“Future History” for seniors

Sunday night, we watched the most provocative video I can remember in a long time. It was a look back in history of 100+ years, an assessment of our current geo-political situation and a forecast of where the world, especially the Middle East, is heading.

It was so informative that we plan to watch it again tonight, and I want to share it with you because I think it will help you understand the current geo-political landscape, especially in the middle east, and where it’s likely to go.

If you’re anything like me, you may not have paid 100% attention during your western civilization courses when you were a freshman in college (mine was at Rutgers University back in 1961-62, so even the little I learned back then is at best “quite dusty” now).

It’s a YouTube video entitled, “Turkish Caliphate Rising-The Revival of the Original Islamic State,” by Dalton Thomas, a U.S. citizen living in Israel. His organization is FAI, Frontier Alliance International, website: FAImission.org. They have produced some of the most informative movies you’ve ever seen, all very professionally done in every respect. This video isn’t anything like that; it was simply Dalton sharing his intimate understanding of the Ottoman Empire; past, present and future, and overlaying their self-stated ambitions on our current world order.

If that sounds dull (as it does to me even as I type this) please bear with me because the subject matter of the video is sure to impact your future for at least the next few years until 2023, the 100th anniversary of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. In fact, as I watched last night, I thought this might even overshadow what China is doing, and none of us has been immune (pun intended) by their actions recently!

As I mentioned, the video looks back for 100+ years, and even though most of us are seniors, we weren’t around back then. The parallels then to now are striking. I’ll just bullet point them for you here:

•Pre WW I, The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest, longest-lasting empires in world history

•WW I and the resulting demise of the Ottoman Empire

•The 1918 global flu pandemic

•The roaring 20s stock market boom

•The Great Depression of the 30s

•The rise of Hitler and WW II

•The post WW II era that most of us have lived through

•The current resurgence of the Islamic state

This last point, the current rise of the Islamic state, is really what the entire video is focused on. But without the foundation Dalton lays, it is impossible to put it into perspective and to have a sense of whether Recep Erodogan’s goals are realistic.

As far as the future is concerned, Dalton points out that Turkey, in trying to rebuild the former Ottoman Empire in all its former glory, is on a collision course with the West, other mid-east power brokers and the eschatology of Judaism and Christianity.

I don’t know if I’ve “whet your appetite” for this video or not, but I hope so. You owe it to yourself and to your grandchildren.

Thanks for reading All About Seniors … see you next week. And thanks in advance for taking time to watch YouTube: “Turkish Caliphate Rising-The Revival of the Original Islamic State.”

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