it’s probably already started in the middle east.
the assassination of the iranian supreme leader and the ensuing clusterfuck with even europeans getting in on it will probably be pointed at like some franz ferdinand type scenario.
I think the clearest sign will be a mass breakdown in global trade.
Haven’t we been in one since 2001?
More like the start of the Korean war
Once half life 3 is released
I’d argue that what characterized the world wars was direct conflict between major industrial powers. They all have nukes now, so we wouldn’t get World War 3, we’d get Nuclear Armageddon 1.
What we’ve got instead is conflicts between proxies and allies of major industrial powers - Cold War 2. And not only are we already there, it’s already scarier than the first one, since it’s not just proxy vs proxy, but nuclear powers vs proxies.
When world wars started is determined after the fact, and I think there’s a good chance that future historians are going to land on a date that we’ve already passed.
They’ll probably pick Russia invading Ukraine (that’s when history started)
unless america loses (i really hope it does but without a nuclear holocaust or me personally dying)
There’s not really any hard rule that says it has to be named World War 3 either. Although the third installment have been highly anticipated for a long time now, they could start a whole new franchise.
Plus, the only reason they’re numbered is because there was two of them back to back. Otherwise, WWI would have just been called “the war”, which I expect will be the way this one is talked about by the generation that lives through it
it’s not a world war unless it’s happening in france among european powers. just sparkling armed conflict
France is currently completely ignoring Germany re-arming so we could be there shortly
They did announce expanding their nuclear arsenal and keeping it secret. People keep on joking about Germany attacking France but France is the only sovereign nuclear power with their own nukes in a triad (so even if new German blitzkrieg overran all land launchers immediately they could wipe Germany off the map and leave those German boys nothing but ashes back home) and if Germany did attack them they could just vaporize them.
Just the fact that they have them and are offering to share them as the US does gives France a lot of power.
It’s not a world war unless France is Vichy
I hear you can get a créme prescribed for that
Yeah I mean the Thirty Years War and the Seven Years War were both unequivocally World Wars but aren’t named that at all. Hell, stuff like the Mongol conquests could be though of as a world war.
World War 3? No, this is Super War 1
Epic war 1*
Epic war X
this ain’t your grandaddy’s world war
Epic Fail
The Michael Bay reboot re-release Origin story with extra nukes!
If they reboot it they should go with the original War to End all Wars
It’s not a war, it’s a World Special Military Combat Operation.
This is about as global a war as you could possibly get. We are in the thick of it
there is no ww3 without china and they arent interested in it rn
China is playing the role in this world war that the US played in the first one. The most progressive among the great powers (arguably a true statement in 1914 for the US even despite the apartheid and ongoing genocide, because we’re comparing to tsarist Russia and the British empire here), booming economy, untested but highly advanced military, in the midst of popular domestic reforms. They will hold out for as long as possible before joining the war and receive the fewest casualties, and then take a leadership position in reshaping the post war order.
WW2 required a specificity of purpose and dedication that modern America lacks.
You could make an argument that ww3 started just as soon as ww2 ended and this moment represents a possible conclusion to that era.
I can’t imagine we have the fight in us enough to mobilize like we had in the past.
This is unfolding more like WWI than WWII, regional wars to establish imperial dominance are escalating beyond their stated goals as different spheres of influence start colliding into each other. The American Hitler will be an opportunist former DSA member who latches onto nationalist discontent says “let’s do that again, but more intentionally!”
Don’t be silly, the US could be ready to fight WW3 by turning, uh, Tesla factories into tank factories… and Gen Z is as willing to sign up or be drafted as 18 year olds were in the 1940s… and, um…
At this point, if Russia or China step in, I think it’s on.
Iran is the second front innit?
If things become what is recognized as a world war later, it will be dated as having begun before now (and whether it is dated to the US-Israel attack or Russia’s invasion may depend on things we don’t know yet).
I’d say that one of the days about midway through the Syrian civil war was the first day of Cold War 2
Fair chance we are already in it imo but whether or not that is true will be determined decades from now.
One minute and twenty five seconds away according to the doomsday clock. https://www.doomsdayclock.net/
Closest we’ve been in 77 years apparently
In
