It's a grey day here, with the odd shower scattering itself through the village..which in itself is fitting, considering what's going on down south.
The Markets are in a panic as prices continue to fall, or so intoned ClassicFM news not a moment ago.. the BBC's keeping it's eye on it, sensing as it were, an ambulance in the vicinity..
Shall we return for a moment to a brief comparison of that which we face, and that which passed ten years ago?
If one decided to take the time, or the time of an assistant researcher, one could check the markets prior to the last Gulf Conflict, and could likely plot the length of time it's going to be before the first invading boot hits Iraqi soil.
It's an intricate socio/political/economic gavotte...and while considering the information one has.. also consider the record of those who supply even greater amounts in finer detail to those who's fingers could push buttons..
Much foreign intelligence the States depends on is supplied by the CIA. This redoubtable agency is the selfsame which failed to even remotely suggest the idea the USSR might be on the verge of breakup...even while spending something more than $2billion American per year, 'monitoring' the internal developments.
There's value for money.
Now, extrapolate.