The Final Move Beyond Iraq by Mike Evans Search Amazon for other books by or about Mike Evans. Rating: Reviewed by: Maurice Williams

The author of The Final Move Beyond Iraq is a well-known journalist and best-selling author of many articles and books about the Middle East. A conservative and Christian, Mike Evans provides an in-depth insight into United States foreign policy in the Middle East, tracing US relations with many Middle East countries during the twentieth century. He has been a confidant to many Israeli prime ministers. He is a member of The Press Club and has covered world events for more than twenty years. He has appeared on many radio and television talk shows discussing world events and has authored at least three best-sellers about events in the Middle East.

The Final Move Beyond Iraq outlines Evans' opinion about where the United States might be headed with countries in the Middle East and also provides a wealth of historical detail of what happened in the past. Of particular interest is his description of the history of Islam, the events that led to the rift between Shiites and Sunnis, and his explanation of the famous Twelfth Imam Prediction. The reader will become very well informed reading this book.

Mike Evans offers sound personal observations of what he thinks is happening in the Middle East and adds his recommendations of what he thinks the United States should do in the near future to protect the United States. Charting a new political course is scary because once you introduce political change; the other players change their direction also, sometimes in an unexpected way, as we all know from the recent US attempt to foster a democratic government in Iraq.

Mike Evans points are well made, and the United States would do well to seriously consider them, but nobody can really predict the future. The best one can do is offer sound advice. Mike Evans recommends that the US make another preemptive strike in the Middle East. Many may not agree with him.

What this reader does agree with, however, is Mike Evans' description of some of the weaknesses in Western Civilization that make the West more vulnerable to hostile and critical Eastern Civilizations. Evans describes, in some detail, the decline of moral values in the West and the gradual abandonment of faith in Christianity. If God really did make a revelation through Moses and the prophets, and Jesus Christ really is God's appointed Savior, and fallen angels really are trying to defeat the mission of Jesus Christ, then we are very foolish indeed to abandon the values our ancestors used to build our Western Civilization. If God observes that we are no longer bearing witness to what God revealed, what role, then, will God have for us in bringing peace, harmony, and salvation to our fellow human beings?