THE FINAL FORM OF GENTILE
WORLD POWER: WESTERN CIVILIZATION

There are several important passages of Scripture which have an important bearing on the question of the final form of Gentile world power. In the descriptions of the "Times of the Gentiles" given in Daniel 2, the prophet deals in a general way with the four successive empires which will in their turn possess world power. But he becomes quite specific with the end of that power. In Daniel 2:40-44, the final form of Gentile power is described.

Pentecost writes:

"... the final form of Gentile power [is described as follows]:

• "The ... form of ... [this power] is an outgrowth from and final development of the fourth great empire, the ROMAN. This final form is represented by the ten toes [and the ten horns], (Dan. 2:41-42, see also Dan. 7.)

• "The final form of this power is marked by division ...

• "The final form of Gentile power is marked by a federation [of that power], since the mixture of the iron and clay [in the feet of the image] is an unnatural one, it would seem to suggest that the federation is not brought about by force, else this condition would not continue. But it is brought about by mutual consent, so that each member in the alliance retains its own identity. This is in harmony with Revelation 17:13.

Now we come to a very important point. Four great world empires [civilizations] of Gentile origin are spoken of by the Prophet Daniel - four and only four! - the ten toes of the image being only the final form of the last great empire - ROME. There is no interruption here in the continuity of the fourth great empire and the imagery used does not picture the death of the fourth empire and its later resurrection - but it speaks of one continuous empire up through time from Christ to the present.

Yet, it is commonly assumed by the layman that Rome collapsed in 476 A.D. - never to rise again. But Roman civilization itself never collapsed and has continued to this day. It is what we today call "Western Civilization" - a term familiar to any college student - and a term which denotes European Civilization, that is to say, that civilization which derives it force and origin from Ancient Rome. Thus, while it is true that the POLITICAL unity of "the one-world that was Rome's" - of Roman Civilization - was lost in 476 A.D., the civilization of Rome itself has survived to become the dominant civilization of this planet - directly holding sway over Western Europe and North America and holding limited sway over Central and South America, Africa, and to a lesser extent, even Asia.

In this connection, it is important to note that Western Civilization is to be differentiated from the native civilization of China, Japan, India, Africa, and Central and South America. These are civilizations of totally different origins and it is these very civilizations that Western Civilization has come to dominate to a greater or lesser degree, directly or indirectly. The science, technology, literature, law, culture, religion, and languages [especially English, and to a lesser extent, Spanish and French] of this great civilization dominates the earth as no prior civilization has ever done, and all this in spite of the fact that there has been no political unity within the confines of this civilization for some 1500 years. The political unity of this great civilization has remained profoundly elusive and ethereal - always just out of reach of those who so ardently sought it - Charlemagne, Louis XIV, Napoleon, and even Hitler. Each failed in his turn. AND THIS IS EXACTLY THE CONDITION OF THINGS PROPHESIED BY DANIEL. Thus, the outline of the history of the Western World is best understood as a civilization which, while having lost its political unity in 476 A.D., has continued as a dynamic, powerful, and culturally unified civilization to this very day.

This is the view of Pentecost. Pentecost writes:

"It would seem best to view this Roman Empire as a continuous development from its original or initial form at the time of Christ until its final form at the second coming of Christ."

G.N.H. Peters echoes the view of Pentecost:

"It may seem a hard saying, but it is one which the facts fully bear out ... that the one key to the whole subject [of the history of Western Civilization] - without which medieval history is simply an unintelligible chaos - is no other than THE CONTINUED EXISTENCE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE [in the form of Western Civilization]. As long as people are taught that the Empire came to an end in the year 476, a true understanding of the next one thousand years becomes utterly impossible. No one can understand either the politics or the literature of that whole period unless he constantly bears in mind that in the ideas of the men of those days, the Roman Empire, the Empire of Augustus, Constantine, and Justinian, was not a thing of the past, but a thing of the present."

