Kurdistan (Bakur) and Iranian Kurdistan (Rojilat)

So, the in-progress wars and rumors thereof will continue. And the next one looming large will pit newly emergent Kurdistan (the one in Iraq - see map above) against the combined military forces of the Iranian Shia dominated government of Iraq, Iran and its proxies and Turkey. But the Kurds have a stalwart ally in Israel, which is very interesting considering the majority of Kurds are decidedly secular Sunni Muslims. (In forethought of how this will likely play out one can almost sense the Kurds turning as a nation to the God of Israel and ditching the mythical Allah. This outcome would be in keeping with a future literal fulfillment of Isaiah 19:23-25 in the Millennium Kingdom.) Israel immediately recognized the validity of the Kurdish independence vote to achieve their own state.

In the recent 25 September referendum voting on national independence for that part of autonomous Kurdistan (i.e. the Kurdistan Regional Government or KRG) within Iraq's recognized borders a full 92% of Kurds voted for independence from Iraq. For all intents and purposes Iraqi Kurdistan has been autonomous (semi-independent) since the mid-1990's, and probably since Saddam Hussein attacked Halabja with his entire arsenal of chemical weapons (Mustard gas, Sarin, Tabun and VX) in March 1988 killing 5,000 people, 75% of whom were women and children. Iraqi Kurdistan was protected by American and Coalition combat pilots enforcing the No-Fly Zone from 1991 to 1996 (Operation Provide Comfort and Provide Comfort II) and by US and UK air forces from 1997 to 2003 (Operation Northern Watch). 

NOTE: Eschatology Today is ignoring global corporate media reports of the U.S. State Department rejecting the Kurdish referendum vote results. They do not pass the 'smell test' as they reek of "Deep State" and "DC Establishment" disinformation. The fact is that the Kurds are our allies. U.S. Special Forces are embedded with Kurdish military forces in Iraq and Syria; another 5,000 provide direct support; they coordinate CJTF-OIR airstrikes when and where needed. The U.S. has heavily armed and armored the Kurds military formations to the tune of $415 billion in the past year alone. Finally, the U.S. told the Turks to take a flying leap when we went to war at the side of the Kurds and their Syrian Arab allies (the SDF). That leap remains in-progress.

Self-explanatory image.

The battle lines are drawn. They look like this: Kurdistan, Israel the US and Sunni Arab Coalition standing against Iran and its proxies, the Shi'a dominated government of Iraq, Hezbollah of Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey. So, if you're among those noted above as militarily opposed to Bashur Kurdish (Iraqi Kurdish) independence, which of Kurdistan's acknowledged allies would or could you strike? Israel, of course. Hezbollah, as Iran's preeminent proxy in the region, and the its leader Hassan Nasrallah, has already made threats this morning to strike all of Israel in the near future; that no place in Israel would be secure from Hezbollah's missiles. Nasrallah's calculus is as bad as his Iranian Ayatollah's, if not worse.