WWIII breaks out, why and what are the sides?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Cause: I would guess escalation of an Arab-Israeli conflict, and China tries to take Taiwan

The Allies (major players in bold, the rest send some form of support)
United States of America
United Kingdom
Israel
France
Germany
Japan
India
South Korea
Italy
Canada
Australia
Spain
Portugal
Sweden
Denmark
Belgium
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Greece
Latvia
Estonia
Lithuania
Hungary
Romania

Axis Powers
China
Russia
Iran
Saudi Arabia
Venezuela
North Korea
Pakistan
-countries the above powers invade/influence

[k-onmmunist]

The Allies (major players in bold, the rest send some form of support)
United States of America
United Kingdom
Israel
France
Germany
Japan
South Korea
Italy
Canada
Australia
Spain
Portugal
Sweden
Denmark
Belgium
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Greece
Latvia
Estonia
Lithuania
Hungary
Romania
Saudi Arabia

Axis Powers
China
Russia
Iran
Bolivia
Venezuela
North Korea
Pakistan
Ecuador
Cuba

Made some amendments.

[dead0man]

Can it be called a "world war" if it only lasts 2 weeks?

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I'd guess the same as TakeOurCountryBack in terms of cause, give or take a little bit.

The Allies (major players in bold, the rest send some form of support)
United States of America
United Kingdom
Israel
France
Germany
Japan
Italy
Australia
India
Brazil
Portugal
Belgium
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Czech Republic
Slovakia
Greece
Latvia
Estonia
Lithuania
Hungary
Romania
Saudi Arabia


Axis Powers
Iran
Russia
China
North Korea
Venezuela
Pakistan
Cuba
Countries the above powers invade/set up puppet governments

[Platypus]

*facepalm*

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

my opinion is too obvious to waste time typing a long post....

[Јas]

what utter nonsense...

[Hash]

roflmao

[??????????]

China would whip the United States ass in about 2 weeks, barring no use of nuclear weapons. They'd sink our carriers faster then we could wink, and that would pretty much wrap it up.

[Associate Justice PiT]

China would whip the United States ass in about 2 weeks, barring no use of nuclear weapons. They'd sink our carriers faster then we could wink, and that would pretty much wrap it up.

     Pretty much. We just don't have the manpower to stand a chance against China. Simple as that.

[Platypus]

China would whip the United States ass in about 2 weeks, barring no use of nuclear weapons. They'd sink our carriers faster then we could wink, and that would pretty much wrap it up.

     Pretty much. We just don't have the manpower to stand a chance against China. Simple as that.

Yes, but neither of you would be invading the other's country.

[Serenity Now]

Can it be called a "world war" if it only lasts 2 weeks?

I think I agree with you - are you implying this is how long the war would go on for before the use of Nuclear weapons? That phase wouldn't last much more than 2 days..

[dead0man]

It wouldn't have to go nuclear and I think the odds would be against it going Full On Cold War Total Destruction Of Everybody even if somebody did get a warhead or 50 out of the mothballs.  My point was there is no way in hell Russia, China and friends could compete with NATO on the battlefield.

[??????????]

Sorry dead, I think China could whip the US and the UK combined, easily.

[bullmoose88]

Hard to see the Russians and the Chinese staying on the same side for very long.

[Speed of Sound]

Hard to see the Russians and the Chinese staying on the same side for very long.

Exactly what I was thinking. Call me nuts, but I cant find a way that China doesnt eventually, if not immediately, end up on our side, economically and politically.

[jokerman]

Hard to see the Russians and the Chinese staying on the same side for very long.

Exactly what I was thinking. Call me nuts, but I cant find a way that China doesnt eventually, if not immediately, end up on our side, economically and politically.

I completely agree.  This idea that the Russians and the Chinese (or the Russians and the Islamicists, for that matter) are part of some unbreakable axis of evil is a ridiculous proposition.

But we all know how well this conception plays into some peoples' apocolyptic WWIII fantasies.

[Dan the Roman]

This is a ridiculous thread in the sense that it assumes a global war when even WWII initially only really involved four major countries(Britain, Germany, Poland, and France).

Realistically, if a major war were to break out, I would expect it to start as Sino-Indian conflict, likely triggered by a massive Chinese crackdown in Tibet that sent hundreds of thousands of refugees into India who would then launch terrorist attacks on Chinese forces. China would accuse India of harboring them, India would accuse China of creating a crisis, Chinese forces would cross the border to punish Tibetan guerrillas, clash with Indian troops and war would result. Pakistan would probably get dragged in, but that's likely the limit. I just can't see the US taking sides, and Russia is too far off though would likely nominally back one side.

The real problem with such a scenario is there are so many points where the international community would try to stop it that it would take a near suicidal leadership on at least one side to start a major war.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The stupidest thing about this thread is the idea that not only would any modern day alliance actually name itself the Axis Powers, but one consisting of many self-proclaimed communist and socialist countries. Are you all really that fucking stupid?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

And actually, calling many of those countries the "Axis Powers" goes beyond simply stupid to dowright offensive considering what the real Axis Powers did in China, Korea and Russia. Not much different than someone protesting the Israeli government's actions by spraypainting a swastika on an Israeli flag.

Oh and Ecuador is going to declare war on the US? The country that uses US dollars as its own currency? LMAO!

[Mint]

Sorry dead, I think China could whip the US and the UK combined, easily.

