Is George W. Starting World War III?

[Weltall]

Originally posted by A Black Falcon
Well... back to the topic? :)

This will not lead to some global World War III. No way. However... once its over, it will probably result in America having its current lowest level of international support not improve much... I see no reason it would after what we've done... so while there won't be a war, there will be more terrorism and less support for US policies (of pretty much any kind)... both bad things which could lead to more big problems in the future... and unless we get rid of this administration soon I sure don't see that chaning...

Two points.

One, world opinion really does not mean a lot to us. You can say what you want about international community, but the plain truth is that the United States is by far the most economically and militarily powerful nation in the history of mankind. There are few who could ever hope to take on the US militarily and not get crushed outright, and there are less still who could embargo the US economically and not suffer far worse themselves for it. The UN's catastrophic failure over Iraq shows what international community really is: A great idea that is ruined by self-serving spineless coward nations looking to secure business deals with murderous thugs *cough* FRANCE *cough* GERMANY *cough*. We actually have more official support for our coalition now than we did in Gulf War I. There are some who don't support us, that's natural. And even more who really don't give a damn either way. But we're hardly unilateral about going in here.

And about Terrorism... I also think you're wrong about increases in terrorism. We had the Towers destroyed in Sept. 01, then we waged war against Al Qaeda, and people thought terrorism would increase then. It didn't. And there's a simple explanation for that. They're just like your classic neighborhood bully. They'll hit you and hit you and hit you when you refuse to hit back, which is why Al Qaeda struck with impunity during Clinton's administration, they correctly surmised that Clinton lacked the balls to retaliate. Once Bush put the fear of God into them with an assortment of bombs and other fun prizes, they calmed down conserably. They hit Bali, but have done nothing else since 9-11. They are cowards to the core. And fanatical or not, even they seem to realize it's not a good idea to attack someone who can counterattack a million times harder.