Are we headed to WW3?

[ryoder]

I think we are headed to WW3 due to the conflicts and flexing of muscles in Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea.
Each of these countries has demonstrated military power over the past year or so in new and threatening ways. I also think they will band together in an alliance if it were to ever "go down".
However, I don't think this will be a normal war. It will be fought economically with sanctions, pacts, currency manipulation. Via the Internet with state sponsored attacks against websites and critical infrastructure. Via the air with long range cruise missiles, strategic strikes by fighters and bombers, and ICBMs. That is how it will start out at least.

[sanantone]

I don't think Iran, China, and North Korea are big problems. Iran looked concerning at first, but not anymore. North Korea has always been a pest. If China does anything, it'll be because of Russia. Russia (or Vladimir Putin) is acting crazy right now, but the Ukrainians have just let the Russians walk all over them so far.

[bluebooger]

I think we are headed to WW3 due to the conflicts and flexing of muscles in Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea.
Each of these countries has demonstrated military power over the past year or so in new and threatening ways. I also think they will band together in an alliance if it were to ever "go down".
However, I don't think this will be a normal war. It will be fought economically with sanctions, pacts, currency manipulation. Via the Internet with state sponsored attacks against websites and critical infrastructure. Via the air with long range cruise missiles, strategic strikes by fighters and bombers, and ICBMs. That is how it will start out at least.

don't know how old you are, but as someone who remembers the 'late 70s and early '80s, I think they were worse

[soliloquy]

For reasons I don't care to debate, I believe that we are definitely going to encounter another world war. How long it will take to get is there, I don't now.

[ryoder]

Yeah I am old enough to remember the cold war. My mom had it worse though in the 60s. They used to practice getting under their desks at school to prepare for nuclear attacks.

I think the cold war 2.0 is starting now and the communist countries will band together once again against the West. Of course Russia isn't really communist but then the US isn't really capitalist either. Still, old habits die hard and Russia wants to restore the former "glory" of the USSR.

don't know how old you are, but as someone who remembers the 'late 70s and early '80s, I think they were worse

[ryoder]

If IRAN completes its stated objective of creating nuclear weapons then it will probably step up its funding of attacks against Israel if not invade directly. IRAN sees what Russia did in Georgia and the Ukraine and that the rest of the world didn't do anything to stop them. This emboldens them and makes them want to become a nuclear power even more.

I don't think Iran, China, and North Korea are big problems. Iran looked concerning at first, but not anymore. North Korea has always been a pest. If China does anything, it'll be because of Russia. Russia (or Vladimir Putin) is acting crazy right now, but the Ukrainians have just let the Russians walk all over them so far.

[LaterBloomer]

There's a term for those folks who think that chaos will soon come upon us, and are living their lives accordingly. (No, I don't mean going out drinking, having crazy sex, etc.) They're stockpiling food, ammunition, etc. Maybe chaos will descend, and their foresight will be rewarded. Who knows?

A few years back I was in Lancaster, PA, and it took all of my will power not to giggle when a young Mennonite man was talking to me about it and his preparation. "Dude," I wanted to say, "you practically live off the grid already. What are YOU worried about?" Whether WW III is imminent or not, I don't know. Criminals already use the Internet for their acts, so it isn't any stretch to think that enemies will use it to fight. In some ways, future wars will be easier to start and more damage may be done because of computers, the Internet, and our dependence on them. We'll see.

When I was a child in the '60s, the newscasts about the war in Viet Nam, the protesters, etc. used to scare me. When I learned to read and read the newspapers, I worried about the Cold War and if MAD didn't work. Then I worried about some crazy individual or government getting setting off a nuke here, or engaging in chemical or biological warfare. You know what? None of it has happened (yet?!) Now? I'm more worried about the slow destruction of our planet. As an agnostic, I think that this is it. No heaven. No hell. Earth. That's all we've got. Sometimes I think that we're like the aliens in the movie, Independence Day. We're sucking the life out of this planet, and think that there's another place (or planet) where we can go. We'll see. (The powers that be have always fought over resources, and our demands are making the possibility of fighting over them more likely.)

Finally, one of the things I used to worry about was the Sun burning out. (Silly, I know, but there you go.) Even though I knew it was going to be a long time off, I worried. Then, I heard a joke. An astronomer was lecturing about how long it would be until the Sun destroyed all life on earth. An audience member raised his hand, and asked the astronomer to repeat what he had just said. The astronomer repeated that in 3.5 billion years Earth would be uninhabitable because of the Sun. "Whew," the audience member said. I thought you said 2.5 billion years." For some reason, I'm worrying less about the Sun.

What will come, will come. In the mean time, I'll try to be more loving toward my friends and family, be kinder to strangers, and nicer to the earth. These are things I can control. When my end comes, however it comes, I hope that I will have lived a life that should a heaven exist, will get me a shot at it. If this is all that we have, then I hope that I will have done what I can to make this existence better for others.

[sanantone]

If IRAN completes its stated objective of creating nuclear weapons then it will probably step up its funding of attacks against Israel if not invade directly. IRAN sees what Russia did in Georgia and the Ukraine and that the rest of the world didn't do anything to stop them. This emboldens them and makes them want to become a nuclear power even more.

Iran wouldn't get the same treatment as Russia. Iran is just a step above Syria. We were very close to attacking Syria. Currently, Iran doesn't have much money to fund anything. The sanctions have hurt them pretty badly.

[mrs.b]

What will come, will come. In the mean time, I'll try to be more loving toward my friends and family, be kinder to strangers, and nicer to the earth. These are things I can control. When my end comes, however it comes, I hope that I will have lived a life that should a heaven exist, will get me a shot at it. If this is all that we have, then I hope that I will have done what I can to make this existence better for others.

Very well said!

[ShotoJuku]

...but the Ukrainians have just let the Russians walk all over them so far...

I would tend to agree with you on this point insofar as the Ukraine does have a military that could've/would've/should've repelled any invasion force crossing their boarder instead of hunkering down behind the fence line of their own bases.