Dear Theo:
When Whittaker Chambers underwent his remarkable conversion from an atheistic Communist working as a spy in the Soviet underground to a believer in God, country and our free way of life he came to the understanding that God not man is the decisive force in human history; that God is the shaper of human destiny, the mover of events, the intelligent cause of the world and that man, though not a mindless puppet, is in His good creative hands. Yet when his conversion was complete he held a grim view of the future that clashed with his new found faith: believing Communism would prevail in its ideological struggle with the Free World, that the Soviets had a will and ruthlessness for victory that was lacking in the West, Chambers believed he had joined the losing side of history.
At the time I believe Chambers was correct and that he did chose the losing side; that Communism with its faith in the omnipotent state to bring heaven on earth and brotherhood to man was in fact winning the day; and that if nothing had changed, or better still if Chambers himself had changed nothing, today we might be living in an age of darkness dominated by the Soviet State.
But Chambers did something that saved us from that fate: in 1952 he published his best selling book “Witness” an autobiographical account of his conversion to freedom, a book that was read by a 41 year old actor named Ronald Reagan. That was a decisive moment in the history of the Cold War for it changed the thinking of the future President; it made him aware of the colossal challenge that we faced from both our enemies abroad and from their allies within our own country; and in time he was changed from a New Deal Democrat with a religious faith in government to a firm anti-Communist conservative Republican with faith in the goodness and justice of God and in the virtues of the American people. In short, my friend, once Ronald Reagan read Chambers’ book we were no longer on the losing side of history. For the spirit of liberty under Reagan's heroic leadership would be triumphantly renewed and the West would prevail.
But once again we find ourselves on the losing side of an epic struggle with a totalitarian enemy, an enemy every bit as determined to destroy us as did the freedom hating Communists. An enemy with a religious vision of victory shared by millions, a radical religion that worships a God of terror and blood who demands the surrender of humanity and that all men be his subjects and slaves. This is not the God of our democratic faith, Theo, not the God of Liberty who wills what is best for his creatures, who wills that all men live in dignity and peace in a state that exists to keep them free.
Just as many in Whittaker Chambers' day were blind to the growing threat of Communism so is it today with the rising threat of militant Islam, and especially the menace of fascist Iran, a revolutionary state of theocratic killers who are leading the violent struggle to restore the greatness and glory of Islam and is winning in its conflict with America in the strategically vital Middle East.
With the successful troop surge in Iraq blinding many on the Right to larger regional and strategic realities i.e., to our falling prestige in the Middle East due mostly to our weakness in facing Iran; and with the Left sounding the call of retreat from the region-and for unconditional diplomacy with our enemies-there is clearly a time of crisis ahead for our nation.
Indeed, the presidential campaign of John Kerry, the Speakership of Nancy Pelosi and the ominous brain seizure of Senator Johnson were three prophetic signs warning us of this trouble, Theo; warning that we are close to suffering a strategic collapse in the Middle East more colossal, costly and humanly tragic than our failure in Vietnam three decades ago.
But there is a forth sign, Theo, another sign of danger coming from the Left and linked to the 60s foreshadowing these things; a sign that is in everyone's face but whose oracular meaning is yet to be known. And that sign is the presidential run of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the subject of this letter.
As Clinton is now 60 years old, and will remain so until 9 days short of Election Day, she is the Leftist wife of the first U.S. President to emerge from the 60s counterculture generation-a man who held the military in contempt, decimated our intelligence agencies, treated terrorists as mere felons (pardoning some for political gain) and saw foreign policy as an extension of the domestic sphere. As our nation is at war with a desperate, vicious radical enemy hell bent on acquiring nuclear weapons to make Islam powerful again, a second Clinton presidency would be ruinous to the country and for the war in the Middle East. For the wife would fare no better than her mate as president and commander in chief (see note 1). But the sign of Hillary Clinton is not a warning to the nation about the consequences of a second Clinton presidency, Theo-you needn’t be a seer to see the damage this would cause. In fact, this sign has less to do with Hillary's presidential bid than with the extraordinary day when she was born-a day made meaningful by her candidacy and elevated into a prophetic event offering insight into the present danger with Iran and what we must do to prevail. For on that day, that half forgotten day of October 26, 1947 an event took place in the Middle East which had no meaning for us then but which now has great significance. For as Hillary was emerging from her mother's womb British forces were packing their gear and withdrawing from Iraq leaving that strife torn country after a military occupation of 6 years (see note 2).
