Brink of World War Three?

[KateLMead]

I think ours and all politicians are playing a dangerous game, Putin has the military might to reduce this country to ashes. What do we have to protect ourselves from this very real threat, the possibility of world war three. The British public are apathetic, I do not think the mass majority even envisage the possibility. Between the threats from the radical Muslims, the terrorists, and the threats, this country is in a very vulnerable position. Obama? Good at the talk talk.

[manxie]

I am thinking along similar lines but optomistically hoping that if it did happen there would be no winners at all as the world as we know it now would cease to exist.

Look at Chernobyl still an area that is so poluted nobody can live there.................I would estimate 1/2 the world would be the same but the area poluted would be immense.

IF enough lived through it..... food and drinkable water would be the biggest problem, so I think although a lot of posturing will take place it will not come to WW3.

Manxie xx

[KateLMead]

Manxie. Chernobyle had its effect on this area in Wales, the hills and mountains here were vcovered in white dust, all kept very quiet. Lambs born with two legs terrible deformities and many farmers and women developed cancer .
I had Children from Cherobyle every year, two had developed Leukemia who came to stay with me.
The effect of the above in Wales was swept under the carpet.

[Workingman]

There has been a ramping up of the rhetoric on this subject.

Gorbachev was worried that the actions of the West were pushing a new Cold War into a "hot" war. Kerry warned of the dangers of Putin pushing the boundaries so far that a "hot" war could be the end result. Merkel and Hollande have had their say.

Both sides are doing their level best to get their publics to accept that what they are doing is right; and if there are a few skirmishes along the way they are a price worth paying.

However, there is a continental drift between what is being talked about and nuclear war.

WWIII, on the other hand, is well underway - Islam v West - and has been for some years. We are still in the early phases. If the West ever decides 'enough is enough', enough will certainly be enough and that will be the end of it. How long it will take to get to that point is anybody's guess.

[Suff]

I think ours and all politicians are playing a dangerous game, Putin has the military might to reduce this country to ashes. What do we have to protect ourselves from this very real threat, the possibility of world war three.

Between Britain and France, alone, we have enough nuclear might to turn the Russian federation into a wasteland for hundreds of years. That, of course, is without the Americans. This is why we retain Trident and why we intend to upgrade it with the next version when it's available.

It is ONLY at times like this that people wake up and realise that there is no such thing as a neutral or "peaceful" nation in a nuclear armed world. Unilateral Disarmament? If those idiots had had their way in the 80's, if Clegg or Salmond or Sturgeon had their way, then your question would be very valid and very worrying.

Fortunately idiots like that do not have their way and bullies like Putin can't waver their Nuclear stick at us and make us back down.

Manxie, Chernobyl was a completely different issue to nuclear weapons. The reactor in Chernobyl carried the same weight of nuclear fuel as thousands of nuclear weapons. The very small portion of the fuel that was released, was released as heavy radioactive particles into the higher atmosphere through burning carbon and was carried around the world. A nuclear weapon, on the other hand, irradiates normal matter as it explodes and the vacuum sucks the matter (dirt, sand, etc), through the heart of the explosion. The fall out is both shorter lived and less radioactive than what came out of Chernobyl. The half life of most of the fall out from a nuclear explosion is between 20 and 100 years. The half life of the material thrown out from Chernobyl is measured in thousands.....

[cromwell]

Imo Obama using the EU as a proxy, is trying to put Putin in a corner.

Just about all of the eastern bloc countries have now joined the EU and NATO. The EU gave millions of euros to pro-EU parties in the Ukraine, and offered them membership of NATO.

Which would mean that the borders of the west had advanced right to Russia's doorstep. They don't like this.

Put it another way. If Russia signed a treaty with Mexico and put Russian troops and missiles right on the border of the USA, how would the Americans like that?

[Aggers]

What a depressing subject.

The sad truth is that there appears to be nothing we can do about it.
Ever since man has existed on this planet he has found the need for
conflict. I'm not normally a pessimist, but I'm pretty sure the human
race will come to an end one day, unless some sort of effective global
controlling organisation is introduced.

[TheOstrich]

Put it another way. If Russia signed a treaty with Mexico and put Russian troops and missiles right on the border of the USA, how would the Americans like that?

Well, yes ....... Cuba, anyone?

When the history books are written in 100 years time, probably by the Chinese, I hope they point out that all this was started by a war-mongering hegemony known as the EU. Which would be entirely the truth ....

[manxie]

we too were affected by chernobyl Kate all our hill sheep had to stay up on the hills for many years till the radioactive levels in the grass etc that they were eating fell to below an acceptable level put many manx farmers almost to the wall.

Manxiexx

[KateLMead]

All kept very quiet manxie. We can only wait and see what the outcome of this Cold War will be.