Disagree. The amount of people they have on their army is small and their equipment is way outdated. Sure they can conscript people but we could easily kill most of their population before then. That is, if we had the balls to.

[Sbane]

This is a ridiculous thread in the sense that it assumes a global war when even WWII initially only really involved four major countries(Britain, Germany, Poland, and France).

Realistically, if a major war were to break out, I would expect it to start as Sino-Indian conflict, likely triggered by a massive Chinese crackdown in Tibet that sent hundreds of thousands of refugees into India who would then launch terrorist attacks on Chinese forces. China would accuse India of harboring them, India would accuse China of creating a crisis, Chinese forces would cross the border to punish Tibetan guerrillas, clash with Indian troops and war would result. Pakistan would probably get dragged in, but that's likely the limit. I just can't see the US taking sides, and Russia is too far off though would likely nominally back one side.

The real problem with such a scenario is there are so many points where the international community would try to stop it that it would take a near suicidal leadership on at least one side to start a major war.

I seriously doubt China is going to attempt a ground war over the Himalayas. I can see them invading parts of the Himalayas( where the insurgents would be anyways), but I don't see them invading the plains. The few passes that exist in the Himalayas are all over 14,000 feet high, not very easy to get equipment and personnel through. China could have done this back in 1962 and they didn't, and the Indian army was way weaker back then. If there is a conflict between India and China it will remain confined to the mountains. In addition trade between both countries is growing enormously. I doubt they would go to war over petty reasons.

[Lunar]

roflmao

I decided to stop reading this thread until someone captured my thoughts.  Thanks.  [done after your post]

"*facepalm*" and "what utter nonsense..." didn't quite cut it.

[Dan the Roman]

This is a ridiculous thread in the sense that it assumes a global war when even WWII initially only really involved four major countries(Britain, Germany, Poland, and France).

Realistically, if a major war were to break out, I would expect it to start as Sino-Indian conflict, likely triggered by a massive Chinese crackdown in Tibet that sent hundreds of thousands of refugees into India who would then launch terrorist attacks on Chinese forces. China would accuse India of harboring them, India would accuse China of creating a crisis, Chinese forces would cross the border to punish Tibetan guerrillas, clash with Indian troops and war would result. Pakistan would probably get dragged in, but that's likely the limit. I just can't see the US taking sides, and Russia is too far off though would likely nominally back one side.

The real problem with such a scenario is there are so many points where the international community would try to stop it that it would take a near suicidal leadership on at least one side to start a major war.

I seriously doubt China is going to attempt a ground war over the Himalayas. I can see them invading parts of the Himalayas( where the insurgents would be anyways), but I don't see them invading the plains. The few passes that exist in the Himalayas are all over 14,000 feet high, not very easy to get equipment and personnel through. China could have done this back in 1962 and they didn't, and the Indian army was way weaker back then. If there is a conflict between India and China it will remain confined to the mountains. In addition trade between both countries is growing enormously. I doubt they would go to war over petty reasons.

I agree which is why I think it would take stupidity/insanity on one or both sides but that is usually the case with great powers. Germany had zero reason to go to war in 1939, and did anyway.

[12th Doctor]

I highly doubt WWIII would be a Pacific Rim Conflict.  The economic dependency of China, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and the United States is such now that any chance of war between these powers would be peaceably resolved before it got too hot.  Sorry Lou Dobbs, but you are no international relations expert... China is not the boogie man everyone tries to make it out to be.  Any war with the United States would destabilize China is a month, and the entire government would come crashing down.  Any war between China and those other countries would bring in United States intervention.  Any war between any of those other countries is highly unlikely for the next 50 years.

Kim Jong Il might be crazy, and stupid (understanding that those two things are not the same, but North Korea is an utter joke... see Cracked Magazine on that topic), but everything he is doing is for show.  He doesn't have a death wish.

The most likely scenario for a global war is still in Central Asia or Eastern Europe.  It will not include Al Qaeda in any meaningful way at all.  Al Qaeda has been defeated.  This is not to say that they might not plan, and carry out another major attack in the West, however, their objective was to insight Muslim nations into the over-throw of Western power... this has not been achieved, and, in fact, while their attacks have not had the exact opposite effect, they have shown that the Muslim world simply is not going to act in a full revolt against the West anytime soon.

Iran in totally isolated, and Turkey is the only other power in the region that could pose a serious threat to anyone in the West, and it is going in the opposite direction.

So...

The most likely scenario for WWIII in the next decade is still a war between the United States and Russia.  Muslim extremism might be used as a cover by the Russians, to try something in Central Asia that would lead to United States/Chinese intervention, but Islamic terrorism itself won't be to blame.

Just as likely, Russia will smell blood in the water, after one instance of Western Betrayal after another becomes apparent in Eastern Europe and the Caucuses, and they will over-play their hand.

Likely, when this war went global, there would be less direct contact between Russia and the United States and more fighting between their surrogates (U.S. vs Venezuela, Cuba and other South American countries & EU and Chinese forces moving to check Russia and whatever stooge countries they can sign up... perhaps even Iran).

India would be too busy facing down Pakistan to get involved, and while it might seem like combined EU and Chinese power would overwhelm the Russian Coalition, the Chinese military is ill-equipped to handle the massive supply trains required for a war in Central Asia and Siberia, and the EU will prove their lack of will to take the fighting seriously.