User:SqueakBox/ Beast fantasy
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Javier Solana Madariaga (born July 14, 1942 in Madrid, Spain) is the current Secretary-General and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of both the European Union (EU) and, more significantly, of the ten-member Western European Union (WEU). The WEU is composed of ten nations which belong to both the EU and NATO, and was formed in 1954; according to its official website, it "provided for collective self-defence and economic, social and cultural collaboration between its signatories". [1] The WEU has lain mostly dormant since, and is currently in the process of being folded into the wider EU.
Many Christian fundamentalists believe that there are biblical prophecies in Daniel and Revelation which state that there will be an Antichrist, a person or other entity that is the embodiment of evil and utterly opposed to truth. A small minority of these people believe that Solana may fit their notions of this Biblical figure, and some, (especially those who hold to a premillennial eschatology), actually believe that Solana is the Antichrist. The two people who are most linked to these allegations are Herb Peters and Constance E. Cumbey.
The main basis for these allegations seems to be paragraph 666 of the 1998 EU General Report [2] and WEU Assembly Recommendation 666 [3]. (As detailed in Number of the Beast, 666 is a powerfully significant number). The first paragraph discusses the office of the High Representative, although it does not refer to Solana by name. Specifically, it states "In December (1998) the Vienna European Council expressed the opinion that the Secretary-General of the Council and High Representative for the CFSP should be appointed as soon as possible and be a personality with a strong political profile". Meanwhile, paragraph 666 of the WEU Assembly Recommendation contains the text "(The Assembly) (recommends that the council) support proposals for the WEU Secretary-General and CFSP High Representative to preside over the PSC and civilian crisis-management machinery and give him powers to convene the Council of the European Union in the event of an emergency".
The view that Solana is to head both the EU and the WEU, which are identified as a rebuilt Roman Empire appears to be held by certain Christian groups in the United States of America in particular, and that this rebuilt Roman Empire will be on the ungodly side in an imminent Battle of Armageddon. Such people fear that the EU will become a superpower through the alleged military might of the WEU, and thus threaten the geopolitical dominanace held by the USA since the end of the cold war.
They are particular interested in the powers that Solana holds in his various jobs. They note that, in an emergency, Solana can evoke almost unlimited powers in order to ensure the internal security of the EU. They furthermore believe that his secretaryship of the partially dormant ten-member WEU is related to a biblical prophecy from Daniel 7:7 and 7:8, which states that the antichrist will arise from a ten-nation alliance; specifically, the verses read, in the King James Bible:
- 7:7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it [was] diverse from all the beasts that [were] before it; and it had ten horns.
- 7:8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn [were] eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
With reference to verse 7:8, Solana is considered to be, and sometimes called, the "little horn", rising up to take control of the WEU ten-horn alliance. Those who subscribe to the belief that Solana is an antichrist also see the Barcelona Conference, organised by Solana while he was still Spain's foreign minister during Spain's turn at the EU presidency, and the subsequent Barcelona Process, as being proof that Solana is the Beast. Both the WEU and the Barcelona Process are seen as a threat to American interests in Europe and in the Mediteranean Basin.
This situation can be partly explained as a repercussion of the strained transatlantic relations following the Invasion of Iraq, US foreign policy in general, and the mostly sceptical outlook by Europeans on a perception that the administration of President George W. Bush is excessively religious in outlook. [4][5] In turn, this European scepticism is perceived as simple Anti-Americanism by many within the US.
Parallel to the Solana allegations, the notion that George W. Bush may in fact be the Antichrist is at least as widespread, if not more so. [6] [7]