IN THIS CONNECTION, IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE CIVILIZATION FINALLY BEQUEATHED BY ANCIENT ROME TO THE WESTERN WORLD WAS NOT THE "PAGAN" ROME OF CICERO, NERO, AND CALIGULA, BUT THE "CHRISTIAN" ROME OF CONSTANTINE - A ROME THAT INCLUDED AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF IT AN APOSTATE FORM OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE FIGURE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. The touchstone to Roman Catholicism was the integration of the Church with the Roman State. This is the antithesis to all that the Church was meant to be - a HEAVENLY reality, not something of the earth, and most especially, not something of GENTILE Rome. The basis of all evangelical theology, on the other hand, is the rejection of Roman Catholicism's synthesis of the Church with the GENTILE State and the acceptance of Israel's rightful heritage on the earth - the acceptance of the biblical reality that there is only one nation God has ever covenanted with - and that nation is Israel.

It would seem, then, that the problem in acquiring a proper perspective of the fourth great Gentile power is not so much in seeing this empire as a REVIVAL of the "Roman Empire" as it is in seeing the recasting of the CONTINUING sphere of this same empire into its final ten-toed or ten-horned configuration.

THE GEOGRAPHIC EXTENT
OF PROPHETIC BABYLON

But what of the extent of this empire? What are its proper prophetic boundaries? It has commonly been held that the last stage of the Roman Empire [it's ten-toed configuration], will coincide with the boundaries of Caesar's Empire - that of ancient Rome. But, once again, this is an argument based on a misunderstanding conveyed in the English word "empire," which denotes a political or military unity, rather than in the English word, "civilization," which is the meaning properly conveyed in the prophecy. Concerning the boundaries of the "New Roman Empire," Pentecost writes:

"There seems to be good reason for holding the view that the final future boundaries of the last Gentile world power need not coincide with the former boundaries, BUT, IN FACT, MAY EXCEED THEM GREATLY ... Scripture seems to indicate an empire of even greater dimensions than [of ancient Rome]: '... power was given him [Antichrist as head of this final form of the fourth great Gentile empire] over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations' (Rev. 13:7) ... THE RELATIONSHIP EXISTING BETWEEN THE 'BEAST' AND THE 'WOMAN' (Rev. 17) SUGGESTS THE SCOPE OF THIS EMPIRE."

Pentecost then quotes F.C. Jennings as follows:

"... the Scriptures tell us unequivocally that the world empire that Rome possessed [speaking here of the political unity that the Roman civilization had at one time held] will again be restored to her, and my purpose is to gather such light as it has pleased the God of all grace to give in His word, as to the extent and limitations of that revived ... [political unity]. The boundaries of the [new] empire have been assumed to have ... the same geographical boundaries ... [as the old empire]. THIS I TAKE TO HAVE BEEN A FUNDAMENTAL MISTAKE, for it ignores completely the introduction of another ... basic and characteristic element, into the earth. Mere geographic boundaries are but little in accord with the peculiarly spiritual character of this era; the introduction of a distinct spiritual element, demands even for earthly boundaries, a spiritual measurement ...

"Turning then to the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Revelation, we see the whole stage filled with two personalities only: a 'Beast' and a 'Woman' ... these two ... picture ... the future prophetic earth ... there can be no argument or discussion as to this speaking of both the CIVIL [political, economic, and military] and ECCLESIASTICAL [religious] conditions that will rule and characterize that part of the earth that is within the limits or boundaries of Prophecy. The whole of it will be filled with what shall answer to this 'Beast' and this 'Woman.' The two [the "Beast (which answers to the Civil Power) and the "Woman" (which answers to the Religious Power) are thus indissolubly co-related, and tell us to what end all [this is] trending; and that is that there will eventually be a one World-Empire and a one World-Church, and these will cover the whole of what is now called CHRISTENDOM; the one Empire supporting the one Church, [as] the 'Beast' in the picture supports the 'Woman,' and the 'Woman' is supported by the 'Beast' ...

"... we are compelled to see that the boundaries of the Empire will be the boundaries of the professed, but UTTERLY APOSTATE CHRISTIANITY; and vice-versa, the boundaries of the apostate church will be exactly co-terminus with those of the Empire. But that being assured and clear, it follows beyond all question, that the revived Roman Empire will include ... every country everywhere in which there is any claim to apostate Christianity at all, AND SO WILL INCLUDE NORTH AMERICA ..."

