We Are Closer to WW3 Than We Think
These could be the first shots of World War 3 (WW3). President Donald Trump’s executive order against travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries has led many to start fearing the beginning of World War 3.
But there may be evidence that WW3 has already started. There’s even someone who has been winning it. The so-called revolution in Ukraine—it’s more of a Russia Ukraine war in practice—has served as a Trojan horse to launch just such a thing.
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Indeed, while we debate what World War 3 is, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has started to amass troops in the Baltic countries. These are former Soviet states that border Russia’s European side. Meanwhile, the Syrian war, masked as a war on ISIS, was a war to destroy Syria, a key Russian ally.
In other words, all the major international military events of 2016 may have been part of a plan to encircle Russia. Many of these geopolitical events have focused on the Middle East, a region of the world that happens to be rather close to Russia.
Thus, even the U.S. treaty with Iran and the failed coup in Turkey were also part of this strategy. We might call it a Russia WW3 strategy. But Russia has already won this war. It won it on the battlefield in Syria, achieving key objectives like the liberation of Aleppo from obscurantist forces who claimed to be rebels.
Putin May Have Already Won the First Round of WW3
More importantly, Russia has won the first round of WW3 by unofficially backing the winning candidate in the U.S. presidential elections. Russian President Vladimir Putin has struck the right chords with the American isolationist and protectionist Trump presidency.
Putin did this before the outcome of the November vote. However, he noticed—or may even have influenced—the fact that Trump shares common interests. Better than the U.S. media, moreover, Putin read the popular anger at the “liberal” establishment correctly.
The Putin WW3 was not won in the way that liberal pundits like Rachel Maddow like to perpetuate, as in fabled Russian hackers allegedly rigging the U.S. presidential vote. (Source: “Rachel Maddow Plays Glenn Beck,” Consortiumnews, January 30, 2017.)
Rather, the situation is that the Democratic Party machine and the mainstream media have lost. They were so sure of a Hillary Clinton election win that the Clinton campaign did not even bother to visit key states. It was arrogance that hurt the Democratic machine.
Yes, Clinton received more votes than Trump. She won the popular vote, but this happened only by counting New York State and the big cities of California. The mainstream media never bothers reporting that Trump won the popular vote in the rest of the country. He was able to capture the sense of the times and what was actually worrying people.
But the imperialist lobby, typified by the neoconservative—disguised as Democratic—Hillary Clinton, will not give up easily. They will try to use Trump’s no-holds barred style of administration against him. They might use the same color-coded street protests that have brought down governments in Georgia and Ukraine (Maidan).
Next Major International War Might Start as a Struggle within the United States
World War 3 could take the form of a regime change or downright revolution. But it won’t be easy to organize a regime change or a revolution in Washington. It could contain the very seeds of destruction that might launch WW3.
The conditions exist. Many, from average citizens to seasoned politicians, are presenting the Trump presidency as a “fascist” regime. On the surface, it would seem so. Like many right-wing governments of the 20th century, Trump has identified a scapegoat, such as immigrants and foreigners, against whom to deflect popular anger.
Similarly, Trump has followed the good-old “promise to return to a non-existent Golden Age” ploy. He has used the migrant or “barbarian” invasion card, logically followed by a restriction of civil rights. So far, the travel restrictions concern the citizens of seven countries. The opposition has already started to use the ruling as leverage to put pressure on Trump.
Trump has suspended welcoming refugees to the United States for four months. He has also banned—for 90 days—entry into the United States for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
Trump’s overarching foreign policy theme is to shut down globalization. This plays well into the WW3 Trump narrative. Indeed, the end of globalization will not leave a vacuum in its wake; it will leave the return of renewed nationalism and more causes over which to clash.
That’s why it’s time to start worrying about World War 3. Hopefully, we will live again to worry about World War 4. Meanwhile, Trump has accused two senators from his own Republican Party—John McCain and Lindsey Graham—of being warmongers.
McCain has been one of the loudest critics of Vladimir Putin and Russia. That’s why Trump responded to the McCain–Graham statement against Trump’s temporary immigration freeze, calling them warmongers.
The Immigration Ban Is a Boon to ISIS
The immigration ban is exactly what ISIS was hoping to get out of Trump: a tool through which to persuade many more Muslims around the world to join the group’s cause. World War 3 could begin as a reaction from the extremist Islamic group ISIS.
On one hand, Trump’s ban won’t offer sufficient protection, because there may already be enough ISIS cells ready to strike in the United States itself. They will take advantage of the numerous protests that show no sign of ending.
On the other hand, even while ISIS might be preparing to strike in the U.S. itself, the Democrats could try to use the immigration ban and its consequences to get Trump impeached. If you don’t think that’s likely, consider this.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has gathered some $10.0 million in new donations over the past few days. That was just in response to the immigration ban. The ACLU played a major role in the Nixon presidency. The group ended it.
