[Disestablishmentarian]

I'm not sure exactly who you expect to fight, or should I say, be able to fight, World War III.

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Well, I'm not expecting a rehash of WWII, with the massive land, sea and air forces.

My focus is more on the hypothetical of an economic implosion of China leading to a Great Depression worldwide and rampant starvation possible.

State actors are not necessarily rational in extremis, especially when the public is of a mind to chop their heads. S$*t happens.

Space warfare, biological warfare, espionage warfare (including compromised politician/traitors) and cyber warfare may not depend as much on the industrial base of combatants.

BTW, I would never accuse any fellow FReeQ of refighting the last war. :)

[LonePalm]

For those who think a peacetime military is expensive, the cost is peanuts compared to a wartime military.

It is even more expensive NOT to have a military when an armed neighbor is intent on taking something you have and they want or need.

Assuming Russia and China slowly implode, which I think is the most likely scenario, most of the population losses will come from natural causes as the boomer bubble passes.

SpyNavy

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[Axenolith]

“Well, I’m not expecting a rehash of WWII, with the massive land, sea and air forces.”

Given the rate of expensive high tech ordinance consumption, certain aspects of it having way lower kill successes than expected and the proliferation of cheap off the shelf remote control vehicles; I could see it devolving back to that pretty quickly unless nations get a handle on those weapons cost and procurement speed…