Man, people need to stop assuming that every conflict is potentially WWIII. It’s really bad for you to do and we’ve had all kinds of regional wars since 1945 that haven’t been WWIII because everyone involved has strong incentives to prevent WWIII from happening because it would be bad for everyone.
This isn't a "widening gyre", this is "Iran throwing yet another impotent tantrum because its proxy strategy ain't shit."
literally the whole point of the UN not very good at a lot of things, but pretty good at the main thing
specifically we've had multiple wars *in the middle east* that have not escalated more broadly. people also do not understand how the simple lack of modern communication infrastructure played a major role in the outbreak of war in 1914
I’m less afraid of Israel’s conflicts sparking WWIII any time soon, than I am of it swinging the US election to Trump, which feels like nearly as disastrous of an outcome AND makes a real WWIII more likely in the near future
Things that made me mad tonight (questions from moderators version): 1.) You are in the situation room and Israel wants preemptive strike Iran, WWYD? Given the this-for-that that been going on in the Middle East, define what might be preemptive 6 months from now, because it's always retaliatory rn
There’s always a risk, but you can also say that a regional war is bad without working yourself into a lather where you also are at risk of harm as someone very far from the region.
this is what i used to yell at people about 10, 15 years ago. we are not going to do WW3 with China and China is not going to do WW3 with us; too much state power is tied up in international trade and economics now
World leaders have cancelled (and/or allowed to expire) all the treaties around nuclear weapons. Against this backdrop, the Ukraine war is potentially WW3.
Counterpoint: that's what they said about WW1 and WW2 but then a bunch of rich powerful fuckerheads with great impunity and every incentive to push forward instead of accepting any diplomacy that would reduce their power/put them at risk of accountability decided to run with it.