Nothing unites like a common enemy…

Well, that’s an overstatement.  Still, having a common enemy is one of the most powerful factors of unification in man’s society and has made for many odd bedfellows throughout history.

And it might be what helps the prophesied confederacy of Arab states (Psalm 83:4-8) – often referred to as the King of the South (Daniel 11:40-43) – to unite, in a short-lived cooperation with Germany and the EU (modern Assyria).  In this, the U.S. might be playing a powerful role by igniting the tinderbox of Shiite and Sunni conflict in the nation of Iraq.

The Wall Street Journal had this to say in an article entitled “If Iraq Worsens, Allies See ‘Nightmare’ Case,” published Tuesday, January 9, 2007 (click here to read, although subscription may be required):

The potential of a much larger regional conflict that pits Sunnis against Shiites is increasingly on the minds of both Arab leaders and U.S. military planners, according to regional diplomats and U.S. officials. Some are calling such a possible outcome the “nightmare scenario.” A wider conflict appears more plausible now because, even as Iraq is separating along sectarian lines, regional dynamics are shoving neighboring nations into two rival camps.

On one side is a Shiite-led arc running from Iran into central Iraq, through Syria and into Lebanon. On the other side lie American allies Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, along with Persian Gulf states such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. These Sunni regimes are horrified at the emerging, increasingly radicalized Shiite bloc, largely financed and inspired by Iran, Arab diplomats say.

In the middle is Iraq, which looks less and less like a buffer between these two axes of Middle East power, and more of a no-man’s land that is bringing them into conflict. Arab officials fear that if the U.S. withdraws from there, or diminishes its troop numbers in ways that Iraq’s own weak military can’t fill, the two sides could come into direct and bloody conflict.

Mr. John Ogwyn, late evangelist with the Living Church of God and my former pastor in Dallas, mentioned on several occasions that an Iraq divided along ethnic lines was a real possibility in the scope of Biblical prophecy for the region.  Should such a possibility begin to take shape, the journey there would have an impact around the world, as suggested by the same WSJ article:

An all-out civil war in Iraq that drags in bordering countries would send shockwaves through the global oil market, potentially pushing oil prices to more than $100 a barrel, oil analysts predict. Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran together hold about two-thirds of the world’s proven oil reserves.

Two scholars, Kenneth Pollack at the Brookings Institution and Daniel Byman of the Rand Corp., have worked for months on a study that lays out possible consequences in a worst-case scenario, from skyrocketing oil prices to huge, destabilizing refugee flows. They argue that Iraq could become the world’s premier sanctuary for terrorism and that strife there could spark minority uprisings in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria — and even among Turkey’s sizable Kurdish population.

Should a powerful, Iran-leaning Shiite state emerge from a split up of Iraq, Iran will be that much more emboldened.  But it will drive the larger Sunni-oriented nations to measures that will inevitably match that ambition with desperation.  And out of that desperation could form a union.

While the manner in which all this will play out remains to be seen, one thing remains certain: The Bible said that the Middle East would, in the end times, be the focus of the world’s attention.  We can all be sure that it will be so.