A Little Speculation on WWIII

Are we headed for WWIII?

I hate to be an alarmist, but I have never heard so many references to this kind of war since I was a kid growing up in the 80’s (uh oh, my age is out of the bag).

Tonight I was watching O’Reilly go about his usual ego-saturated rants (the majority of which I also happen to agree with), when he brought up an idea that intrigued me. He mentioned that he believes this instability from Israel’s north is a result of Iranian forces moving to destabilize the region. He didn’t give any supporting facts, only threads from his imagination. But I thought, hmm… this makes a certain kind of sense (as many conspiracy theories do). Let’s look at the facts:

Iran has been stalling on a decision about how to respond to UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment activities. During this time, Iran has made statements to the effect that it would come to the defense of Palestinians should they come under attack by Israelis. Keep in mind, these statements were made way before Gilad Shalit was taken prisoner, and thus, before the current military situation in Gaza was even a twinkle in Ehud Olmert’s eye. In fact, this all started literally on the eve of Mahmoud Abbas’ referendum would have (potentially and quite possibly) led to Palestinian recognition of Israel.

So Israel goes into Gaza to rescue Shalit, who is nowhere to be found. Then, just as tensions start to ease (relative to the first several days), Hezbollah militants kill 8 Israeli soldiers to the north in what is termed a “bold move” that would open a new front to the north. Hezbollah fires crude rockets that wildly manage to hit a few sparsely populated areas – and then, somehow – a rocket manages to fly nearly 100 miles to the Israeli port city of Haifa. This is the major escalation that has been talked about for the past 36 hours.

Hezbollah immediately denies responsibility. I happen to believe them. Why would they deny something that would potentially raise their status as heroes of the cause? Maybe… because they honestly didn’t do it? Soon after, there was talk of an Iranian connection. (more talk here) Could Iran be proving their ability to pit the world against each other?

Russia, China and Europe condemned Israeli action while the US supported it. Iran has now threatened Israel with a “fierce response” should Israel attack Syria. Well guess what – all the so called Lebanese-based terrorists are now supposedly all headed across the border into Syria? If Israel follows them, and Iran attacks Israel, then what? Well, just a few weeks ago President Bush said that the United States would defend Israel against Iranian aggression. Russia said it would defend Iran (if the conditions were right). You be the judge.

Granted, this is the worst possible scenario – but we’re already halfway there. All it takes is Israel going into Syria. Then boom, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gets to fulfill his destiny of being the President when the Hidden Imam returns amid WWIII.

Oh yeah, and oil hit $78 a barrel.