This astonishing convergence of Hillary’s birth with British forces leaving Iraq is not a meaningless coincidence, Theo; random chance is not at work here-it never is when our nation's future is at stake. Now that Hillary and her rival for her party's nomination are pledging to end our military presence in Iraq by the end of 2009-THE WAR'S 6TH YEAR-one thing is clear: whether she wins or loses, rises or falls, Hillary's candidacy, like the lost campaign of John Kerry, is an oracle in motion with a message for the nation. A message giving us direction in the "War on Terror" and the limits we must set to our presence in Iraq if we are to triumph in our conflict with Iran and prevent a nuclear catastrophe.
Let's look at this phenomenon more closely to see if we can learn what Providence has in mind for us in the trying days ahead: Clinton and Obama began their campaigns by pledging to end the long Iraq War and bring our troops home by 2013-the end of their first terms. Then perhaps under pressure from Governor Richardson-a popular candidate with the antiwar Left who vowed to terminate the war by the end of his first year-Obama adjusted his pledge to terminate the “occupation” by the war's 6th year, with Hillary following suit (see note 3).
Whatever be the fate of Clinton's historic campaign, whether it dies in June or survives and fights on to victory over Obama, one thing is clear: when Hillary announced her candidacy in 2007 the day of her birth was raised to the level of a prophetic event that was lifted to a higher more specific plane of meaning when, paralleling the 6 year duration of the British occupation, she promised to end the Iraq War in its 6th year. There isn’t a chance in a million that this is happenstance, Theo; it is too precise and exact in the analogy of events (the British and U.S. “occupations” of Iraq) and in the number of years (6 to be exact) to be anything but supernaturally decreed.
Whittaker Chambers was right, my friend: God is the decisive force in human history, and Hillary Clinton is His unwitting agent in delivering a timetable of withdrawal from Iraq, a divinely inspired deadline with a limit of under 6 full years to remove our troops in accord with the British schedule of 60 years ago. For the 6th year of the U.S. “occupation” ending in March, 2010 is our countdown to crisis and potential disaster with Iran; it is a timetable for a strategic retreat, not to cut and run from the region like Clinton, Obama and the Democrats want to do, but to radically change our mission; a mission to get out of Iraq and into Iran; a mission to topple the mullahs before they cross the nuclear threshold and become a menacing nuclear state. This is the true meaning of Hillary's campaign, the hidden reason why she's running, God's message to the President and nation before it's too late (see note 4) and a nuclear abyss in the Middle East opens its terrible jaws.
The warning signs couldn't be clearer, Theo: Kerry's run for President at age 60, Pelosi at age 66 becoming the 60th House Speaker, Tim Johnson’s brain seizure 15 days before his 60th birthday and now Hillary at 60 contending with the 60s born Barack Obama for her party's nomination (see note 5). But it doesn’t end there, Theo. For when we add to this surge of sixties a 60 year old President starting the troop surge in Iraq (Bush was 60 at the time), instead of surging our troops toward Iran where they are urgently needed, what we have is a frightful indication that the destructive, insidious, terrible 60s are slowly creeping upon us, coming back to work its havoc in the geo-political sphere with our second strategic defeat in 33 years.
Indeed, returning from the past is LBJ in George Bush-showing less resolve in facing Tehran than did LBJ in facing Hanoi (see note 6); Acheson and the Wise Men in Baker and the Iraq Study Group-advising useless negotiations with implacable hate driven murderous enemies; Westmoreland in Petraeus, winning battles in the field while on the path to defeat; Tim Johnson, indicative of Wilson’s ruinous idealism; and the two Vietnams (South and North) in Shia Iraq and revolutionary Iran. You can even see something of the Viet Cong guerrillas in the various insurgents Iran employs to kill our troops in Iraq and elsewhere.
