WW3?

[Burmese Bandit]

Let me put in my 2 cents.

I do not think there will be a third world 'war' but I believe that the FIRST WORLD CONFLICT may have already begun.

The detailed background is far too long to give her. I will simply say that those who have read Professor Philip Chase Bobbit's two books, 'The Shield of Achilles' and 'Terror and Consent' will know what I am talking about.

The premise is simple. As the world grows more globalized and evolves into different forms of the 'market state' conflicts that previously happened BETWEEN nations now will happen WITHIN nations.

Thus in the future I do not see nations squaring off against nations. I do, however, see TRANSNATIONAL IDEOLOGICAL GROUPS fighting global wars WITHIN nations.

Think about that. forum members. Think long and deep, for I strongly suspect you will see this in your lifetimes.

[Colin1]

Originally Posted by Burmese Bandit

The premise is simple. As the world grows more globalized and evolves into different forms of the 'market state' conflicts that previously happened BETWEEN nations now will happen WITHIN nations.

Thus in the future I do not see nations squaring off against nations. I do, however, see TRANSNATIONAL IDEOLOGICAL GROUPS fighting global wars WITHIN nations.

Think about that. forum members. Think long and deep, for I strongly suspect you will see this in your lifetimes.

It might be
but I'm still not sure what you mean. The only intra-national conflict that I can think of related to market state would be some radical polarisation of rich vs poor; are you suggesting some modern-day October Revolution?

That second sentence, not sure what's going on there. I don't wish to sound demeaning, but what do you mean?

You haven't convinced me that the biggest threat to world security/stability ISN'T fundamentalist terrorism and esp fundamentalist terrorism where it borders a not-as-stable-as-we'd-like nuclear power. For good measure, throw in a couple of wannabee mad-dogs who are seeking nuclear power.

[PJay]

Hopefully WW3 will be a damn sight smaller than WW1 and WW2. And not fought in Europe.

[Colin1]

Originally Posted by PJay

Hopefully WW3 will be a damn sight smaller than WW1 and WW2. And not fought in Europe.

Do they do small world wars?
If it's not fought in Europe, technically, is that still a world war? It's difficult to envisage Europe ducking any world war under current circumstances. Unfortunately, it's the European flavour of 'Western infidel' that is geographically attached to potential troublemakers so it's a small step to assume that that's probably what they're going to strike at.
They will likely attempt to strike at the US flavour with further inland terrorist attacks and may conceivably succeed but it would be devilishly difficult post-9/11. Any attempt at territorial incursion would be laughably stupid.
Using the term 'Western infidel' makes it seem easy to see where I'm pointing the finger, to be honest, it's difficult to put a face or a shape or a form to any potential aggressor on a world scale, I've really got no idea who it could be but I have a strong feeling fundamentalist terrorism would play a leading role.

[Flyboy2]

You know its interesting but I remember reading something were a history professor stated that the Cold War was in fact World War III because for the most part the whole world was effected by it and/or participated in it. He used the fact that World War I wasn't called a world war until after the fact to state that in the future we could see the Cold War being known as World War III. I thought it was an interesting point and definately made alot of sense. I lost him however when he stated that the "War on Terror" is World War IV because most of the world is in some way involved in it. Just some interesting theories.

Of course, Einstein did say "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones"

[javlin]

Thus in the future I do not see nations squaring off against nations. I do, however, see TRANSNATIONAL IDEOLOGICAL GROUPS fighting global wars WITHIN nations.


I could see that morso than a global conflict myself.A confliction of ideals of a direction of government already prevails in this country and I am sure in others as well?

[krieghund]

I'm afraid that Europe will be drawn into a conflict and it will center around the mid-east

Europe is looking pretty Anti-muslim now.....Swiss and no more Minerets....France now veils and so on ( I do agree)

Remember Mohammad Imadinnerjacket has missiles that can reach Europe...and the fine US president just canceled all those missile defense plans for Europe

Israel is not worried to much as they have the Arrow and improved Arrow........oh yes and nukes

[parsifal]

what about the possibility of a nuclear device stolen by a terrorist cell hiding in China, or India, and detonating it in say Washington.

How do you see the US reacting to that......

We live in a dangerous and unstable world. It is VERY dangerous to assume that all is calm and quiet. The maelstrom could happen any time, any place. The best we can do us to be firm, but fair, and to maintain our vigilance

[Soren]

To be honest I am more worried about the world climate and what will happen once the magnetic poles shift.

[Matt308]

Surely you are kidding. Or perhaps high?

[Soren]

None of the above Matt. The poles are gonna shift, they've done so since the birth of this planet, it's just a matter of time until next time it happens and at this point it's long overdue. And when the poles do shift, the earths magnetic field will weaken, leaving us more exposed to the sun's rays. And this is particularly bad in the case of a geomagnetic storm, which often occurs everytime the sun's poles shift, which is every 22 years, as apposed to the average of 780,000 years for the earth.

Last time we experienced a geomagnetic storm was in 1989, and it had some pretty dramatic effects:
On March 13, 1989 a severe geomagnetic storm caused the collapse of the Hydro-Québec power grid in a matter of seconds as equipment protection relays tripped in a cascading sequence of events. Six million people were left without power for nine hours, with significant economic loss. The storm even caused auroras as far south as Texas. The geomagnetic storm causing this event was itself the result of a coronal mass ejection, ejected from the Sun on March 9, 1989

In August 1989, another storm affected microchips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market.

With the earth's magnetic field weakened the effects will be much worse. How bad I have no idea, but I hope it wont be too bad. We're pretty darn reliant on electronics these days and seeing that a geomagnetic storm hitting the earth with a weakened protective magnetic field could fry each and everyone of our priced electronic gadgets then it would almost be like being sent back to the stone age.

[Matt308]

Just so we are clear. You think that this threat is more urgent than regional crisis and advocate redirecting our current $660Billion 2010 military budget where?

[RabidAlien]

...apparently it needs to be re-directed into Canada, since that is the only country affected by these geomagnetic storms. Something to do with all the moose, I take it.

[Soren]

Originally Posted by Matt308

Just so we are clear. You think that this threat is more urgent than regional crisis and advocate redirecting our current $660Billion 2010 military budget where?

Why would you touch the military budget, what good would that do? Esp. seeing as there really might be no way to fully protect our electronics against these magnetic storms.

As for regional crisis, well to be honest I don't see WW3 breaking out anytime soon. We were close in the 60's, but now terrorism is a much greater threat.

But yeah, this thing about the poles actually worries me abit.

[Matt308]

$2/3Trillion USD comin' Canada's way. Perhaps Jesse Ventura and his brain trust can deliver it.