Prophetic Babylon will thus be the indissoluble union of the Apostate Church [the Woman] with GENTILE world power [the Beast] as pictured in Revelation 17 in the description of a woman drunk with the blood of the saints and riding on the back of a beast. The union of the Church with GENTILE world power was formalized in the union of the old Roman Empire with the Roman Catholic Church under Constantine at the beginning of the fourth Century A.D. It was carried over into the Medieval World and has characterized the civilization of the West to this very day, spreading even into the Protestant world. This union of civil and religious authority will characterize the final form of the Fourth Wild Beast - known in the Scripture as "Prophetic Babylon." The borders of the "Revived Roman Empire," then, will reach out and encompass all of Christendom.

But we must never forget that the roots of this vast latter-day empire rest in Europe. Indeed, it is extremely important to bear in mind that the nations of Europe are exactly those nations which were chiefly responsible during the last five centuries for spreading Western Civilization through their system of colonization to the four corners of the world - to North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, India, and even parts of Asia.

The fact is, eighty years ago, the European nations controlled through their system of colonies almost one-half of the land surface of the globe! And while today they have lost their colonial empires, the civilization they introduced to these areas still survives and in many instances is thriving and prospering more than in the original "mother countries" [e.g., Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, etc.]. The Beast of Daniel (Chapter 7) is thus represented by a body - which stands for the full extent of Western Civilization - and the head with ten horns - which stand for those countries of Europe chiefly responsible for carrying this civilization to the world.

THE "YOUNGER HORN"

Now, something new is added to the picture of the Beast which represents the final form of the fourth great GENTILE world power - AN ELEVENTH HORN!!! Pentecost writes:

"From among these ten kingdoms there will arise ... [another which] will have control over the whole dominion ..."

In other words, there shall arise an eleventh nation out from the original ten [an offspring of the ten] which will grow up and eventually dominate the whole of Western Civilization. And it is out from this eleventh nation that the Antichrist shall come [please see Daniel 7]. This eleventh horn [nation] is described as little or younger. The Hebrew word translated here as little means hindermost or that which comes after and conveys the thought of youth or younger as in the term, little girl. (Daniel 7:8 and 24). It is thus to be understood that this eleventh horn is one of those nations colonized by the original ten. This horn is described as more stout or much stronger than the original [first] ten (Dan. 7:20).

We ask the reader now, which nation could this possibly be? Brazil? Argentina? Canada? Mexico? Australia? But, come now, let's reason further, for there is more.

Some years ago, S. Franklyn Logsdon wrote:

"Man seems to have a special delight and a strong aptitude for the use of nicknames and symbolical terms. The 'Bambino' would of course be the home run swatting Babe Ruth, with the 'Hammer,' Henry Aaron, the current champion in that category ... Everyone conversant with boxing would recognize the 'Brown Bomber' as Joe Lewis ... . So also with the Scripture. Prophetic entities, not specifically named in the Bible, may be identified by representations or by descriptions [such as the "Olive Tree" for Israel and the "Lampstand" for the Church] ... The chief reason why many nations of today are not mentioned by name in the Scripture is simply and obviously because ... [they] were not in existence in Bible days. The [human] writer did not know the ethnic names. We must, therefore, search for designations or names or both, which in a convincing manner are applicable [to the world situation of today]. By description, we can identify people, places, and things. Thus, it should not be impossible, or even difficult to identify nations in this manner."

DESCRIPTION OF CIVIL BABYLON

The Bible describes Prophetic Babylon - the eleventh horn (i.e., the "younger" horn) - as follows [and here we only use descriptions of Prophetic Babylon that are generally recognized as such by "mainline" evangelicals):

• She dwells in the midst of many waters - she is protected by the waters [or oceans] which surround her [literally, she is said to dwell "in the heart of the seas" - Pember, Earth's Earliest Ages, pg. 46). Indeed, Antichrist is pictured by Ezekiel as exulting in the strength of his sea-girt nation, and likening himself, in proud reliance upon his inaccessible dwelling, to the God that sitteth above the heavens [Ezekiel 28:1-2; Jeremiah 51:13).

• Her People are a mingled people - that is to say, a "melting pot." (Jeremiah 50:37).