As 60 is a number with special meaning for our culture, symbolizing social turmoil, moral collapse and failure of power in foreign affairs it is fitting that when Nixon concluded his “disgraceful” peace with North Vietnam he was 18 days into his 60th year (see notes 6 and 7). Similarly, when the President delivered his surge speech to the nation on January 10, 2007 he was 188 days into his 60th year one day after the 94th anniversary of Nixon's birthday. And speaking of Nixon 15 days before the speech his successor Gerald Ford died-the man who was President when the reckless spirit of the 60s reached its most destructive moment and a cowardly antiwar Congress let Saigon fall to the Reds unleashing a tsunami of death. Unfortunately, Theo, it is happening again: we are on the path to defeat in the Middle East with a new and more terrible Vietnam around the bend.
But we are a nation under God's watchful eye, Theo, and to keep Vietnam and its terrible lessons painfully before us, to prevent another catastrophe if we dare to be wise, Providence has raised up John McCain, a scarred, disfigured Vietnam vet, as a presidential contender following John Kerry to warn us by his candidacy of the perils ahead (see The Oracle of John Kerry).
Think about it, Theo, and focus on my words: before we began the "War on Terror" and invaded Iraq in 2003 we never had a Vietnam vet, a battlefield vet, for either a presidential or vice presidential nominee: Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bush II, Benson, Quayle, Lieberman, Kemp and Dick Cheney never saw action on the battlefield (see note 8). Bush I and Bob Dole were veterans of World War II. None of them served and fought in Vietnam. But now in the post-9/11 era since the start of two foreign wars we have a second White House nominee who fought in Vietnam as a living sign to warn us of coming failure and defeat in the explosive Middle East.
Whether John McCain is a man of destiny favored by heaven to be commander in chief is unknown to me Theo; though no candidate in my view is more qualified and fit to be our war time leader we won't know until Election Day what God and the people have in store for him.
Suffice it to say that McCain signifies the Vietnam era on its patriotic, pro-war, anti-Communist side. He is the antithesis of John Kerry-every bit the warrior hero that Kerry pretended to be, with a past of sacrifice, service and suffering that could only serve to inspire awe and advance his campaign. McCain in effect is the anti-sixties candidate unapologetic about his service in the war (because it was a noble cause) and his devastating bombing runs over Hanoi (which he said were mostly ill conceived)-which brings us to the astonishing day when the Reds shot him down and took him captive. I use the word "astonishing” not just because McCain survived that horrendous ordeal, and the five and a half agonizing years that followed; but because given to us that terrible day were a cluster of prophetic signs with meaning for our time and the looming crisis with Iran.
For incredibly and ominously that awful dark day, the worst in McCain’s history, amazingly knits together his Vietnam ordeal with Iraq, Iran and the Middle East of today. For McCain was shot down by a surface to air missile on October 26, 1967 20 years after the retreat of British forces from Iraq when Hillary Clinton was in college celebrating her 20th birthday. And on that day when the downed pilot's parents learned of their son's cruel fate they were preparing for a dinner engagement held at the home of the Iranian ambassador to the UK (see note 9). Amazingly, Theo, the Iranian ambassador at the time represented the regime of Shah Reza Pahlevi the former ruler of Iran (overthrown by Khomeine) who was celebrating his 48th birthday that day in Tehran. For the Shah was born October 26, 1919.
Iraq, Iran and the Vietnam War conjoined by a date made significant by two candidates running for the highest office in the land; running while we are mired in Iraq, like we were in Vietnam, fighting the terrorist proxies of an enemy that glorifies self-destruction, is growing in power and threatening Jewish Israel with nuclear extinction from ideological and political necessity.
As the national spotlight is on McCain we must overturn every stone in uncovering facts about his life that illuminate the present crisis and shock us into recognition of the danger we are in. Two such illuminating facts are McCain's 13th birthday and the number of days he spent in prison as both relate to nuclear events that are ominous for the future of the Middle East and the world. For on August 29, 1949 as John McCain was celebrating his 13th birthday the Russians exploded their first atomic bomb in the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, a predominantly Moslem country in Central Asia.
Moreover, though McCain's last bombing run and subsequent prison years have nothing directly to do with nuclear weapons yet there is a hidden, unseen indirect connection between them. For as I was sitting at my desk typing out these lines I got the idea, I know not how, of adding the total number of McCain's prison days to the start of the Iraq War. As McCain was in chains for 1,967 days (see note 10) I proceeded to add this number to the starting day of “Shock and Awe,” and on completing my calculation I was shocked to discover that it took me to the significant date of August 6, 2008 the 63rd anniversary of Hiroshima: the first dropping of the atom bomb in war (see note 11). The detonation of an atom bomb in a Moslem country and the dropping of this bomb on Hiroshima, John McCain signifies a nuclear event in the Middle East an event that is likely to come if we do nothing to stop the theocratic killers of Iran from weaponizing their nuclear program and getting their murdering hands on the bomb.
