The Antichrist's Motive for the Attack

Revisited on 08-17-2010

Century VIII, Quatrain 77
The antichrist very soon annihilates the three, twenty seven years his war will last. The unbelievers are dead, captive, exiled; with blood, human bodies, water and red hail covering the earth.

Interpretation with Explanatory Remarks
The initial interpretation was posted on the Web at http://www.currentpredictions.org/ in 2003. This is a re-assessment of the original interpretation based on the most recent unfolding developments.

General Comment:
During the period of 1985 to 2000 when I first started reading Nostradamus’ predictions, none of his predictions that relate to current-ongoing-events which I was able to interpret in 2003-onward, made any sense. They all appeared like meaningless gobbledygook, pure convoluted nonsense. The reason why I could not interpret them prior to the millennium, or even get the slightest hint of what Nostradamus was predicting, is because I could not relate the contents of the quatrains to any ongoing events that were taking place in the period prior to the millennium. I was reading the predictions well ahead of their time of maturity.

After the second millennium, my initial disbeliefs disappeared. In fact, they vanished instantaneously, and from a disbeliever I was miraculously converted to an ardent believer. I could no longer deny the relevancy of the details of Nostradamus’ predictions to current unfolding events and episodes. The credit for the change of mind regarding Nostradamus’ predictions is solely attributed to the public declarations of friendship between President George W. Bush and Russia’s Prime Minister Putin. Nostradamus has a very accurate and detailed prediction on the purported friendship of these two leaders. The accuracy and precision of his prediction is awesome.

After a few years of complete disappointment in Nostradamus’ predictions, suddenly I recognized a prediction that I could empirically relate to the daily news I heard and saw in the news media. That was the start. At that point I realized that I had to find out the meaning of his symbolisms and to recognize other quatrains that complemented the ones I had already interpreted (such as the two quatrains about Osama bin Laden).

I have since realized that a good number of his predictions have a “period of continuity” till they fully materialize, and a prediction which initially may appear to be questionable or non-credible, may no longer be so at the time the prediction is about to be fulfilled. Therefore, his predictions require that we periodically track them as they unfold through time and evolving events till they reach their time of maturity. A good case in point to describe what I am talking about is Century VIII, quatrain 77.

At the time of my initial interpretation of this quatrain back in 2003, I could understand what Nostradamus was saying, but I was not convinced about the dire outcome of his prediction. I must admit that even though, back in 2003, I went ahead and interpreted the quatrain exactly as Nostradamus had predicted it, deep down in my heart I was not convinced about the dire economic outcome he was predicting. I had serious doubts about his prediction, namely, that the economies of the Western World would be annihilated. The prediction did not sound credible. It defied pragmatic relevance to the economic conditions of that period. It did not look to be a realistic outcome of a North Korean attack.

For a few years since 2003 I kept questioning the correctness of the prediction because, from a pragmatic point of view, I could not rationalize and accept that North Korea’s nuclear attack could annihilate the economies of the Western World. The outcome sounded like a preposterous prediction. Webster’s Dictionary says that the word “annihilate” means “to reduce to nothing” or “to vanquish completely”. This is a very extreme condition! But, how could such an extreme outcome, be considered realistic and credible back in 2003? The U.S. economy during the first term of George W. Bush was not that bad. The financial institutions were still thriving, and for sure, the economy would have continued to do much better, had George W. Bush not invaded Iraq and Afghanistan and at the same time reduced the tax rate for high-income earners.

As the years went by, however, and we reached the third quarter of 2008, Nostradamus’ prediction, which in 2003 looked to be a totally unrealistic and incredible prediction, evolved into a very credible one. Following the cataclysmic downfall of the Wall Street financial institutions circa October 2008, the cracks in our economic structure started to become more and more apparent, and the economic conditions progressively evolved from bad to worse.

Since 2008 the economy has been plagued by persistent unemployment, persistent trade deficits, increased homelessness, serious credit issues, a housing market with no bottom in sight, a national debt that is in the trillions and is growing unabated, GDPs with low growth, a public that is heavily indebted, and a future full of uncertainties and unknown perils – and with no hope in sight. In other words, our overall fiscal and monetary structure is in such turmoil, the slightest domestic or external adverse catalyst could spin the entire U.S. economic system into chaos and out of control.

In view of the afore-mentioned evolving events, we could say that by about August 2010 the prediction reached its maturity time, the time of its potential materialization. Currently the U.S. economic institutions and financial instruments are so weakened, any catalyst, an untenable national deficit or a North Korean attack, would, most probably, bring about an uncontrollable economic devastation and world-wide financial chaos. So, the economic pre-condition of Nostradamus’ prediction has been met. Now let us consider the other part of his prediction, the part that relates to current unfolding events on the Korean Peninsula. This part of the prediction deals with the events that could potentially motivate Kim Jong Il to initiate an attack with weapons of mass destruction.

