Will it happen in our lifetime? Will it happen in your children's lifetime? The United Nations has decayed into a social club. I didn't think we would ever see the kind of world animosity we are dealing with again. One nuclear weapon could set it all off. What do you think?
I'm a shade over a quarter century old, and am mostly confident in assuming it'll happen in my lifetime. Consequently, this has freed me up to make many trips to Vegas, blowing my retirement fund on booze and strippers. Maxim Magazine ran an article on three different scenarios a while back, something to do with China/Taiwan/North Korea, a nuclear situation with Iran, and the third was the releasing of a canister of a toxic agent at a Pacers game, killing like ~20k people. If I had to make a guess, it'd be something like the Pacer game scenario, that's just too easy to pull off.
A nuclear weapon detonated fairly far up the Mississippi river would wreck havoc on our economy. Tirk, you care to explain...
Sniffing 30, and I'm convinced we'll see it in my lifetime, assuming I live anywhere close to the national average, which is far from a guarantee. Won't take a whole lot for the dominoes to fall for everybody to lose their collective minds and ask to get their asses kicked by the US of A yet again.
Many people didn't want to hear it at the time, but I believe that the collapse of the USSR and the end of the Cold War is the main reason for all the unrest today. Any time a major balance of power shifts there is bound to be a vacuum created some power or group of powers will attempt to fill. Many people look out and see Iran, North Korea and China (along with the other so-called rogue states) as the main threat. I don't believe this is the case. While there may be (and we are seeing now, of course) conflicts with these nations, I believe these will only serve to create a gulf between the US and Europe. France, Germany and Russia have spent the last 60 years being dependent upon, subservient to, or in direct opposition to the US. They are tired of it, and are looking for any opportunity to assert themselves politically and economically against us. Russia and Germany were allies and trading partners in the 19th century, and Russia and France were in the early 20th. France and Germany historically have never really gotten along, except in the last 20 years. These countries realize that alone they will never be able to match the US militarily or economically (which of course, is where real political power comes from). They do realize that together they are a pretty formidible force. All they have lacked was as issue to bind themselves together against us on, and now they have it. From their lofty perches they sit in judgement on the US and it's terrible war in the middle east. Any further conflicts we have with the other nations already mentioned will serve to strengthen their position against us. Almost all wars are economically driven at some level. A nation's ability to survive and thrive on this earth is entirely dependent upon it's ability to support itself financially. If you are ever interested, take alook at how many major corporations, no matter what the industry, are now owned by interests in either France or Germany. You may be very surprised. Everyone always thought that Japan was the big economic threat. Don't be fooled.
I'm not so sure about WWIII, but I am convinced that some sort of nuclear device, whether it's a crude atom bomb or a dirty bomb, will be detonated in the US by a terrorist goup. I think the nations that possess nuclear weapons (with the exception of Pakistan and India) value life to some degree and realize that a nuclear war is unwinnable. Having said that, nothing surprises me any more, so if it does happen, it's not totally unexpected.
World War III was the Cold War. It was an economic war that lasted 30 years and we won it. We won it smartly by bankrupting the Soviet Union and causing communism to collapse of its own deficiencies, not by blasting them with 27,000 nuclear weapons. Their own people overthrew the government. World War IV is going to be something different. I'm not sure, yet, but it is likley going to involve China and its delusion that it is a superpower. Taiwan will be the spark, but Korea could be also. We need to get the Russians on our side in that war, not drive them to the Chinese.
There might not be another world war in the traditional sense where soverign states battle, but a world war is ongoing right now, being fought in the shadows all over the world. The world war is begin fought between: Democratic/Free states versus muslim extremist who want a religious/mystical ruled world--tyranny. This fight is global, make no mistake about that and is ongoing. And we're winning---YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
FBI knows of no al-Qaida sleeper cells For all the worry about Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida sleeper cells or agents in the United States, a secret FBI assessment concludes it knows of none, a report said today. In an exclusive report, the ABC network said a secret FBI report obtained by it concludes that while there is no doubt al Qaida wants to hit the United States, its capability to do so is unclear. "Al-Qaida leadership's intention to attack the United States is not in question," the report says. "However, their capability to do so is unclear, particularly in regard to 'spectacular' operations." "We believe al-Qaida's capability to launch attacks within the United States is dependent on its ability to infiltrate and maintain operatives in the United States," it says. Not only is that scary, I'm not even sure Kiefer Sutherland can handle it, since he just saved those 6 nuclear powerplants from melting down.
