We are verging on WWIII.
Geopolitics with egotistical leaders is a fragile thing. Sometimes leaders forget the stakes when their feelings get hurt and they feel the need to save face. Things can escalate quickly out of control. All we need is for China to attack Taiwan, and we are going to be on the precipice of WWIII.
It is a very surreal feeling sitting in my office typing this in complete peace and security knowing that a month from now, we could be facing severe shortages or martial law because WWIII was declared and the entire world is cratering.
Such a weird feeling.
I mean, the odds are low. Nobody wants really wants it, but things can spiral out of control when you are too many decades away from the last catastrophic event and kind of begin to forget the extreme suffering and horror of it. We don’t have anybody left who really experienced it first hand. Our esteemed idiotic world leaders may get the idea that “it is different this time” and we can win.
We can’t. There are only losers in a world war. The losers who come out ahead and the losers who lose everything. With nucular weapons (GW Bush - the gift that keeps on giving) we really stand to lose everything. China thinks they can win a nuclear war.
Life is weird. I hope cooler heads prevail but I don’t trust the current crop of idiots further than I can spit.
The Communist Chinese will seal off the sea and air off Taiwan, then wait.
Better WWIII than mean tweets
China could do a little thing like Hitler did where the Poles "attacked a German outpost" (murdered prisoners in Polish military uniforms were salted around), and they would have a reason to invade Siberia.
And our government is being run by a group who think the leaders of other countries are like comic book villains. But they're not that simple. And even when a guy like Putin has gone a little bit extreme, he's still subject to pressure that can make him worse or make him stop. Same with Xi. If there is one person who will start World War III unwittingly, it is Ron Klain. He is the most dangerous man in the world right now because of what he doesn't know, but thinks he does.
Putin doesn’t directly control Russia’s nukes. Orders have to be given, and someone in the chain of command would say “no,” or (more likely) the armed forces would move Putin to a rubber room.