Indeed, Theo, as the Clinton and McCain campaigns have turned October 26th into a meaningful date with oracular significance connecting Iraq and Iran to the war in Vietnam it may also be indicative of a surprise nuclear attack on Israel by the evil anti-Semites in Tehran. For portentously on October 26, 2005 the mad murdering mullahs hosted an international meeting in Tehran, a congress of death, which was called “The World Without Zionism“, calling for the destruction of the State of Israel as a divine imperative decreed by God. As the mullahs have threatened Israel with nuclear extinction, dreaming of a holocaust to match Hitler's horrific crimes, it is ominous for Israel’s existence and the peace of the Middle East that Ahmadinejad was sworn in as Iran’s 6th President on August 6, 2005, the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Adding to my alarm is that the date October 26th also marks the end of the Yom Kippur War which began 20 days before with a surprise attack on Israel (see note 12).
Take Iran's monstrous threat to eradicate Israel very seriously, Theo. They mean every word of it! For the mullahs Israel’s total destruction is a theological and political necessity demanded by God, history and their revolutionary destiny to unify Islam under their banner of martyrdom and death (see note 13). For the mullahs believe that the Islamic world will see Israel’s incineration as an infallible sign that God favors their faith, sect and system of government, and that millions of converts will flock to their cause and turn them into an Islamic superpower. This is the nightmare of mass destruction that the mullahs of death dream of and pray for in their desperate Nazi-like quest to restore Islam as a great world power.
Theo, the candidacies of John Kerry and John McCain in back to back presidential campaigns is a warning that our military presence in Iraq and weakness in facing Iran is turning our Mid East policy into a new Vietnam-the defeat of our noble cause to bring democracy to the region and win the war against Islamofascism. For when we add the 1,967 days of McCain's incarceration to September 11, 2001 it brings us to the calendar date of January 30, 2006 the 38th anniversary of the Tet Offensive and the first anniversary of Iraq's democratic election when a coalition of pro-Iranian factions were swept into power with the help of Iranian backing and funds.
What we have here Theo are divine clues given by the Deity and scattered about in the world, a world with an underlying unified order, an order which we perceive with our limited minds in bits and pieces of reality making it seem chaotic, unguided and confused.
Men and nations have free will to choose the different paths that lead to good; or they can choose unwisely and be utter fools and instead tragically suffer their way to the good making what is challenging colossally difficult as we learned in World War II. From such choices spring great conflicts, turmoil and horrific wars and the preventable disaster in the Middle East-a disaster using nuclear arms- that is now taking form.
We have seen, my friend, that John Kerry's presidential run was emblematic of Iraq and the Middle East becoming the New Indochina and Vietnam; that Nancy Pelosi becoming House Speaker signified the failure of the surge to stop the rise of nuclear Iran (the new North Vietnam), that the misguided idealism driving the surge was indicated by Tim Johnson’s illness and that Hillary Clinton's birth and White House campaign point to the necessity of leaving Iraq by the end of next year if we are to stop Iran from getting the bomb.
Hillary Clinton is the last of three ominous signs coming from the Left warning of a looming crisis ahead for the war and our mission in the Middle East. And apart from John McCain another sign was given coming from the Right, coming from a man whose rise to power began in the 60s and changed the course of human history. A man who died on a day richer in prophetic meaning than Kerry's 18th birthday and the days when Pelosi and Clinton were born. And that man, that great man, the man inspired by Whittaker Chambers, was Ronald Wilson Reagan.
NOTES
1. It's no secret that in his wife's campaign Bill Clinton is seeking to be the first President since FDR to have more than two terms in office. Amazingly, this is signified by his birthday vis a vis George Bush: as the 42nd President wants to succeed the 43rd in becoming number 44 through his wife it is no accident that Clinton, born August 19, 1946, is 44 days younger than George Bush (born 7-6-1946).
It is also interesting to note, Theo, that alphabetically Hillary Clinton is the 22nd senator listed on the Senate’s call role and that John McCain is the 66th. Amazingly, 44 is the difference between them.
