Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum that he saw no prospect of peace in the Middle East for decades to come. He said that if Israel fully eradicated Hamas, “something much worse” would take its place. He said Israel should carefully calibrate its current offensive in Gaza to punish Hamas, so as not to eliminate it; otherwise Gaze could fall under the sway of the extremist group ISIS that controls large sections of Syria and Iraq.
“Is there going to be peace in the Middle East? Not in my lifetime,” Flynn said.
After two weeks of fighting, more than 1000 Palestinians and 46 Israelis have been killed. “Chances of a diplomatic solution seem increasingly remote.”
Meanwhile, the Syrian civil war poses a direct threat to the U.S. because a growing number of foreigners, including some 100 U.S. citizens are joining the fight there, according to Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center. They carry U.S. passports, along with some 1000 Europeans with European passports, which makes it easy for them to return to their homelands and plan potential attacks. All together there are at least 12,000 foreigners fighting Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria.
According to many U.S. defense leaders, ISIS is becoming a safe-haven for training camps and terror planning similar to Afghanistan before 9/11.
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubles: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and Kingdom against kingdom…” Matthew 24:6-7
“In the future there will be broken thrones and great distress of nations, with perplexity. Satan will work with intense activity. The earth will be filled with the shrieks of suffering, expiring nations. There will be war, war. The places of the earth will be in confusion, as from its bowels pours forth its burning contents, to destroy the inhabitants of the world who, in their wickedness, resemble the inhabitants of the antediluvian world.” Manuscript Releases, Vol. 18, page 92