I just opened my New York Times news packet for today, and got my mind blown
by the following headline:

Iraq Suffers as the Euphrates River Dwindles

If you don't understand the significance of that headline, then allow me to
remind you of the following verses:

"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. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the
mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth
of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles,
which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather
them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a
thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk
naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place
called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon."
Revelation 16:12-16, KJV

What is equally mind-blowing, is that the New York Times, which is a
Jewish-controlled newspaper, even briefly mentions this prophecy from the
Book of Revelation. As you know, the orthodox Jews do not accept the New
Testament as the inspired Word of God. The NYT article states:

----- Begin Quote -----

The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of
civilization that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign
of the end times, has decimated farms along its banks, has left fishermen
impoverished and has depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities
looking for work.

----- End Quote -----

Many Bible scholars and students have been waiting for years for the
Euphrates River event to occur. It appears that we may be seeing the
beginning of it now. The Euphrates may not be completely dried up just yet,
but one of these days, it will be; and when it is, the armies of the kings
of the East will march into the plain of northern Israel for the Battle of
Armageddon against the Lord.

Here is the NYT news article in full:

Iraq Suffers as the Euphrates River Dwindles

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON - NYT

July 13, 2009


JUBAISH, Iraq -- Throughout the marshes, the reed gatherers, standing on
land they once floated over, cry out to visitors in a passing boat.

"Maaku mai!" they shout, holding up their rusty sickles. "There is no
water!"

The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of Iraq's
neighbors, Turkey and Syria; a two-year drought; and years of misuse by Iraq
and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few
years ago. Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is
now.

The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of
civilization that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign
of the end times, has decimated farms along its banks, has left fishermen
impoverished and has depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities
looking for work.

The poor suffer more acutely, but all strata of society are feeling the
effects: sheiks, diplomats and even members of Parliament who retreat to
their farms after weeks in Baghdad.

Along the river, rice and wheat fields have turned to baked dirt. Canals
have dwindled to shallow streams, and fishing boats sit on dry land. Pumps
meant to feed water treatment plants dangle pointlessly over brown puddles.

"The old men say it's the worst they remember," said Sayid Diyia, 34, a
fisherman in Hindiya, sitting in a riverside cafe full of his idle
colleagues. "I'm depending on God's blessings."

The drought is widespread in Iraq. The area sown with wheat and barley in
the rain-fed north is down roughly 95 percent from the usual, and the date
palm and citrus orchards of the east are parched. For two years rainfall has
been far below normal, leaving the reservoirs dry, and American officials
predict that wheat and barley output will be a little over half of what it
was two years ago.

It is a crisis that threatens the roots of Iraq's identity, not only as the
land between two rivers but as a nation that was once the largest exporter
of dates in the world, that once supplied German beer with barley and that
takes patriotic pride in its expensive Anbar rice.

Now Iraq is importing more and more grain. Farmers along the Euphrates say,
with anger and despair, that they may have to abandon Anbar rice for cheaper
varieties.

Droughts are not rare in Iraq, though officials say they have been more
frequent in recent years. But drought is only part of what is choking the
Euphrates and its larger, healthier twin, the Tigris.

The most frequently cited culprits are the Turkish and Syrian governments.
Iraq has plenty of water, but it is a downstream country. There are at least
seven dams on the Euphrates in Turkey and Syria, according to Iraqi water
officials, and with no treaties or agreements, the Iraqi government is
reduced to begging its neighbors for water.

At a conference in Baghdad -- where participants drank bottled water from
Saudi Arabia, a country with a fraction of Iraq's fresh water -- officials
spoke of disaster.

"We have a real thirst in Iraq," said Ali Baban, the minister of planning.
"Our agriculture is going to die, our cities are going to wilt, and no state
can keep quiet in such a situation."

Recently, the Water Ministry announced that Turkey had doubled the water
flow into the Euphrates, salvaging the planting phase of the rice season in
some areas.

That move increased water flow to about 60 percent of its average, just
enough to cover half of the irrigation requirements for the summer rice
season. Though Turkey has agreed to keep this up and even increase it, there
is no commitment binding the country to do so.

With the Euphrates showing few signs of increasing health, bitterness over
Iraq's water threatens to be a source of tension for months or even years to
come between Iraq and its neighbors. Many American, Turkish and even Iraqi
officials, disregarding the accusations as election-year posturing, say the
real problem lies in Iraq's own deplorable water management policies.

"There used to be water everywhere," said Abduredha Joda, 40,
sitting in his
reed hut on a dry, rocky plot of land outside Karbala. Mr. Joda, who
describes his dire circumstances with a tired smile, grew up near Basra but
fled to Baghdad when Saddam Hussein drained the great marshes of southern
Iraq in retaliation for the 1991 Shiite uprising. He came to Karbala in 2004
to fish and raise water buffaloes in the lush wetlands there that remind him
of his home.

"This year it's just a desert," he said.

Along the river, there is no shortage of resentment at the Turks and
Syrians. But there is also resentment at the Americans, Kurds, Iranians and
the Iraqi government, all of whom are blamed. Scarcity makes foes of
everyone.

The Sunni areas upriver seem to have enough water, Mr. Joda observed, a
comment heavy with implication.

Officials say nothing will improve if Iraq does not seriously address its
own water policies and its history of flawed water management. Leaky canals
and wasteful irrigation practices squander the water, and poor drainage
leaves fields so salty from evaporated water that women and children dredge
huge white mounds from sitting pools of runoff.

On a scorching morning in Diwaniya, Bashia Mohammed, 60, was working in a
drainage pool by the highway gathering salt, her family's only source of
income now that its rice farm has dried up. But the dead farm was not the
real crisis.

"There's no water in the river that we drink from," she said,
referring to a
channel that flows from the Euphrates. "It's now totally dry, and it
contains sewage water. They dig wells but sometimes the water just cuts out
and we have to drink from the river. All my kids are sick because of the
water."

In the southeast, where the Euphrates nears the end of its 1,730-mile
journey and mingles with the less salty waters of the Tigris before emptying
into the Persian Gulf, the situation is grave. The marshes there that were
intentionally reflooded in 2003, rescuing the ancient culture of the marsh
Arabs, are drying up again. Sheep graze on land in the middle of the river.

The farmers, reed gatherers and buffalo herders keep working, but they say
they cannot continue if the water stays like this.

"Next winter will be the final chance," said Hashem Hilead Shehi, a
73-year-old farmer who lives in a bone-dry village west of the marshes. "If
we are not able to plant, then all of the families will leave."


Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23
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