Hesitation occurs in decision-making, planning, execution, monitoring feedback, appraisal, and forecast, due to uncertainties prevailing in the information available for processing. Starved inputs stall the system. Fluid situations cannot provide solid basis for forging ahead with schemes and plans. The waiting period is nagging on the corporate or control room nerves. Tension rises, but there is no relief for lowering the pressure. It is a test for lonely leadership at the top management level.

This was well brought out by the Reuters despatch sometime this year from Washington, "Fog of war clouds US economic outlook." If some quarters like to give credit to the elusive legend Osama bin Laden, his Think Tank gets a point here. This is the second point; the first point was the way the WTC towers were destroyed (9/11), fooling the US intelligence agencies (what a shame of incompetence!).

For US, Iraq may be a contingency play for diversion. In the gloomy background, it is the economy! The politicians never spill out their weaknesses: one lie needs nine more to cover it. The American life-style is to think big, and do things in a big way (big bang in Afghanistan looks so ludicrous!). Now they are imitating the big style in Iraq--for the second time. Now al-Qaeda is claiming credit for the blasting of the apartment complex in Riyadh. The US embassies have been closed in more than one Islamic country in the ME. The Yankees would not be allowed to reside in ME, that is the game plan of some of the US enemies.

For consolation, the Yankee mind should be satisfied with Nature's bounty of providing human insulation by planting two mighty oceans (Atlantic and Pacific) on both sides. Nothing much in the North, and Washington does not understand the Latin swings in South America; and in between, the Mexicans are not very happy, but chilly is supposed to be popular in that country. Why these huge bush fires in CaliforniaNature is not interested in human politics?

The high-speed mobility of the Americans is out of tune with the morning strollers with light pockets. Who stroll? Those who are mentally free for a while; and also can overlook economic insecurity momentarily. Literature has recorded the blessing of the morning breeze known as 'naseem'; but unfortunately, it is different from the US President's morning cup of coffee.

Now the pundits are trying to read the tea leaves in the morning cup. While elusive Saddam is a pain in the neck, Bush can hardly afford to destroy Iraq, but not the mega-economy of the USA. Charity and criticism begin at home. When the time comes, it ticks louder. Now the Shiites have rebelled against the US occupation.

Blair will go down in history with the bizarre idea of trying to hide the past glory of the British Empire with the tiny American stars and stripes. Under similar circumstances what Churchill would have done? Never in the history of Downing Street was so much commission offered for so little security.

Bush and Saddam have now become symbols in the new and old worlds. Is the first phase of civilisation ending in the New World, and history is retracing its steps over Asia? In between, the European Union is feeling so uncomfortable, that from time to time it becomes almost incoherent. The French are musing over the layers of their cultural leadership; and the Germans won't take it lying down. The Turks are making a mistake in eyeing Europe positively. The secular bug is itching. It has to, because this man-made concoction is a modern human genome without parentage and antiquity. Have the scientists calculated the half-life of secularism?

Two taboo words leak out time and again: economics and religion. One had to be invented, and the other concocted. it appears that the economics wheel has to be re-invented. The other is merely rusty, through disuse. Regardless of these conjectures the future lies ahead, in four dimensions, ready to cook. The problem is with the processing in the kitchen, not in the pantry.