Iraq's political crisis and its effect on the dinar

As we are coming to the end of December, it is time to assess the situation in Iraq and to see how it may affect the revaluation of the dinar.

Two weeks ago the UN Security Council decided against removing the remaining sanctions from Iraq. They will consider it again in June. The question now is whether Iraq must be out of Chapter VII first, or if they must revalue first, as many are saying. I have no personal information on this, one way or another.

When the last of the US forces pulled out of Iraq on Dec. 18, the country immediately went into a political crisis. PM Maliki apparently induced his favorite Supreme Court judge to issue an arrest warrant for Vice President Hashemi, accusing him of terrorism. It is reported that Maliki lied, claiming that all 5 of the Justices had signed the warrant, when in fact only one judge had done so, and the others claimed ignorance of the whole thing.

Hashemi fled to Kurdistan, demanding that any trial be held there, instead of at Baghdad where Maliki could influence the outcome. Maliki's political coalition is now being held together by a thread, as many are talking about ousting him and even calling for new elections.

If this is the way they go, then it seems likely that the country will remain under UN sanctions, since they are looking for "political stability" before they give Iraq full independence. There have been a lot of media moments this past month in which Pres. Obama and others recognize Iraq's "sovereignty" and "independence." However, that is just talk until the paperwork is signed. Even so, there is a report that the paperwork is supposed to be signed Dec. 28.

So what does the current state of affairs mean? Well, at the start of December, I saw that we had entered a type of Passover, particularly in the idea of "coming out of Egypt." When Israel came out of Egypt, they left with a bit of cash. Therefore, it was a good time to watch for the dinar revaluation.

The problem is that in the law there are two Passovers (Num. 9:9-11), each a month apart. So if we extend that law to our current prophetic situation, then the second Passover would occur about now--the end of December. So we are again at a time to watch events closely.

In the big picture, Iraq is a type of Babylon. Iraq was formed in 1921, and it fell to the coalition forces 70 years later in the first Gulf War in 1991.

The second Gulf War in 2003 was equally interesting, as the overthrow of Hussein occurred 70 years after 1933, when the banks foreclosed upon the US government, putting our own country under the full authority of Mystery Babylon. So it is clear that Iraq is interconnected with 70-year prophetic patterns of Scripture.

I have written in the past that I do not expect to see PM Maliki remain in office much longer. Maliki is a word derived from melek, "king," and so he is currently playing the role of Belshazzar, the final king of old Babylon (Dan. 5). When Babylon fell, Belshazzar was killed; hence, when Iraq falls in our day, Maliki will either be killed or perhaps just ousted from his position as head of state.

The revaluation correlates prophetically with the diversion of the Euphrates, which occurs just prior to the fall of Babylon. The Euphrates was the life blood of Babylon, its source of life. Modern Babylon is primarily a banking system, and its life blood is money. Money is liquidity, the "river" running through the banking system.

The Euphrates was dried up by diverting the water into channels upstream, allowing the troops of Media-Persia to enter the city on the dry riverbed. So prophetically, in Rev. 16, it is prophesied that the angel will dry up the river Euphrates in order to prepare the way for the kings of the East. This portends the downfall of Babylon today, even as it did back in Daniel's time.

It is my view that the diversion of the river today is the revaluation of the dinar (money). In Scripture, this is the final event before the change in government over Babylon.

We are now seeing Maliki's coalition threatened like never before. There are calls for new elections. Many have lost confidence in his leadership. Many call him a dictator and compare him to Saddam Hussein. Certainly, the old divisions between Sunni, Kurds, and Shia are cracking the foundations of this coalition and splitting them into three parts (as per Rev. 16).

The imminence of Maliki's downfall shows us that we are very close to the revaluation, because, if I am reading the prophetic types correctly, we should see the revaluation before Maliki's downfall. Or perhaps nearly at the same time.

Those who look merely at the political situation are becoming discouraged, thinking that his downfall could push the revaluation out another six months or a year. By normal political analysis, I might agree. But I look at things from a more prophetic standpoint. Hence, my view is that we will see the revaluation before or about the same time that Maliki is killed or expelled from office.

He could receive a no-confidence vote in Parliament and be forced to call for new elections. If things went normally, as in most other countries, he could remain in office until after the elections. If that proves to be the case, we may have to wait until the first or second Passover next Spring. But I do not think this is a normal situation. I have found throughout the past that nothing is normal when it is linked to spiritual things and/or prophetic types.

For this reason, I view Maliki's political problems as evidence that the revaluation is drawing near. The unknown factor is how long Maliki can survive these problems. The heat has been turned up, however, and we should watch this with interest.

To finish out the prophetic story. . . Revelation 16 indicates that some time after the Euphrates is dried up, Babylon will fall and then split into three parts. The natural fault lines of Babylon are the regional borders between the Kurds in the north, the Sunnis in the middle, and the Shia in the south. It seems to me that whatever happens to Maliki will bring about this three-way split, but not immediately.

It will naturally take time for the country to split like this. The process may get started almost immediately, of course, but the formal split would take weeks or months. There will still be a window of opportunity for those invested in dinars between the revaluation and the national split. Of course, when the nation splits into three parts, it is not likely that they will agree to share a common currency as before. For this reason, I believe that a few months after the revaluation, the currency will be repudiated and become worthless as it is replaced by three separate currencies.

So it might be a good idea to cash in all the revalued dinars, instead of holding on to a portion of them in hopes that they might increase in value later. But if you do hold on to some of them, just be watchful of the political situation in Iraq. Watch for signs of collapse. Don't be caught with dinars if and when that occurs.

Understand, however, that there will be an adequate window of time in which to cash out of dinars into dollars or whatever other currency or store of value that you choose. Meanwhile, stay balanced and do all things by faith, never by fear.