In all the years Kim Jong Il has been in power, we see, time and again, the potential of a full-scale war of North Korea with South Korea, and possibly Japan, has been persistently present. North Korea, under Kim Jong Il, incessantly pursued a foreign diplomacy of intimidation and minor border skirmishes. Paradoxically however, during all these years since the 1953 armistice, we notice that in spite of the many threats, repetitive cajolery, and incendiary and highly provocative rhetoric, his actions never exceeded the point of no return. He has been, unquestionably, a master of brinkmanship. In each incident, hostilities and threats stopped, just as abruptly as they started. His country’s foreign policy has appeared like a pendulum out of control – yet, he has always been in total control of the situation.

The question we need to ask ourselves at this point is “If Kim Jong Il persistently demonstrated such  judicious judgment, could we really consider him a warmonger, or should we consider him a bona fide survivalist?” Why would he want to start a war and risk everything he has achieved so far? Hasn’t his overall behavioral pattern clearly demonstrated that everything he has been doing has been carried out in order to retain personal power? Aren’t the recent evolving events related to the transfer of power to his son, carried out strictly for the perpetuity of his family’s dynasty? This guy is not a warmonger. The idea that he would start a war is preposterous. Everything he did, or does, is a façade for survival. This guy is obsessed with personal power. Not only this, but he behaves as if he owns the country. He truly does.

Why would Kim Jong Il want to start a war and lose the luxurious life-style, he and his family have enjoyed all these years? He has been living “La dolce vita”. The idea of him starting a war does not make any sense. None whatsoever. All these years we have been continually bombarded by the State Department, foreign policy experts, and news media that Kim Jong Il is an irrational warmonger, that a war is “potentially” always imminent, that we need to be prepared, that we need to have troops stationed in South Korea, etc, etc. Yet, in spite of the many rockets, and thousands of field artillery pieces and missiles North Korea has amassed at the outskirts of Seoul, life goes on, just as peacefully as before.

Now let’s look at what Nostradamus has to say about Kim Jong Il and about the conditions that might motivate him to unleash a nuclear holocaust. If my interpretation is correct, I believe Nostradamus is telling us that the reason of the attack will be internal, due to factional in-fighting that will break out between Kim Jong Il’s people and the group of senior reform-minded officials during the power struggle that will ensue as Kim Jong Il tries to appoint his successor. Now, let’s look at two quatrains Nostradamus has on the subject related to the motive for the attack and how he has worded these two quatrains.

In century I, quatrain 91 he says “The Gods will make it appear to mankind that they are the authors of a great war…”. I believe this quatrain clearly tells us that the war (referring to the attack) will take the world by surprise. Such an attack won’t be expected because there will not be any ongoing hostilities between North Korea and any other country. My interpretation of this quatrain is that the attack will be initiated strictly due to internal North Korea succession issues. It will have nothing to do with the outside world.

In the second quatrain, century II, quatrain 89 he says “…to the man of blood the number is reported”. I believe this quatrain complements the previous one. In this quatrain Nostradamus is telling us that “…the number is reported” refers to the number of votes cast by North Korea official delegates opposing Kim Jong Il’s appointed successor.

My interpretation of what Nostradamus is telling us is that Kim’s succession effort to enthrone his third son in power will create a power struggle between his supporters and those opposing his plans. The power struggle will result in Kim Jong Il not getting the required number of votes in support for the succession of his son or any other temporary appointee. This will infuriate him, and recognizing that his family will no longer continue to be in power, he will initiate an attack as a means of retribution against those that did not support his wishes. Indeed, this interpretation may appear to some readers to be a far-fetched outcome, but, if we look at Kim Jong Il realistically, we will see that he has all the prerequisite personality attributes to do precisely what Nostradamus has predicted. He is self-centered, mean and vicious, spiteful, does not take a “no” for an answer, and, equally important, he believes he owns the country and he can do with it as he pleases.

I hope and pray that the North Korea military hierarchy will not be persuaded by Kim Jong Il to embark on any unprovoked hostilities, and that they will first consider the potential adverse ramifications of such an attack, to both other countries as well as to themselves. However, considering the most recent event that transpired on March 26, 2010, one must wonder what goes through their mind. The sinking of Cheonan, the South Korea warship, was a totally unprovoked hostile action, and totally unjustifiable. When one considers the humanitarian assistance South Korea has been providing to North Korea, such an attack is irrational. It makes no sense. Let’s hope their irrationality will not go any further.