• She evidently has never known the heel of a conqueror and is exceedingly powerful militarily (Revelation 18:4-5 - implied, Jer. 50:23).

• The nations of the earth are dominated by her (Rev. 18:9); she is an arrogant, proud, and haughty nation (Jer. 50:23).

• She is the greatest economic power in the world, a power so great that the nations of the earth are able to grow rich if they can trade with her or are allowed access to her domestic markets in which to sell their goods (Revelation 18:3, 11, 12).

• By means of her economic power [covetousness] she controls the world; gluttony reigns as the people (or the elites which control this nation) live sumptuously [but want more - their appetite never satisfied], while many in the world starve (Jeremiah 50:38; 51:12-13).

• Her people do not know the bitterness of poverty and live in great wealth (Revelation 18:7).

• The nations of the earth must trade with her by sea (a confirmation of #1 above - Revelation 18:19, 23).

• The people of Babylon are exceedingly materialistic and are madly in love with their worldly possessions which have become their idols (Jeremiah 50:38); her tastes are extravagant (Rev. 18:14); she is a nation of great material attainments; and her achievements in the "fine arts" [i.e., music, dance, literature, films, etc.] are renowned throughout the world and copied everywhere (implied - Rev. 18:22; Jer. 51:53).

• Babylon is described as a vast latter-day nation, not as a single city (Jer. 50-51). In fact, she is a nation of MANY influential cities (Rev. 18:18). In this connection, it is necessary to note that we are here talking not of mere city to be rebuilt on the site of Ancient Babylon; such a concept is in conflict with Isa. 13:19-22.

• Babylon is described as a nation which at one time was a God-fearing nation [a "Golden Cup" in the Lord's hand], but a nation which left God and fell into degradation and then which intoxicated the rest of the world with her iniquity. (Jer. 51:7).

• Finally, she is a nation that "has reached for the stars [heavens]" - i.e., space (Jer. 51:53).

Now, we ask the reader to put all emotion and feelings aside, and to decide the following question in light of the cold, hard, SCRIPTURAL facts: which nation are we talking about here? We want to emphasize that what has been presented is nothing new. It's just that evangelicals refuse to come to grips with the truth of the prophetic Scriptures.

One additional description should be noted: prophetic Babylon is also described as a nation which shall pose as Israel's chief ally and protector in the "latter days" [Please see Daniel and the Latter Days by Robert Duncan Culver, Chapter 4; please also see Daniel 7]. We ask the reader to name the nation today which is Israel's chief and only ally, that one nation more than any other nation which poses as Israel's defender - be honest, which nation is this?

Lastly, in connection with Religious Babylon, is it just mere coincidence that the United States recently (i.e., 1984) broke its long-standing tradition - and the Constitution - by formally recognizing the Vatican (i.e., that religious power which all mainline expositors [Ironside, Gaebelein, Barnhouse, etc. recognize as the religious power (i.e., the woman) of Revelation 17] and establishing diplomatic ties with this greatest of Christian apostasies?

BABYLON AND THE TEN
CONFEDERATED KINGDOMS

Evangelicals have in the past contended that Antichrist would secure world dominion as king of the Ten Confederated Kingdoms (evidently a group of Western European states - though it's anyone's guess as to which states these might be, and it's probably not all that important to single the specific states out - after all, what the Bible has in mind here is Western Europe taken as a whole). But the Scripture in no place identifies the Antichrist as the king of these nations. While the Bible does indicate that he will dominate them, it does not say that he will rule directly over them, but that he will be an ELEVENTH KING OF AN ELEVENTH NATION (see Daniel 7:24). [In this connection it is interesting to note that the number "eleven" is the number of apostasy.]

Moreover, in Daniel chapter seven, concerning the Ten Confederated Kingdoms [the ten horns of the fourth wild beast - verses 7 and 8], the Antichrist is described not as one of the "ten kings," but as an eleventh king of an eleventh nation, a nation independent of, and different from the original ten, a nation, however, which evidently derives its heritage from the original ten nations. Is there any doubt that the United States has derived its heritage, its culture, and over 80% of its people from Europe? Can there really be any doubt as to the identity of this great latter-day nation? - are we not speaking here of the United States of America?

