Everyone is talking today about the Third World War which broke out this morning. But here on Nationwide we’re going to get away from that … Monty Python’s Flying Circus s4e4: Hamlet, BBC 1974
North Korea: A highly militarised state dominated by one family for half a century. The product of a conflict reinforced by nuclear threat that still endures today. It began with the Korean War fought between 1950 and 1953. A war that left a deep ideological and physical division between North and South and reverberated across the world. Nearly 70 years on, this unresolved conflict continues to pose a serious threat to America and her allies. The Korean War was one of the bloodiest chapters in the country’s history. A civil war that nearly ignited World War III. It took the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and millions of Koreans. Korea: The Never Ending War, BBC 2019
Eastern Afghanistan: On 13th April 2017 just after dark modern warfare changed for ever when the United States dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb in combat. The Mother of all bombs … Now there are new megabombs. Rise of the Superbombs, History 2020
The next world war will be fought with a high-tech arsenal pulled straight out of science fiction. These superbombs are the future of war. ibid.
World War III is a guerrilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation. Marshall McLuhan
MOAB: Massive Ordnance Air Blast: 20,000 lbs of fire and fury falling from the sky. ibid.
The Daisycutter was the MOAB’s predecessor, used in every major conflict since Vietnam. But it was all brawn and no brains. ibid.
Russia: Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power or the Father of all bombs. ibid.
MOP: Massive Ordnance Penetrator [US]: 15 tons: ‘The largest weapon of its type we know of in the world.’ ibid.
They’re shooting up the block. It’s goddamn World War III. Fargo s1e6: Buridan’s Ass, rozzer, FX 2014
Empires in terminal decline leap from one military fiasco to the next. The war in Ukraine, another bungled attempt to reassert US global hegemony, fits this pattern. The danger is that the more dire things look, the more the US will escalate the conflict, potentially provoking open confrontation with Russia. If Russia carries out retaliatory attacks on supply and training bases in neighboring NATO countries, or uses tactical nuclear weapons, NATO will almost certainly respond by attacking Russian forces. We will have ignited World War III, which could result in a nuclear holocaust. Chris Hedges, ‘Don’t believe the hype: Ukraine is rapidly becoming another war going wrong’, 2023