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Re: Odds of Turkey v Syria Ballooning into WW3?

Since I don't follow the mid east I might not be qualified to give a response, but I feel that it's pretty unlikely, but not impossible, that a world wide war could erupt based in the mid east. There certainly is a lot at stake, but the U.S. doesn't really need to secure gas and oil supplies from the mid east and Russia like China does, and since Russia sides with Syria, Iran, et al, that makes things fairly neat and compact. The only thing to worry about is Iran getting the bomb and completely destabilizing the region, and I think Israel has that fairly well in hand.

The morality of abortion is not a religious belief, any more than the morality of slavery, apartheid, rape, larceny, murder or arson is a religious belief. These are norms of the natural law of mankind and can be legislated even in a completely religionless society.

Re: Odds of Turkey v Syria Ballooning into WW3?

Minuscule...for the rest of the world there's really not a whole lot at stake for the international community to get involved in any big way.

Nobody who wins a war indulges in a bifurcated definition of victory. War is a political act; victory and defeat have meaning only in political terms. A country incapable of achieving its political objectives at an acceptable cost is losing the war, regardless of battlefield events.

Bifurcating victory (e.g. winning militarily, losing politically) is a useful salve for defeated armies. The "stab in the back" narrative helped take the sting out of failure for German generals after WWI and their American counterparts after Vietnam.

All the same, it's nonsense. To paraphrase Vince Lombardi, show me a political loser, and I'll show you a loser.

Re: Odds of Turkey v Syria Ballooning into WW3?

Say what you will about the leadership of U.S. and Russia, but they aren't suicidal. There is absolutely nothing in Syria that could possibly be worth the risk of getting into a hot war with a nuclear power and both sides know it. Worst case scenario, you get arms shipments and a proxy war, but it doesn't go any further than that.

Re: Odds of Turkey v Syria Ballooning into WW3?

[QUOTE=Daktoria;1060704056]Since Russia has been supporting Syria and Turkey is part of NATO, what are the odds of WW3?

(As a sidebar, how influential do you think Israel v Iran will be?)[/QUOTE

The destabilization that we, the USA, is causing in the MidEast is gonna bite us. I don't think a World War is in the offing, but the ignorance of antagonizing Russia is appalling. We want to surround Iran and get Russia out of the Syrian port. I think that Exxon/Mobil, BP, Shell, Chevron, etc. could move a lot of OIL through there. A real nice tanker port. Good business. Pipelines across Syria from Iraq, lovely. Elimanate another thorn in that powerful Congressional lobbying block known as Israel, Inc. For the time being, Russia has the NATO warmongers in check, but for how long? Let's be realistic about who the bad guys are in this region. We invaded Iraq, a Nation that was no threat to the USA. We invaded Libya, a Nation that was no threat to us. Do that give insight into Syria or are y'all waiting for the hammer up side the head? If a world war starts due to this situation, we will be the ones to initiate it. That killin' is good business.