>>36>>37>>35>>34You and everybody else saying there will/won't be a WW3.
It's not a cut and dried question of yes or no.
You see, there WILL be a WW3.
But.
It's not gonna be any time soon; nukes made damn sure of that.
As a result of everyone being in a low boiling perpetual Mexican standoff where nobody with nukes wants to launch one for fear of retaliation, nobody will actually directly enter into a shooting war against a country that has a nuclear arsenal.
Simple logic.
Now, this does not rule out proxy wars, and having said that, who says that we haven't been fighting WW3 for the past 75 or more years if you use that metric?
The commies are gaining traction?
WHOOPS, TIME FOR SOME FREEDOM!
Not that that's a bad thing really.
But moving on.
If you don't like the proxy war metric, but still find the shooting war metric to be dated, consider this.
A world war is defined as a war which has at least one belligerent on every continent including Australia but excluding the polar caps.
It would be possible to have another world war not involving the US or Russia or China at all.
For a moment let's just say that we had Australia, Canada, Monaco, Namibia, India, and Venezuela fighting eachother (I'm not forgetting a continent am I?)
That would technically constitute a world war.
Off the top of my head I don't remember if Australia has nukes (though I vaguely remember some shit about the US essentially offering rent-a-nuke programs to its allies) but this would result in a mostly conventional war, like we're used to seeing.
Now, I doubt it would stay that way for long.
But the gist of my post is that no, no WW3 scenario like most of you are thinking will happen thanks to the wonderful art of nuclear warfare and those who have nukes being absolutely shit-in-pants-mommy-wanting-blanket-hiding-too-young-to-die scared of nuclear warfare (and for good reason) and also understanding that just about any concievable armed conflict between two nuclear capable countries can and will end in a nuclear exchange.
Whew.
That was a long post.
Now, for those of you who actually tromped through that post, enjoy this little hypothetical scenario.
The Fulda Gap.
1980.
Just how damn odd do you think the entire thing would feel should something go hot?