Where does it end ?

Coffeehouse seems alive again. All these days there were not enough people coming in. But today it seems quite lively. I can see Naren, Murthy, Arka , Supriya and a few others sitting in one corner. It seems like they are discussing something very interesting. I could not help advancing a little nearer to them to listen to their discussion.

Naren commented "Don't you think Bush sounds clueless and a bit confused when he says there is no civil war in Iraq and we will be in Iraq until it is required".

"Well he is in a mess now and has no idea how to get out of it", said Murthy. Murthy continued saying "Even Rice accepts that Iraq was a mistake. The American president made some hasty decisions to keep himself in power and now the side effects of those decisions are getting prominent day by day. He was however able to reap the benefits when most Americans were feeling insecure after 9/11. He played it really well. He could not capture Laden. So, to divert people's opinion about his faliure, he made up a story and created Saddam as a villain of the story."

"I agree with you, Murthy", said Arka. "Bush was able to take advantage of the insecure feelings of the Americans. He was able to win the elections. But he probably never thought that the engagement in Iraq would be that long. Or, may be he cared less about the aftermath because he would by them complete his two consequitive periods in the white house".

"Iraq is really in a bad shape now. Not only Iraqis but lot of Americans are losing their life because of the selfishness of a few people", Naren said with a sigh. "Republicans are going to pay heavily for this selfishness in the coming electon year, although Bush is trying hard to change his course in Iraq now. But I do not think much will change. A civil war has already begun in Iraq, very soon Americans will make an exit from Iraq and I can see another Afganisthan, another Taliban regime is in its infancy. The world will become a more dangerous place to live in".

Supriya was silent so far. She was listening very quitely. She suddenly told "You guys are not looking at it in a different angle. You are looking at it in the same way Bush wants you to look at it. I think Bush is a brilliant guy. He made a lot of planning in this. If you see ,now America has military presence in Asia with lot of American soldiers deployed in Afganisthan and Pakistan. From there America can very easily monitor the nuclear activities of India and China, the two rising powers in Asia. It can monitor every move of China to keep this part of Asia multipolar while keeping the world as unipolar with America as the superpower. China probably would not like this idea since it wants a unipolar Asia with China as the superpower and a multipolar world with USA,China, Russia as part of the world power .America now also has a strong military presence in middle-east which it wanted for a long time. 9/11 gave a pretty good opportunity for America to invade Iraq and position itself comfortably to keep an watch on the middle east,a pretty good haven of terrorism.

"Thats a pretty good point Supriya, said Naren. "I can now relate why America wants to sell nuclear fuel to India, it probably is an effort to make Asia multi polar".

I looked at my watch. It is 9:00 PM already. I need to leave now to attend a party. Their discussion went on, it was sad that I could not stay more to hear the interesting discussions. But it kept me pondering for a while. I was thinking ..was it all preplanned..the 9/11 to Afganisthan to Iraq? Does it end with Iraq? Or may be there are more twists to come..may it will continue next with Iran , then Israel-Palestine issue. May be it is deeper that we are thinking. Well , time only can aswer these questions. But probably our next generation will be in the coffeehouse to ponder over those questions and answers. We will be gone by then. It might also happen that no one will probably be around to discuss the errors and mistakes. The way the world is armored with nuclear weapons today, there might be no one alive to punish the Saddam's ,the Ladens and their selfish creators.