Do you think the Third World War has started?

Has WWIII started?

  • Yes, when Russia launched its full scale invasion of Ukraine

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Yes, after the Hamas terrorist attacks

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Yes, when Israel bombed Iran over its alleged nuclear ambitions

    Votes: 1 4.8%

  • No, but it will if the US strikes Iran directly

    Votes: 3 14.3%

  • No, it won't be WWIII until it directly involves China/India/Pakistan

    Votes: 8 38.1%

  • No, and it never will

    Votes: 4 19.0%

  • Other

    Votes: 5 23.8%
  • Total voters
    21
ZenGiraffe

ZenGiraffe

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I was talking to my PT of all people about this the other day, and they just mentioned World War Three on The News Agents podcast today, so I'm curious, do people think WW3 has started already?

I'm leaning towards yes, and that Israel striking Iran will likely mark the clear point at which we go from build up to WW3 to actual WW3, similar to how Germany invading Poland is seen as the actual start of WW2 despite Hitler doing a bunch of military stuff beforehand.

I think the key difference is that there won't ever be formal declarations of war like there was in 1938 or 1914, so it's going to be much more open to interpretation what ends up being build up to war, and what marks actual war. However, given the number of parties that are involved directly and indirectly with supporting Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Iran, and other countries in the middle east, and the crossover between them, I think we're past the point where we can say these are just regional conflicts, and I think historians will point to the past week as the point where it escalated to a World War.
 
It's in Trump's hands. And that's frightening. If he directly attacks Iran, we're all fucked.
 
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:hostage:
 
No. Not yet. I know there are two major conflicts going on at once, but they're both regional. Once alliance systems kick in, then yes perhaps we could call it that. USA attacking Iran will certainly escalate things, but you'd need other players involved. I'd say the moment NATO article 5 is triggered and/ or China gets involved then yes we'll be in something looking like a world war.

That being said it's hardly a cold war with direct country to country conflict at play.
 
I'm not even sure India vs Pakistan would trigger that description, again regional.

It really requires international alliances to be fully involved.
 
Yeah you can’t compare this to the two world wars. I mean you can’t benchmark civilian casualties - all innocent lives lost are a waste - but until half the western world is blaring air raid sirens and we’re spending tea time in tunnels, supermarket shelves are empty and we’re all being called up to join the fight, it’s not the same.

I’ll always be reminded of my history teacher in school when were studying political history reassuring us that if anything came out of WWII is that we would never as humankind want to repeat that again - we learnt our lesson.

Clearly he wasn’t counting on the fragile egos of a few middle aged men.
 
funky said:
Yeah you can’t compare this to the two world wars. I mean you can’t benchmark civilian casualties - all innocent lives lost are a waste - but until half the western world is blaring air raid sirens and we’re spending tea time in tunnels, supermarket shelves are empty and we’re all being called up to join the fight, it’s not the same.

I’ll always be reminded of my history teacher in school when were studying political history reassuring us that if anything came out of WWII is that we would never as humankind want to repeat that again - we learnt our lesson.

Clearly he wasn’t counting on the fragile egos of a few middle aged men.
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WW2 is no longer living memory, so don't rule anything out.
 
funky said:
Clearly he wasn’t counting on the fragile egos of a few middle aged men.
Click to expand...

Trump is 79
Netanyahu is 75
Putin is 72
Ayatolla Khamenei is 86

This is what really boils my piss. So much needless death and destruction is being wrought by old men with zero stake in the mess they leave behind, just raging against the dying of their own lights.

If a Nuclear winter does wipe us out, it’ll probably be because one of the stupid cunts makes the demand while having a dementia tantrum.
 
To the wider question, it’s almost certainly going to be the biggest test of NATO to date. I was worried a few months ago that if Russia attacked Europe, Trump wouldn’t honour article 5. Now it looks much more likely that the US will end up invoking it towards Iran, which in turn as well as dragging Europe in, puts Turkey in a near impossible position. (Not for the first time of course, but it’d be even more difficult for them to justify supporting the USA in any meaningful way than it was during their actions post 9/11)
 
Honestly, no. I don't think Iran has the appetite for a wider conflict and I think it'll de-escalate pretty soon.