INTRODUCTION

The Bible speaks of a "BEAST NATION" (Dan. 7:7) that shall arise in the "end of days;" a nation that will be "... DREADFUL" and "TERRIBLE," and "STRONG EXCEEDINGLY" with "great iron teeth;" one that will "DEVOUR" and "BRAKE IN PIECES" the rest of the nations of the world (Daniel 7:7); and, finally, one that Isaiah describes as an "OVERFLOWING SCOURGE" (Is. 28:18) that will gain mastery over the entire earth and establish a ONE-WORLD EMPIRE that will bring ruin and poverty to the peoples and nations of the world.

What nation are we talking about here? - Russia? China? Japan? The European Community? An Islamic confederation of nations (a kind of new Caliphate)? No! - only DUMB evangelical Christians are disposed to believe that it could be any one of these nations or combination of nations. The fact is,

"America's presence today fills the world like some mighty colossus. She stands as a giant in a world filled with midgets. Her existence shatters the pretense of all those who have gone before her - of Egypt, Assyria, Persia, even of ancient Rome - and she inhabits and diffuses the earth with her omnipotence and Titan-like bearing."

AMERICA'S WORLD-WIDE
MILITARY BASE SYSTEM

LIKE ROME BEFORE IT, THE UNITED STATES HAS ACQUIRED AN EMPIRE THAT CAN BE HELD TOGETHER ONLY BY BRUTE MILITARY FORCE - for it cannot possibly be imagined that if the millions and millions (even billions) of people that the U.S. has ruthlessly subjected and brought into its orbit had the vote, they would vote to remain in that system. What benefit do those who toil in the sweat shops of America's multi-national corporations overseas or those whose lands are being stripped of their mineral and agricultural wealth derive from this pitiless and cold-hearted system. No! - these people can be held in check only by brute military power.

IN DEFENSE OF THIS EMPIRE, AMERICA HAS CREATED A POWERFUL MILITARY MACHNE - INDEED, THE GREATEST MILITARY MACHINE THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN - AND HAS GARRISONED IT THROUGHOUT THE WORLD IN A BASE-SYSTEM VERY SIMILAR TO ANCIENT ROME. Indeed, the distinguished author and academician, Chalmers Johnson - whose books include The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic and Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire - writes:

"Our [military] garrisons encircle the planet. This vast network of American bases on every continent except Antarctica actually constitutes a new form of empire -- an empire of bases with its own geography not likely to be taught in any high school geography class. Without grasping the dimensions of this globe-girdling BASEWORLD, one can't begin to understand the size and nature of our imperial aspirations ..."

Johnson continues:

"With the exception of those who have served in the U.S. military, Americans are almost entirely ignorant of the existence of this INFRASTRUCTURE OF COERCION AND DEATH.  If they are dimly aware that the U.S. has some foreign military bases, they have little idea that they exist for purposes other than to defend the people of the "host" nations."

Dr. Joseph Gerson, the Director of Programs of the American Friends Service Committee in New England, comments on this system as follows:

"At root, this entire system serves as an INTEGRATED GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR IMPERIAL DOMINATON.  Not even Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar or Benjamin Disraeli [of Great Britain] had such a host of mighty fortresses."

THE MILITARY MACHINE THAT USES THIS SYSTEM

In this connection, it MUST be noted that the military machine that this IMPERIAL BASE SYSTEM supports cannot in any way be compared to the relatively archaic, underfunded, and under-equipped armies that Europe, Russia and China are capable of deploying. It's a supper-sophisticated killing machine deploying technologies and equipment unheard of in the armies of Europe, Russia and China - a military machine consisting of a "standing ground army" (including the Marine Corps as well as Reserve and National Guard units capable of immediate deployment) that approaches 1,000,000 men.

When the 1,000,000 or so men and women of the air force (with its thousands of strike aircraft scattered in bases all over the world), and the navy with its hundreds of ships including its thirteen "magnificent" super carriers - oceanic BATTLESTARS such as the Kitty Hawk, the Constellation, the Enterprise, the John F. Kennedy, the Nimitz, the Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Carl Vinson, the Theodore Roosevelt, the Abraham Lincoln, the George Washington, the John C. Stennis, the Harry S. Truman, and the Ronald Reagan - the size of this military machine becomes staggering. [This figure includes navy and air force reserve and National Guard units capable of immediate deployment.]

