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The Epoch Point by Spencer Zimmerman is a religious historical conspiracy thriller that follows evil throughout the existence of mankind, revealing the constant conflict between God and the devil, good and evil. Robert Davis is a young Airman fresh out of Air Force basic training who, after being held captive in China, suddenly finds himself unraveling the most immense conspiracy in history. On duty during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he soon uncovers hidden facts suggesting Russian and Iraqi involvement. While exploring abandoned military barracks at Kessler AFB in Mississippi, Davis and his friends discover the diary of Lee Harvey Oswald. Suddenly the Airmen find themselves the target of mysterious agents. As the clues surface, an evil emerges powerful enough to rewrite the entire history of humanity, not to mention kill two of his good friends. Before long the conspiracy takes on a supernatural form, marked by lightning, tornadoes, hurricanes, and volcanoes, the wrath of God. Davis finds himself torn by the unbelievable realization that God has a message for him. Nothing could prepare him for the final suspenseful twist the story takes, a Da Vinci style revelation that reaffirms his belief in Christ.
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To put the best face on the new Middle East, you'd have to use a magic mirror that would hide the oceans of blood spilled and the vast mountains of money spent by this administration. You'd have to ignore that old talk about making Iraq a beacon of hope and democracy for the region. You would need to forget the false premises presented to the public as justification for the invasion: that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he was in league with Al Qaeda. But that's not so hard. Selective amnesia often presents itself as the judgment of history. If Russian revisionists can rehabilitate Stalin, as they have, then Republican revisionists will no doubt work wonders with the legacy of George W. Bush. Creative minds, like Dr. Strangelove in Stanley Kubrick's quintessential black comedy of the Cold War, can turn apocalypse into opportunity. Victory is theirs.
In the real world of the present, however, things are not so neat. U.S. military power is spread thin, and much of the hugely expensive American arsenal is irrelevant to modern warfare. Our economic power has been greatly weakened, our diplomacy is in disarray, and our loose ideology—what President Bush used to call his "freedom agenda"—has been disrespected by authoritarian allies like Egypt and discredited by Washington's refusal to recognize the elected Hamas government in the Palestinian territories.
All of the tools of statecraft belonging to the last great superpower, in fact, have been diminished and devalued over the last five years, and not only in the Middle East. As a result, almost two decades after the end of the old uppercase Cold War, there's a proliferation of lowercase cold wars, like the unstable stalemates with North Korea, Venezuela, Sudan—and the most challenging of all, the U.S. vs. Iran.
Here's how that particular cold war is likely to shape up:
Keep the Americans In. A massive U.S. military presence in the Middle East will continue indefinitely, and at least some of that force will be based in Iraq. When the United States took out Saddam Hussein, it essentially gave up any notion that the existing states in the region might balance Iran's power. The United States moved into the neighborhood to do that job itself. U.S. troops, planes and warships serve as a deterrent to any major aggression against Israel. They hope to deter any effort to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Inside Iraq, American forces will work to prop up more or less pliant governments (see below) while continuing to hunt for the Al Qaeda cells that cropped up there after Saddam Hussein's regime was destroyed by the U.S. invasion.
Keep the Iranians Out. That job is actually much harder now than it was five years ago. When the United States toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam in Iraq, it eliminated the mullahs' two most dangerous enemies in the region. Then the Bush administration helped install a government in Baghdad that is full of people with much longer and stronger ties to Tehran than to Washington. So while American military force can keep Iran's army and its uniformed Revolutionary Guards at bay, the United States is fighting an uphill battle against diplomatic, economic, religious and economic incursions—not to mention dirty tricks and terrorism.
Nor is Iran's action limited to Iraq. Iran's supporters are increasingly restive in the Arab states of the gulf. The political and military forces of Iranian-backed Hizbullah are pushing slowly but persistently to take control of Lebanon. Hamas in Gaza, meanwhile, has become ever more reliant on Iran as it has been ever more isolated by the West. Saudi Arabia, a vital U.S. ally, no longer has full confidence in the American ability to meet the Iranian challenge and is trying to pursue a more independent diplomatic course, alternating tough talk with reluctant conciliation.
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