Sunday, July 24, 2005

Poll: Americans Say World War III Likely

"Americans are far more likely than the Japanese to expect another world war in their lifetime, according to AP-Kyodo polling 60 years after World War II ended. Most people in both countries believe the first use of a nuclear weapon is never justified."

I think some of America's perception that a third world war is likely is due to the popular fascination with a Fundamentalist Armageddon -- an event that many have been trained not only to expect but, frighteningly, to hope for.
Posted by Mac at 12:39 AM

6 comments:

Ken Younos said...

I think you're right.

10:09 AM
Kyle said...

Mac -

The wild popularity of the "Left Behind" series is but another symptom of the malady you describe.

Kyle
UFOreflections.blogspot.com

2:04 PM
W.M. Bear said...

Define WWIII. Apparently, one responder to the poll said "yes" but his notion of WWIII was something like a battle of corporations to see who could take over whom. I've also read conservative references to the Cold War as WWIII and the so-called "War on Terror" as WWIV. All of these ideas seem to me to make nonsense of the idea of WWIII, which in most people's minds, I think, means armies clashing and nukes flying.

Personally, I think we'll eventually get China, N. Korea, Iran & Co., and, yes, even Russia lined up against Japan and the Western powers. Probably over N. Korea's invasion of S. Korea (possibly out of sheer desperation) and/or China's assertion of control over Taiwan.

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Armageddon.
Armageddon who?
Armageddon tired of waiting for the End of the World!

2:13 PM
Ken Younos said...

"Personally, I think we'll eventually get China, N. Korea, Iran & Co., and, yes, even Russia lined up against Japan and the Western powers. Probably over N. Korea's invasion of S. Korea (possibly out of sheer desperation) and/or China's assertion of control over Taiwan."

My theory is that once the competition with China over crude oil becomes stiff enough, things are going to get ugly. I suspect we will 1) wait for China to seriously threaten Taiwan, then jump on that as an excuse to go to war against them (the more "important", underlying motive being oil -- but we like to whitewash our motives by playing hero or police man of the world) or 2) play the card we played against Sadaam, and accuse China of secretly planning a WMD attack against Taiwan (when we have no such concrete evidence) and use that as a pretext for war.

Either way, the conditions being what they are -- that is, we are now standing on the precipice of a global energy crisis -- and the fact that the superpowers are beginning to align -- indicates to me that things are headed in the direction of another world war.

6:22 PM
W.M. Bear said...

ken -- Something like that, yeah. The only real question is the timing. I can, however, see a nuclear-armed N. Korea invading S. Korea while we're still tied up in Iraq. We'd pretty much be up Shit's Creek too. Sure, we'd try bombing the crap out of them the way we did Iraq but I doubt they're the pushovers that Saddam's Iraqis were (at least in the conventional war phase). And recall, they fought us to a draw last time around -- granted with China's help but they'd probably get it again. I mention this possibilty as a way of gauging the timing of WWIII because, once we start serioudly withdrawing from Iraq (hopefully sooner rather than later) this "window of opportunity" is going to rapidly close for the N. Koreans and they know it. This is (my theory anyway) why there rushing the nukes at this stage. Once they're nuclear armed it will be much harder for us to retaliate using ANY means once they've occupied the South. Dry thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season.

8:51 PM
JohnFen said...

In an all-out military conflict, China would hand the US its ass for lunch, and the US knows it.

2:00 AM