ASSESSING THE SIZE OF THE AMERICAN BASE SYSTEM

Johnson reports:

"It's not easy to assess the size or exact the value of our empire of bases. Official records on these subjects are misleading, although instructive. According to the Defense Department's annual 'Base Structure Report' for fiscal year 2003, which itemizes foreign and domestic U.S. military real estate, the Pentagon currently owns or rents 702 overseas bases in about 130 countries and has another 6,000 bases in the United States and its territories. Pentagon bureaucrats calculate that it would require at least $113.2 billion to replace just the foreign bases -- surely far too low a figure but still larger than the gross domestic product of most countries -- and an estimated $600 billion to replace all of them. The military high command deploys to our overseas bases some 253,288 uniformed personnel (not including those currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan), plus an equal number of dependents and Department of Defense civilian officials, and employs an additional 44,446 locally hired foreigners. The Pentagon claims that these bases contain 44,870 barracks, hangars, hospitals, and other buildings, which it owns, and that it leases 4,844 more.

"These numbers, although staggeringly large, do not begin to cover all the actual bases we occupy globally. The 2003 Base Status Report fails to mention, for instance, any garrisons in Kosovo -- even though it is the site of the huge Camp Bondsteel, built in 1999 and maintained ever since by Kellogg, Brown & Root. The Report similarly omits bases in Afghanistan, Iraq, ISRAEL, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Qatar, and Uzbekistan, although the U.S. military has established colossal base structures ... [in these countries] in the two-and-a-half years since 9/11.

"For Okinawa, the southernmost island of Japan, which has been an American military colony for the past 58 years, the report deceptively lists only one Marine base, Camp Butler, when in fact Okinawa "hosts" ten Marine Corps bases, including Marine Corps Air Station Futenma occupying 1,186 acres in the center of that modest-sized island's second largest city. (Manhattan's Central Park, by contrast, is only 843 acres.) The Pentagon similarly fails to note all of the $5-billion-worth of military and espionage installations in Britain, which have long been conveniently disguised as Royal Air Force bases. If there were an honest count, the actual size of our military empire would probably top 1,000 different bases in other people's countries, but no one -- possibly not even the Pentagon -- knows the exact number for sure, although it has been distinctly on the rise in recent years."

THE SPECIFIC MISSIONS OF THE BASEWORLD

According to Johnson, the mission of this huge BASE SYSTEM is -

• To reinforce the status quo: for example the deterrent role of U.S. bases in South Korea, and the intimidating role of many of the U.S. bases in Middle East which are designed to ensure continued U.S. privileged access to, and control of,  the region's oil.

• To encircle enemies: as was the case with the Soviet Union and China during the Cold War and China to this day. This is a role played by U.S. bases  in Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Pakistan, Diego Garcia, and in many of the former Soviet Republics of Central Asia

• To serve & reinforce the aircraft carriers, destroyers, nuclear armed submarines and other warships of the U.S. Navy.  This includes bases in Okinawa, Yokuska outside Tokyo, and "visiting forces" and "access" agreements in the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and many other countries.

• To train U.S. forces, as was long the case for bombardiers in Vieques and as jungle war fighting and other training which continues in Okinawa.

• To function as jumping off points for U.S. foreign military interventions as: the cases of Okinawa, the Philippines, now Korea with the changing missions of U.S. forces there, Spain, Italy, Honduras, Germany and the new bases in Eastern Europe, Kuwait and in  Iraq.

• To facilitate C3I: command, control, communications and intelligence, including essential roles in nuclear war fighting, and the use of space for intelligence and warfare as we saw in Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. bases in Okinawa, Qatar, Australia AND EVEN CHINA serve these functions. [Yes! - U.S. bases in China; which is the exact opposite of what so many Christian nincompoops and other "conspiracy ninnies" believe who contend that China has bases in the U.S. (which is not true).]

