The secretary enters the prime minister's office.

"The President of the United States wants to talk to you."

I didn't know whether to fall over or stand up.

"Right now?"

"No. Tomorrow, at 5 p.m."

And sure enough, at 5 p.m. the next day: "This is the President of the United States speaking." It was George W. Bush in early 2003, if memory serves. We spoke about several things, but one keyword was definitely Iraq.

I had met with President Bush in the White House on September 4 and we immediately hit it off. But that was not the main thing. What mattered was that the decision had been made to accept Estonia as a NATO member. The important thing was that we had all decided (all heads of parliamentary parties) to support the United States in their campaign against Iraq. Loyalty to the United States was the key to our destiny at the time. Even if I was branded a lackey of the Americans for it.

As the prime minister of Estonia, I was among those responsible for what unfolded in Iraq. While it was a remote kind of responsibility, it has stayed with me over the years, when I kept up with attempts to create a free, new, democratic state in Iraq. And how it ultimately failed. Estonian soldiers were among the casualties.

The ghosts of Iraq

It is said that modern wars are won in the air, but ended on the ground. The U.S. lost 58,000 troops in Vietnam. The war ended in a total defeat. It shamefully pulled out of Afghanistan, failed to defeat communist Korea (and China). They were successful in Grenada (where is Grenada?).

President Bush's reputation took a beating in the Iraq War, while Lyndon Johnson dropped his bid for the presidency (second term – ed.) over Vietnam.

B2 bombers, aircraft carriers and spy satellites are very impressive. But what comes next?

The Iranians number 90 million. How many are religious fanatics? Surely it is more than a few. If all goes well and Iran gets new rulers, what will it cost the United States? Who will those new rulers be?

Wikipedia tells us that the war in Iraq cost a minimum of $1.7 trillion. U.S. national debt currently stands at $38.7 trillion, with a debt burden of 124.2 percent. Interest payments total $990 billion. (US Debt Clock-org)

Iran and Russia

The Iranians are Persians, a proud nation. They are Muslims, but not Arabs. It seems they made a serious mistake hitting targets in Arab countries. That is how you end up alone. That said, history teaches us that the Persians have always been a tough nut to crack for foreign invaders.

An American has already managed to accuse Europe of indifference toward the Iranians' plight while being obsessed with Russia's aggression in Ukraine.

The lines of force are different. Russia poses a real threat to a large part of Europe, while Iran really only threatens Israel. North Korea has nuclear bombs and long-range ballistic missiles, which pose a threat to Japan, East Asia and even the United States, but North Korea is left to tinker with its nuclear weapons in peace in a situation where Iran doesn't even have theirs yet.

We will see. Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his enchanting wife visited Estonia in 1970 (October of 1972 – ed.). The people waved to them in the streets. By then, Iran, under the Shah's leadership, had become an influential and quite pro-Western and modernizing country, home to one of the wealthiest Jewish communities. Still, the secret police worked behind the scenes. As did the KGB in Estonia.

Radicals, who had quite a lot of support in the West at the time, overthrew the Shah in 1979 and replaced him with a fanatical regime of horrors.

What will it take to put Iran back on a modern path? How many Iranians are dreaming about their past?

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