Looking Forward Into 2018
When I was working in Saudi Arabia, I looked at the history of the company and made a forecast for what could happen in the next five years. I sent this to all of the family that comprised the Board of Directors. I asked one of the members if he saw the forecast. He said that he did. I asked him what he thought and he said that it was interesting. I asked him if we should begin to move in the directions that I had suggested and he surprised me by saying no. I asked him why and he said that this might interfere with what Allah wanted them to do. He said they never did anything like this until the need to do something came up and this is how they knew the will of Allah. As Christians, we believe God will give us guidance a little farther in advance than this.
To know for certain the things that are going to happen in our country during 2018, a man would have to be a prophet of the Almighty God. However, there are certain rules of life that can tell us a lot. If you combine oxygen and hydrogen you will get water. If you swipe a match across a hard surface you will get fire. Some of the situations in the world today are just as predictable as one of these two events. We have a president in the United States that follows a set of rules that tells him that if a certain event takes place, the reaction is an established fact. He is a man who follows up on the promises that he has made. During the term of President Obama, ISIS was organized and they were determined to establish what they called a Caliphate which was to be recognized as a new Islamic nation taking part of the territories of Syria and Iraq. President Trump promised to destroy this Caliphate and he has done it. The leader of the group ( Baghdadi) is thought to be wounded and hiding but the territory is no longer under his control.
One of the biggest international problems is the nation of North Korea. The leader is an arrogant young man who does not have good judgment. He is threatening the most powerful military nation in the world. He is sitting with a loaded gun pointed at him and daring its owner to shoot him. He lives in fear for his personal life. He sleeps in a different bed each night and moves to a new location early each day. He has few people that he can trust. He cannot bring a new man into his confidence because he may be an assassin sent to kill him. He recently had his own brother killed to eliminate a challenge to his position. Be sure that there are a number of men who have been sent into North Korea with the purpose of eliminating the leader. The United States has aircraft carriers nearby and submarines with rockets aimed at the major locations in North Korea to the extent that North Korea can be destroyed. I believe that during this year, we can expect a news report that a single attack has been made against a single location in North Korea and the young leader will be dead.
There will never be peace in the Middle East. The Muslim nations will never accept the presence of Israel. As long as the United States stands with Israel, there should not be an attack from any of the Muslim nations but groups like Hamas will attack them at every opportunity. Hamas is supported by Iran but Hamas is not strong enough to overthrow Israel. I do not expect that there will be a conclusion reached during this year to form a Palestinian nation. For a nation to be formed it should have the ability to become selfsupporting. The Palestinians have no means to support itself. They also do not have any desire to support themselves. They want territory that belongs to Israel that is already developed. The land that the Palestinians occupy is just like the land that Israel had when they began. Both the United States and Israel would provide loans and grants to Palestinians to develop their land but they are not willing to do the work. The Palestinian Authority that claims to want a separate state is being supported by the United States Foreign Aid.
On the national front, there will probably not be serious changes in Congress. The Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is making noises like he plans to resign as Speaker. He may have been floating a balloon to see how many members of Congress would beg him not to resign. These responses would be given quietly to him so we cannot judge how serious the threat of resignation really is. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are ruling the Democrats with an iron fist so unless lots of the Democrats lose their seats there will be no change. Any changes in Washington would probably come about after the November elections depending on whether the voters go for the Republicans or the Democrats.
The Department of Justice and the FBI should have some changes depending on whether the charges are brought to a Grand Jury. There may be some voluntary changes in leadership to prevent charges going to a Grand Jury. The use of the Grand Jury might lead to trials that would bring prison sentences to some of the leaders. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been notably quiet on the situation. He is the man who can make the necessary changes and he is still not speaking up.
The Tax Revision Bill has passed Congress with no Democratic votes in favor of it. It is strange that members of Congress get elected based on the positions that they relate to the voters. When they are in Congress, they will only vote the way that the Congressional leaders instruct them to vote. Surely there was one Democrat in Congress that thought this would be a good bill.