• To control the governments of host nations.  Japan, Korea (where U.S. military forces were deeply involved in military coups,) Germany, Saudi Arabia, and today's Iraq begin the list.

AMERICA'S "FOOTPRINT" ON THE WORLD

Johnson writes:

"Once upon a time, you could trace the spread of imperialism by counting up colonies. AMERICA'S VERSION OF THE COLONY IS THE MILITARY BASE. By following the changing politics of global basing, one can learn much about our ever larger imperial stance and the militarism that grows with it. Militarism and imperialism are Siamese twins joined at the hip. Each thrives off the other."

Johnson continues:

"Marine Brig. Gen. Mastin Robeson, commanding our 1,800 troops occupying the old French Foreign Legion base at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti at the entrance to the Red Sea, claims that in order to put 'preventive war' into action, we require a 'global presence,' by which he means gaining hegemony over any place that is not already under our thumb. According to the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, the idea is to create 'a global cavalry' that can ride in from 'frontier stockades' and shoot up the 'bad guys' as soon as we get some intelligence on them." [Which is, incidentally, exactly what the Americans at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti did two weeks ago when it sent troops and specter gunships to kill al Qaeda that had been trapped in southern Somalia by Ethiopian troops operating in conjunction with the Americans.]

"LILY PADS" IN AUSTRALIA,
ROMANIA, MALI, ALGERIA ...

Johnson reports that our BASE SYSTEM now includes six SUPER-BASES in Iraq, including bases at Baghdad International Airport, Tallil air base near Nasariyah, in the western desert near the Syrian border, and at Bashur air field in the Kurdish region of the north, Camp Anaconda, etc. In addition, the U.S. now controls the whole northern quarter of Kuwait -- 1,600 square miles out of Kuwait's 6,900 square miles -- which is now being used as a logistical center for American forces in the Middle East.

Other countries where the U.S. has recently established bases - including several SUPER-BASES - are Romania, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Bulgaria; in Asia -- Pakistan (where we have four bases), India, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and even, unbelievably, Vietnam; in North Africa -- Morocco, Tunisia, and especially Algeria (scene of the slaughter of some 100,000 civilians since 1992, when, to quash an election, the military took over, backed by our country and France); and in West Africa -- Senegal, GHANA, Mali, and Sierra Leone (even though it has been torn by civil war since 1991). The models for all these new installations, according to Pentagon sources, are the string of bases we have built around the Persian Gulf in the last two decades in such anti-democratic autocracies as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

Johnson says that most of these new bases will be what the military calls "LILY PADS" to which our troops can jump like so many well-armed frogs from the homeland, our NATO bases, or - as Johnson says "from our bases in such docile satellites as Japan, Britain and Germany."

BUT WHILE THIS BASE-SYSTEM IS A WONDER TO BEHOLD IN ITS BREADTH AND SOPHISTICATION, ONE MUST BEAR IN MIND THAT IT EXISTS SOLELY TO IMPOSE A BRUTAL SYSTEM OF MISERY AND SORROW ON THOSE OVER WHICH IT STANDS GUARD. IT IS NOT A SYSTEM OF DEMOCRACY, BUT ONE OF BRUTALITY AND TYRANNY.

HOW THE SYSTEM WORKS

In a very real way, this system works more as a system of intimidation than it does of actual warfare. When everything is working properly, this system operates as a strategic BACKUP to the indigenous militaries of America's "client-states." It's these forces that do most of the fighting and dying in support of the American New World Order System.

1. The first line of defense in America's system are the militarized local police forces of America's client-states. These forces do not necessarily exist to serve the public over which they have been given charge, as they do to keep that public "in line."

2. Backing up these local police forces is the national police apparatus of the client-state under the control of the country's Interior Ministry and the Interior Ministry's paramilitary forces [DEATH SQUADS].

3. Behind the national police forces of the Interior Ministry stands the national army backed up occasionally by American "Special Forces" (Delta Force, the Seals, etc.).

4. Finally, the American military itself stands at the ready behind all these forces to intervene whenever necessary to quash the occasional uprising that may get too far "out of hand." These forces are located "at the ready" in America's BASE SYSTEM, and offshore on America's carrier battle groups.