If it does all kick off, I hope it does so while I'm at Glastonbury so I can just live in my tent eating toasites until it all blows over
 
Depends how you define it. If we ever get it by the traditional "nukes flying" definition then we're all completely fucked obviously so let's hope never. If you go by things like proxy wars, online disinformation wars, cyber attacks etc it's been going on for a while.
 
VoR said:
Trump is 79
Netanyahu is 75
Putin is 72
Ayatolla Khamenei is 86

This is what really boils my piss. So much needless death and destruction is being wrought by old men with zero stake in the mess they leave behind, just raging against the dying of their own lights.

If a Nuclear winter does wipe us out, it’ll probably be because one of the stupid cunts makes the demand while having a dementia tantrum.
Click to expand...
I mean let's be honest here, their age doesn't really have much to do with the actual disputes in contention. I'd genuinely say only the Ukraine war and the role Putin's particularly curdled psyche, paranoias and eccentric personal beliefs on whether Ukraine is a real country played in causing it is one that's really come done much to the individual leader (other than the level of free reign Netanyahu feels like he has from Trump being in - but he'd have it from any Republican president tbh).)
 
Nah, and we're not even close to WW3 imo. Iran doesn't have the strength or level of backing from other world powers to even be in that ballpark really. I doubt there'll even be any boots on the ground, frankly.
 
VoR said:
Trump is 79
Netanyahu is 75
Putin is 72
Ayatolla Khamenei is 86

This is what really boils my piss. So much needless death and destruction is being wrought by old men with zero stake in the mess they leave behind, just raging against the dying of their own lights.

If a Nuclear winter does wipe us out, it’ll probably be because one of the stupid cunts makes the demand while having a dementia tantrum.
Click to expand...
This, or something similar to this, is what bothers me.

Logic tells us that anyone would avoid nuclear attack on the basis of MAD. But if nuclear powers are becoming increasingly authoritarian (if they weren't already), and if power is centralised in the hands of a few or one person, then what can one leader with a fragile ego and a load of narcissism do?

If Trump or one of the others is backed into a corner, why does he care if the world ends when he's already approaching the end of his life?
 
big ron said:
No wealth on a dead planet.
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But would a dying Trump care about the world's future if he's not there?

I guess in terms of legacy, but I feel like he'd quite like the idea of being the person who ended the world.

That's pessimistic me obviously.
 
EUROPE, CHINA, USA, RUSSIA with INDIA for good measure.

Voila, that's a world war. Currently only Russia are in the game, and objectively it's not proving to be a huge success.
 
I don’t think Trump wants to end the world. I just think he’s getting so wandered that he might hit the wrong button and do it by mistake whilst trying to order a Diet Coke.
 
I always wonder how you get to THAT AGE and still CARE. Power is a funny thing.
 
Spite is a great motivator and I want to read all of their obituaries. Preferably before the year is out and without them taking the rest of us with them.
 
Trump wants to go out a God.

He doesn’t want the world to end but he would love a huge war that we can claim victory in so he will be in the history books from here to eternity. He’s the ultimate narcissist.
 
dmlaw said:
I don’t think Trump wants to end the world. I just think he’s getting so wandered that he might hit the wrong button and do it by mistake whilst trying to order a Diet Coke.
Click to expand...
Don’t be daft, it wouldn’t be a Diet Coke!
 
I always think back to the stories of Stalin and his chums being completely off their faces on drug binges for days on end at the tail end of his life, all the while being in charge of one of the nuclear armed superpowers and it makes me think of how fragile everything is and how awful that generally it's in the hand of a small bunch of mostly horrible men with god complexes.
 
So glad the man who can single-handedly trigger world obliteration likes to just do things ON THE SPUR
 
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