With so many interesting and controversial issues and events being reported   
   in the news on a daily basis, the following news article is one which   
   probably very few people -- at least very few Americans -- even bothered to   
   read. However, if we view world events with a prophetic eye -- as we Endtime   
   Christians should be doing -- we will understand that this article bears a   
   lot of prophetic significance.   
      
   Over the years, I have mentioned a number of times how the Book of   
   Revelation states that God will cause the Euphrates River to dry up, in   
   order to prepare the way for the "kings of the east", who will partake in   
   the great Battle of Armageddon, as we see here:   
      
   "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and   
   the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might   
   be prepared." Revelation 16:12, KJV   
      
   As I explain in my articles, contrary to what is taught by a number of other   
   Bible teachers, I have proposed that the term "kings of the east" is not   
   referring to the political leaders and military leaders and their armies of   
   the Orient -- that is, China, Japan, the Koreas, etc., -- but rather to the   
   military leaders and forces of Turkey.   
      
   Why am I convinced of this?   
      
   To reiterate my point, it is because the phrase "kings of the east" actually   
   means the "kings of Anatolia" in the original Greek language of the New   
   Testament. The word "east" is derived from the Greek "anatole", which is   
   pronounced an-at-ol-ay'. In case you had forgotten, Anatolia has long been   
   the name of Turkey, and it is STILL used in Turkey today. The name Turkey is   
   a modern concoction -- derived from Mustafa Kamal Ataturk, (please refer to   
   my articles) -- and isn't even a hundred years old. In older times, Turkey   
   was known as Anatolia, and before that, as Asia Minor. That is where most of   
   the Seven Churches of the Book of Revelation were located. That region of   
   the world was the home of the Hittites -- the descendants of Heth -- who we   
   read about throughout the Old Testament.   
      
   But returning to my main point, it is very significant then, that God's Word   
   says that the Euphrates River -- which finds its origins in Turkey, and the   
   water flow of which is largely controlled by Turkey -- will some day dry up.   
      
   In light of this prophetic Biblical fact, the following article is indeed   
   significant, because it explains once again how areas around the Euphrates   
   River -- in both Syria and Iraq -- are drying up like a prune, as are the   
   water lenses in those areas. Millions of people have already suffered as a   
   result of this, and have been displaced. This problem is so serious now,   
   that the governments of both Syria and Iraq are very concerned about it.   
      
   In the not-too-distant future, there may be wars in the Middle East over   
   water rights, and Turkey will probably be at the center of it all, because   
   the Turks are hogging up the water from the rivers that feed into the   
   Euphrates.   
      
      
   Earth Is Parched Where Syrian Farms Thrived   
      
   By ROBERT F. WORTH - NYT   
      
   October 13, 2010   
      
      
   AR RAQQAH, Syria -- The farmlands spreading north and east of this Euphrates   
   River town were once the breadbasket of the region, a vast expanse of golden   
   wheat fields and bucolic sheep herds.   
      
   Now, after four consecutive years of drought, this heartland of the Fertile   
   Crescent -- including much of neighboring Iraq -- appears to be turning   
   barren, climate scientists say. Ancient irrigation systems have collapsed,   
   underground water sources have run dry and hundreds of villages have been   
   abandoned as farmlands turn to cracked desert and grazing animals die off.   
   Sandstorms have become far more common, and vast tent cities of dispossessed   
   farmers and their families have risen up around the larger towns and cities   
   of Syria and Iraq.   
      
   "I had 400 acres of wheat, and now it's all desert," said Ahmed Abdullah,   
   48, a farmer who is living in a ragged burlap and plastic tent here with his   
   wife and 12 children alongside many other migrants. "We were forced to flee.   
   Now we are at less than zero -- no money, no job, no hope."   
      
   The collapse of farmlands here -- which is as much a matter of human   
   mismanagement as of drought -- has become a dire economic challenge and a   
   rising security concern for the Syrian and Iraqi governments, which are   
   growing far more dependent on other countries for food and water. Syria,   
   which once prided itself on its self-sufficiency and even exported wheat, is   
   now quietly importing it in ever larger amounts. The country's total water   
   resources dropped by half between 2002 and 2008, partly through waste and   
   overuse, scientists and water engineers say.   
      
   For Syria, which is running out of oil reserves and struggling to draw   
   foreign investment, the farming crisis is an added vulnerability in part   
   because it is taking place in the area where its restive Kurdish minority is   
   centered. Iraq, devastated by war, is now facing a water crisis in both the   
   north and the south that may be unprecedented in its history. Both countries   
   have complained about reduced flow on the Euphrates, thanks to massive   
   upriver dam projects in Turkey that are likely to generate more tension as   
   the water crisis worsens.   
      