The ACLU was one of the first organizations to demand that Richard Nixon be impeached. Nixon enjoyed far greater support from his own party than Trump does. Therefore, it would take much less effort to secure an impeachment.
VP Mike Pence lacks the charisma to pursue Trump’s agenda. He’s also a more traditional leader and would find ways to secure partisan, if not bi-partisan support for diluted versions of the Trump plan.
One of those diluted policies will likely concern Russia. Trump and Putin were reaching an understanding. That doesn’t mean that a weak-mandate Pence might have the necessary political clout to do as much.
Skipping a few steps, Trump gets impeached and the new Russia-America understanding goes down like an old Las Vegas casino on demolition day. The scenario would be similar to what would have been the case had Hillary Clinton won in the first place.
Few Americans Noticed That a New Cold War Started with Obama
The U.S. Cold War, in full swing under Barack Obama, would resume with greater intensity. The level of tension would be not unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Meanwhile, the risk of ISIS attacks would also increase.
Trump and Putin needed each other. Their tacit agreement, that Russia would have a free hand to tackle ISIS and all other rebels in Syria with possible U.S. help, would end. But Putin would continue to pursue his military, strategic, and geopolitical goals.
That’s where the chance of a WW3 emerging from the Syrian war and the ashes of a failed Trump administration begins. Admittedly, the very words “WW3 predictions,” “WW3 2017,” “Ww3 2018,” or even “What is WW3” appear odd.
Many folks who grew up in the 1980s worrying about WW3 thought that was over. The U.S. won the Cold War and the event was accented by the thump of a wall crashing down in Berlin in 1989.
Yet, only those hiding can speak about the risk of a new Cold War. Indeed, the Second Cold War has been already underway for some time, at least since the beginning of the Russia Ukraine war. As a refresher, that’s the war in which Obama’s United States and a reluctant Europe lined up alongside the anti-Russian government in Kiev, resulting from the resignation of legitimately elected President Viktor Yanukovych.
Pope Francis Has Warned of World War 3
In fact, as Pope Francis has warned that, rather than being in a Cold War, we are already fighting WW3. (Source: “Pope Francis blasts Europe for lack of leadership and says we’re ALREADY in middle of WW3,” Express, December 8, 2016.)
The Pope’s statement is more than legitimate, as the ancient and recent American history of single incidents that spark major wars include the USS Maine, the RMS Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, and the Gulf of Tonkin, to mention a few.
Putin, a more direct player than Pope Francis, has sent warnings of his own. Any attack against Russian interests would meet a proportionate response from Russia. The sending of NATO soldiers to the Baltic Republics is a clear sign of the risk. The fact that Russian authorities have been warning civilians to prepare for a possible nuclear conflict illustrates that the overall picture is even bleaker.
The Baltic WW3 trigger is but one. The other has been the proliferation of local wars in the Middle East. But there’s also the emergence of a “China WW3.” That’s where Trump seems to be focusing. China has been exerting its influence in the Yellow Sea. It’s also been challenging Russian and American interests in the former Soviet Republics.
Putin had contained the American and Western isolation by forging closer ties to Beijing. The idea was to create a new “Silk Road” and shift trade and diplomatic relations along a Moscow-Beijing axis. If Trump remains president, avoiding the political pitfalls that his own party—in cahoots with Clintonite Democrats—are setting up, Putin won’t need to play the China card.
Indeed, Putin won’t have to worry about the Baltic states either. But a change in Washington, given the climate, would favor the anti-Russia camp. These are the “hawks” and fervent supporters of the idea that democracy can be exported to the tune of drone and “F-22” bombardments.
Ironically, the immigration-halting Donald Trump might still be less dangerous than Hillary Clinton. Trump has not strayed from the message of turning U.S. foreign policy toward isolationism and disengagement from hot theaters of global conflict.
But Americans have not understood the extent to which Hillary, rather than Trump, was more trigger-happy. Trump might be more than a little xenophobic, but Hillary would have been more catastrophic.
The last Soviet president, Mikhail Gorbachev, the man who worked hardest to bring about nuclear disarmament, recently issued a dire warning. He said that nations seem to be already preparing for WW3, noting that a new nuclear arms race has already started.
Gorbachev and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1987 signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which led to a significant reduction of nuclear arsenals.
Today, 30 years later, Gorbachev has called for Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump to do the same, since new tensions have arisen during the Obama administration. But too many Americans were too busy worrying about the politically correct social justice cause of the day to notice that nuclear weapons are a “thing” again and that WW3 is a possibility, edging on becoming a probability.
Gorbachev urged the United Nations (UN) to adopt a resolution that would prevent further escalation. But the WW3 machine has already set its gears in motion.
