Poll: What could start a third world war?

[TheMann]

Q: What could start a third world war?
A: Me.

Q: What could be done to prevent it?
A: James Bond.

Q: Would your country help start or finish it?
A: They would attempt to finish it, but such efforts would be futile. My Moon base is impenetrable.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Frission]

Fine then.

Somalia vs France. Ha! That would be a short war.

I dunno... France seems to get invaded hell of a lot... I mean they didn't last long against Germany in World War 2...

That's only in the past hundred centuries, and that was because France was still more or less destroyed from WWI. Not to mention the prevailing mentality in France at that time. There's a saying in France about this situation that went "the man went to WWI with flowers on their bayonets, they went to WWII crying.". You could find the same attitude thal led to appeasement in the UK under Neville Chamberlain and they weren't the ones who had suffered the worst.

serious answer: complications due to climate change.

Non serious answer: Aliens

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Guys. WWIII is not only possible, it's quite likely to start within the next five years.

Iran has been building a nuclear arsenal, which they will inevitably use against Isreal (OR Isreal will prevent this with a preemptive strike). Either way, the result is the same: a conflict that America will get involved in. All this is inevitable, the only difference it makes is whether other countries get involved and convert this into a full-blown World War.

Ironically, I was typing this comment while listening to the Ink Spots - I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire.

 

[Andothul]

I think WW3 will have little to do with Oil.

My bet is North Korea does something insanely stupid and the US and South Koreans invade and take over the Korean Peninsula.

China and Russia dislike this very much and China starts pressuring the US in the pacific and uses the US as a scapegoat for their slowing economic growth and terrible conditions.
China becomes more stressed as the European markets dry up because of a bad recession and constant influx of North Korean refugees.
There is another uprising in Taiwan and China blames the US for instigating it.
Israel bombs Iran and disrupts oils supplies to China.

After all these stressors China lashes out and has its first skirmish with the US in the pacific. Escalation doesn't take long as by this point the Chinese and the Americans hate each other.
China cyber bombs the US government via proxy and the US economically squeezes China to the breaking point.

You can do the rest but the Axis would consist of China, Russia, Iran , North Korean resistance, and possible others.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Canada have enough of seeing other idiotic countries and flip their shit.

 

[Danny Ocean]

I think it would be incredibly hard.

There are more people working behind the scenes to prevent wars than there are people working behind the scenes to start them, despite what the media or some of those same fire-starters might want you to think.

 

[loc978]

Total, worldwide nuclear disarmament within the current geopolitical climate. No mutually assured destruction would make governments a whole hell of a lot less polite.

 

[Yopaz]

You know, since you've got a joke on France I got one for you. Try to make a list of all the wars France have won through the times. Personally I can only think of one. The French revolution, and the only reason they won that was because both sides were French.

100 years war, England failing in both it's goals to take the French crown and hold on to Aquitaine. Just of the top of my head, probably a few more if I bothered to look it up.

I'm not even remotely connected to the UK so I don't see why I would care about their defeat in the past. I also started by saying I was going to make a joke. I know that France has have had an amazing track record through history, but their more recent history does warrant a few jokes from time to time. Lighten up. The facts about France and its history count more than the jokes.

 

[Mauso88]

When China annexes North Korea, takes N. Korea's nuclear weapon knowledge and folds their armies into the Chinese army. They'll then take India's wheat, Russia's oil and Japan's digital technology and then, BAM!, WWIII.

 

[Right Hook]

If we do go to war over oil, my only hope is that after a few years, creatures that live inside the planet break through ground and attack the surface world, at least then humanity will be united XD.

 

[Anthony Wells]

Well...
WW1-someone invades France.
WW2-someone invades France.
WW3-someone invades France?

Although I can't see another World War happening at all.

Fixed...(!)[footnote](Yes, yes, I know that wasn't it, but humour me... ribbing the French never gets old for a Brit.)[/footnote]

Anyway, just to be an arse, technically, it'd be the fourth world war. The first 'world war' (as opposed to First World War) was the Seven Years War, which debatably affected more of and involved more of the world than WWI.

Still, out of those choices... 'other', though I'm trying to put my finger on what scenario is most likely...

Translation for fellow Americans: He's talking about the war we know locally and was experienced as the French and Indian War. You know, that war that happened a little bit before the American Revolution and that's given maybe 5 minutes time in history classes despite being the war that not only set up the American Revolution but also dramatically shifted attitudes among colonists about Europe and Europe about colonists and probably set up the colonies as a unified nation more than the American Revolution did? Yeah, that one.

you mean that one war in several different years of school history classes that we spent weeks to months on each time it showed up? yeah i remember that one. Not all schools teach it the same buddy.





OT: hmmm... yeah i dont think there will be a world war 3. but Hey i have been wrong before.

 

[HouseOfSyn]

... the US economically squeezes China to the breaking point...

I'm not intending to troll you but the idea of the U.S economically squeezing any country, let alone China, is laughable.

That would be like Greece economically squeezing Germany.

 

[Deathmageddon]

You forgot to include "North Korea decides to stop testing their missiles and actually hit something" and "China poisons all of our toothpaste and billions die."

I don't think anything going on in the middle east will cause anything worse than Afghanistan/Iraq (which were bad in their own right, but nowhere near the scale of WW2), and the economic tension between China and the US policies won't cause any real violence - probably just an embargo (which would suuuuck!).

 

[Chairman Miaow]

I refuse to answer because that means admitting to myself that somebody, somewhere is retarded or selfish enough to start something like that, knowing the cost.

 

[Frostbite3789]

I'm guessing that China will ask America to pay up what it owes and then America will throw the most collossal ***** fit the world has ever seen and presto - World War III.

Because China really wants to sink it's own economy for fun? We're too interdependent for that to be anything close to a reality.

 

[LetalisK]

you mean that one war in several different years of school history classes that we spent weeks to months on each time it showed up? yeah i remember that one. Not all schools teach it the same buddy.

I'm glad someone has a school board that gives a shit.

 

[Anthony Wells]

you mean that one war in several different years of school history classes that we spent weeks to months on each time it showed up? yeah i remember that one. Not all schools teach it the same buddy.

I'm glad someone has a school board that gives a shit.

Sorry if i came off as hostile. i sounded like a dick in my post. And yeah my curriculum was pretty good on the things that drove all the wars and stuff.

 

[Wayneguard]

Another shitty ending like ME3's might do it...