   The four-year drought in Syria has pushed two million to three million   
   people into extreme poverty, according to a survey completed here this month   
   by the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De   
   Schutter. Herders in the country's northeast have lost 85 percent of their   
   livestock, and at least 1.3 million people have been affected, he reported.   
      
   An estimated 50,000 more families have migrated from rural areas this year,   
   on top of the hundreds of thousands of people who fled in earlier years, Mr.   
   De Schutter said. Syria, with a fast-growing population, has already   
   strained to accommodate more than a million Iraqi refugees in the years   
   since the 2003 invasion.   
      
   "It is ironic: this region is the origin of wheat and barley, and now it is   
   among the biggest importers of these products," said Rami Zurayk, a   
   professor of agricultural and food science at the American University in   
   Beirut who is writing a book on the farming crisis.   
      
   The drought has become a delicate subject for the Syrian government, which   
   does not give foreign journalists official permission to write about it or   
   grant access to officials in the Agriculture Ministry. On the road running   
   south from Damascus, displaced farmers and herders can be seen living in   
   tents, but the entrances are closely watched by Syrian security agents, who   
   do not allow journalists in.   
      
   Droughts have always taken place here, but "the regional climate is changing   
   in ways that are clearly observable," said Jeannie Sowers, a professor at   
   the University of New Hampshire who has written on Middle East climate   
   issues. "Whether you call it human-induced climate change or not, much of   
   the region is getting hotter and dryer, combined with more intense, erratic   
   rainfall and flooding in some areas. You will have people migrating as a   
   result, and governments are ill prepared."   
      
   The Syrian government has begun to acknowledge the scale of the problem and   
   has developed a national drought plan, though it has not yet been put in   
   place, analysts say. Poor planning helped create the problem in the first   
   place: Syria spent $15 billion on misguided irrigation projects between 1988   
   and 2000 with little result, said Elie Elhadj, a Syrian-born author who   
   wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the topic. Syria continues to grow cotton   
   and wheat in areas that lack sufficient water -- making them more vulnerable   
   to drought -- because the government views the ability to produce those   
   crops as part of its identity and a bulwark against foreign dependence,   
   analysts say.   
      
   Illegal water drills can be seen across Syria and Iraq, and underground   
   water tables are dropping at a rate that is "really frightening," said Mr.   
   De Schutter, the United Nations expert. There are no reliable nationwide   
   statistics, and some analysts and Western diplomats say they believe the   
   Syrian government is not measuring them.   
      
   As in other countries across the Arab world, corruption and failed   
   administration are often to blame. "A lot of powerful people don't abide by   
   the regulations, and nobody can tame them," said Nabil Sukkar, a   
   Damascus-based economic analyst.   
      
   In Ar Raqqah, many displaced farmers talk about wells running dry, and   
   turning polluted.   
      
   "My uncle's well used to be 70 meters deep, now it's 130 meters and now the   
   water became salty, so we closed it down," said Khalaf Ayed Tajim, a stocky   
   sheep herder and farmer who heads a local collective for displaced   
   northerners. He left his native village 60 miles from here when half of his   
   herd died off and his fields dried up, and now lives in a concrete bunker   
   with his 17 children, two wives, and his mother.   
      
   In Iraq, 100,000 people had been displaced as of a year ago, according to a   
   United Nations report. More than 70 percent of the ancient underground   
   aqueducts have dried up and been abandoned in the past five years, the   
   report said. Since then, the situation has only worsened.   
      
   "We saw whole villages buried in sand," said Zaid al-Ali, an Iraqi-born   
   lecturer at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris who returned in August   
   from a survey of water and farm conditions in Kirkuk and Salahuddin   
   Provinces, in northern Iraq. "Their situation is desperate."   
      
   Southern Iraq has seen similar farming collapses, with reduced river flow   
   from the Euphrates and the drying up of the once vast southern marshes.   
      
   Syrian officials say they expect to get help from water-rich Turkey, which   
   has recently become a close ally after years of frosty relations. But it may   
   be too late to save the abandoned villages of northern Syria and Iraq.   
      
   "At first, the migrations were temporary, but after three or four years,   
   these people will not come back," said Abdullah Yahia bin Tahir, the United   
   Nations Food and Agriculture representative in Damascus.   
      
   "Back in the village, our houses are covered in dust; it's as if they'd been   
   destroyed," said Mr. Tajim, the farmer who moved here two years ago. "We   
   would love to go back, but how? There is no water, no electricity, nothing."   
      
      
      
   Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23   
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