Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Somehow I feel that this war is inevitable. The conventional wisdom is to oppose the war. But I also feel the world has come to the point where a decisive event is needed to redefine the world community. Our world political structure now is a direct result of World War II, serving us for better or worse for the past 58 years. The US has emerged as a hyperpower after the end of the Cold War. This war will redefine the US's role in future: how should a hyperpower behave in a unipolar world? Will the US learn a bitter lesson by being drawn into a costly and protracted war, earning the villification of the world in the process? Or will they be vindicated by a swift victory followed by the reconstruction of Iraq as a model democratic Arab country? And then following up on their promise of a peace roadmap for Israel and Palestine? It is a moment of reckoning for the US.

It seems to me that the world has to go through this bitter war experience to move on. All the karmic forces have gathered together to come to a point of resolution. We have to face it with equanimity and let the forces work themselves out. Arjuna faced the same dilemma when he was confronted with a decision to fight and kill his own relatives in the climatic battle of Mahabarata. But his charioteer, who is the incarnation of the Lord Krishna advised him to face the battle resolutely. The Arjuna Dilemma is what the world is facing now.

The battle has to proceed. The karmic forces cannot be stopped. Like the process of birth, Nature has to go through its throes of intense pain before a better and brighter possibility emerges. War is cruel. So is Nature.

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