Hello CB, OK, that's clear enough. In my neighborhood, ...
... there is a camp of folks who questions the advisability of poking at a hornet's nest with a stick, as opposed to letting loose a flame-thrower;
... there is another camp of folks that believes hornet's nest should only be poked at with a stick if, and only if, the nest is in some one else's backyard, the wind is blowing in the other direction, and oneself is equiped with chemical suit and smoke generators;
... there is a third camp who believes that one can poke at a hornet's nest, rough it out, win, but with stings all over.
... the majority do not seem to know what is going on why and what for, and
... very few see the end-game other than exhaustion.
If WW II is treated as continuation of WW I, then the trench war of WW I ended only in an intermission. I see the current episode of WWWW (WAT-WOT-Whatnot War) to be considerably more open-ended than WW I & II put together.
I think that for the US's “coalition of some of the willing and others more willy-nilly” to pull out of Iraq requires utter exhaustion or victory, because the geopolitical fallout otherwise may be untenable (but of course, the untenable generally become tenable when there is no alternative).
As of now the financing for WWWW seems to be, at least mathmatically speaking, OK and globally sponsored. Should the financing disappear, events may become more difficult.
OTOH, as oil price increases and should it continue to increase, financing becomes more difficult for one side, and perhaps easier for the other.
So, this WWWW can be taken measure of by watching USD exchange rate and oil price, perhaps, and if so, then the price of gold, possibly.
Chugs, Jay |
