Mike Evans, author of The Final Move Beyond Iraq , has impressive credentials as a journalist. A member of The Press Club covering world events for more than 20 years, he has appeared on many radio and television talk shows discussing world events and has authored several books about events in the Middle East including Beyond Iraq: The Next Move and Showdown With Nuclear Iran. He has been a confidant to many Israeli prime ministers. He is also a conservative and a Christian.

The Final Move Beyond Iraq provides a wealth of information about the Middle East: the relationship and conflicts among the various countries; much detail about the history of Islam, including the events that led to the rift between Shiites and Sunnis; and an explanation of the famous Twelfth Imam Prediction. The reader will become very well informed reading this book, and I highly recommend it.

Some surprising information to me is that the United States helped Britain overthrow Iran’s democratically elected government in 1951. Mohammed Mossadegh, a nationalist, was elected prime minister of Iran. He had Iranian parliament nationalize the British-controlled Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. In response, Britain tried to depose Mossadegh and his cabinet and return control of government to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (the Shah of Iran), who was sympathetic to British interests. Britain needed American help because Mossadegh was very well received by the Iranians, but Truman, to his credit, refused. Eisenhower agreed when he became president. This was the first time in its history that the United States helped overthrow a democratically elected government.

Little wonder that certain countries in the Middle East dislike us so much. To make matters more complicated, President Carter in 1979 refused to back up Pahlavi when a revolution overthrew his government, a revolution already hostile to Western imperialist interests. Now we have a hostile government in Iran that holds the United States responsible for their unhappy experiences under the Shah.

This is my personal take on the information Evans provides. Evans wasn’t as critical as I am. However, I remember very well the Iran Hostage Crisis and the hatred of Iranian Ayatollahs ever since. Now I understand why.

Evans also describes the decline of morals in the West and the gradual abandonment of faith in Christianity. He describes the sexual revolution, Playboy mentality, Internet pornography, claiming that 80 to 90% of sixteen-year-olds have already been exposed to pornography on the Internet. He criticizes the idea that all religions are basically the same, and he observes that the word “sin” seems to have been banished from our vocabulary. He’s probably correct in opining that this has weakened the West.