Are we heading for World War Three?

Re:Are we heading for World War Three? by CWuestefeld on Thursday October 12, 2023 @02:55PM (#37861431)

Having lived through Vietnam, Pol Pot, Munich Olympics, the height of the cold war and then the collapse of the Soviet Union and most Communism, Iranian hostages, Korean Air 007, any number of incidents in the middle east, more revolutions and coups in Africa than I can point to, bombings in Bali, Tianenmen Square, Falkland Islands, US invasions of Iraq, Grenada, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and on and on....

Why would I think that current events are different in some fundamental way?

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Re:Are we heading for World War Three? by tut-urut-utut on Thursday October 12, 2023 @03:32PM (#37861987)

> Why would I think that current events are different in some fundamental way?

They are different in a sense US Empire and its vassals are starting to lose wars and influence, so westerners started noticing these events as negative. Previously, they didn’t care.

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Re:Are we heading for World War Three? by michael1999 on Thursday October 12, 2023 @04:13PM (#37862592)

The parent listed Vietnam. The USA lost Vietnam even more soundly than Afghanistan, including almost 50k killed, and 300k wounded. Pol Pot murdered 40% of Cambodia. Saudi almost collapsed with the Grand Mosque. Nothing today comes close to those strains.

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Re:Are we heading for World War Three? by commandlinefan on Thursday October 12, 2023 @04:15PM (#37862611)

> The USA lost Vietnam

"We did not lose! It was a tie!"

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Re:Are we heading for World War Three? by michael1999 on Saturday October 14, 2023 @11:34PM (#37886632)

Sure it was, Otto. The helicopter evac was just convenient.

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Re:Are we heading for World War Three? by jassyr on Thursday October 12, 2023 @04:27PM (#37862747)

I wonder if in 1,000 years these power struggles and land disputes will feel as antiquated as witch hunts. Sadly I fear not, human greed has no limit.

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Re:Are we heading for World War Three? by bryanlarsen on Thursday October 12, 2023 @04:52PM (#37863033)

I don't think they're different. I think in both those situations and today they all had a small chance of kicking off WW3. If we keep rolling that D20 eventually we will roll a 1.

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Re:Are we heading for World War Three? by lbltavares on Thursday October 12, 2023 @06:11PM (#37863842)

you mean a 3

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Re:Are we heading for World War Three? by derbOac on Thursday October 12, 2023 @06:53PM (#37864200)

So, I lived through a lot of that and feel like some of this is people either forgetting or not having experienced what it was like pre-cold war thaw.

On the other hand, Ukraine feels different to me for some reason and seems tied to broader territorial ambitions, which wasn't exactly the case before because the territory was put in place in WWII. There was Afghanistan etc but that didn't have the domino implications of NATO.

The Soviet state also seemed more stable to me than the current megalomaniac plutocracy.

China also didn't have the same presence it does now. There's more big players in some ways.

On the other hand, for awhile there in the past there were nuclear drills in classrooms, and it was for a reason.

I don't really see WWIII happening soon but if things continue to escalate everywhere it seems reasonable to wonder about it. People wondered then too.

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