17 October 2013 - QA 5

Gurudev, in today’s world, America is going through an economic upheaval which is affecting so many other countries. Is there some karma that affects nations as a whole as well?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: America took a very wrong step when it went to war with Iraq. It spent one billion dollars every day for so many years. For five to six years, America kept spending one billion dollars per day. Can you imagine, trillions of dollars were spent in this war on Iraq to find the weapon of mass destruction which was never there? So it drained itself of a lot of resources. Naturally there is a big crisis now.
But I want to assure you, America will come out of this crisis. We don’t need to be too worried or concerned about it.

Only thing is, America should not venture for another war somewhere.
See, dialogue is the way. Iraq has gone from bad to worse. Today Iraq is in such a bad shape. There is bomb blast every single day. People are killed every day. Is this democracy? Is this a new change that anybody would have welcomed or liked?
These are the lessons. These are the big questions we need to look into.

America lost so many soldiers, and so many soldiers who were in the war are so traumatized. Nobody has gained from this war. World has not gained. America has not gained. Iraq has certainly not gained anything out of this war. Instead if there was a dialogue, countries like India could have played a big mediation role. Could have cleared many misunderstandings. Anyways that is a thing of the past. But learn from this past mistake. In future, know that weapons or war is not an answer for peace. In fact, the intention of war is to bring peace. But it becomes completely opposite.