2. The British occupation of Iraq lasted from April 18 1941 to October 26,1947: 6 years, 6 months and 8 days.
3. Obama set a date certain for withdrawal by the end of 2009, while Hillary made this date conditional and vowed to start the pullout within the first 60 days of her presidency. This gives us the number 60 again which is a sign of catastrophe.
4. Ironically, October 26, 1947 fell on the 43rd week of the year, the number of Bush’s presidency indicating to the President that the time has come to leave Iraq and that staying the course is a disastrous option. In fact, exactly 68 weeks separated Hillary’s birth date from Bush’s, a number symbolic of 1968 the year of political assassinations, riots and the Tet Offensive when America suffered a dramatic reversal in its fortunes.
5. Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961 four months before the start of the Vietnam War which began on December 11, 1961 on John Kerry‘s 18th birthday. Ominously for Obama, several days before the war began Trinity United Church opened its doors. If the front running Obama captures the Democratic nomination his 20 year membership in this radical black church will most likely ruin his chances of making it to the White House.
6. On January 27, 1973 when the Paris Peace Accords were signed President Nixon who was born earlier that month in 1913 was 60 years old-giving us the number that is symbolic of the era that gave us our greatest foreign policy defeat.
As for Nixon’s peace with Hanoi being “disgraceful,” I say this because it allowed North Vietnamese troops to occupy the South. In fairness to Nixon, however, it was probably the price he had to pay for the release of our POWs.
7. In The Sign of Tim Johnson I drew a number of analogies between George Bush and Woodrow Wilson. What I didn’t say was that on April 6, 1917, when Wilson declared war on Germany, he was 99 days into his 60th year. As World War I and the Iraq War were wars of necessity the post-WWI period and post-Saddam Iraq were politically ruinous for both Presidents. In fact, just as the aftermath of WWI set the stage of WWII our utopian policies of nation building in post-Saddam Iraq are leading the region-and perhaps the world-into a catastrophe as Iran evolves into a nuclear armed state.
8. Al Gore was an army reporter in Vietnam and saw little or no combat activity. However, John McCain is now the third Vietnam vet to run as a nominee for President. McCain’s candidacy is the third and last warning before disaster strikes and the consequences of Bush’s obsession with Iraq at the cost of enabling Iran fully and horribly manifests itself. Should McCain become President hopefully he will quickly move to end this dangerous and destructive obsession as no one knows better than he the peril we are in.
9. Robert Timberg, John McCain: An American Odyssey, p.84.
10. McCain was shot down over Vietnam and taken prisoner on October 26, 1967 and was released on March 15, 1973 for a total of 5 years, 4 months and 17 days, or 1,967 days. The 1,967 days McCain spent in prison strangely corresponds to 1967 the year his imprisonment began.
NOTE: The March 15th release date is McCain’s. Other writers like Timberg mistakenly give March 14th as the date
11. “Shock and Awe” began March 19, 2003 (stateside). When 1967 days are added to this date it brings the calendar to August 6, 2008, the anniversary of Hiroshima.
12. The Yom Kippur War was started on October 6, 1973 with a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria.
13: The mullahs’ radicalism and zeal to spread their Shiite faith and theocratic government across the Moslem world is reflected in the tulip that is emblazoned on its national flag (a symbol of martyrdom) and the words Allah Akbar (God is great) that are madly inscribed 11 times above and below the tulip. As the mullahs in collaboration with Hezbollah invented and religiously blessed the menace of suicide martyrdom this flag mirrors the regime’s uncompromising commitment to terror, murder and death as a tactic for success in terrorizing the nations into submission and establishing Islam’s rule on earth.
NOTE: The number 11 is composed of two parallel lines that run on forever in separation and never join or meet. As such it is symbolic of irreconcilable differences, uncompromising opposition, intolerance, fanaticism, alienation, polarization and war. Iran’s flag with its two sets of 11 Allah Akbha’s reflect the radical nature of the Khomeine regime; that its revolution and nuclear arms program are inseparably non-negotiable and set in stone. It is a the flag of a regime whose calculus will not change, whose will to power will not bend, whose spirit must be broken and crushed as was Germany‘s and Japan‘s. As with Saddam Hussein war is the only solution to the Iran problem and its menacing quest for the bomb.