If history is anything to go by....just when you think that you have the variables and scenarios all worked out....something extraordinary will rock your socks and take us all off in a new direction.
Probably something along the lines of the sociological corrollary of the chaos principle or mutation in the animal word.
There is a constant battle on all levels of the universe that wages between forces seeking equilibrium and stasis against the those that seek to destabilise..to deharmonise if you like.
For me it is this crucible of foment that yields the disparity and diversity apparent on all levels of life.
The engine of change.
Iraq - who knows. US/Russia - maybe.
A bit like the market. heh??? What you think you know...what you believe to be so....rarely is all there is to it. And more often that not, disinformation, lies, deceit and the manifest foibles of human nature at work often reach out and bite you on the ass.
As has been said:
There are three types of people in the world. 1.Those that watch things happen; 2.Those that make things happen and 3.Those that wonder "what the f@# just happened."
Its hard to be in group two aint it????
Just when you think you've got it worked out....maybe China will take its chances in Taiwan.
Maybe N. Korea and S. Korea will heat up again.
Maybe the world's more recent nemesis Germany will re-emerge as a destabilising force in Europe.