Are We Ready For A War In The 21st Century?

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Agrani Gupta
Jul 11, 2019   •  54 views

In this era of speeding lives over the limit and time being the parameter of money, each nation is trying to become the international god. Its all about power and being on the top and each nation is fighting for it, somewhere in troops and somewhere in majorities.

While we see the growing number and graphs, in the back seat we have a world war in store.

Yes, we are on the verge of world war 3 right before us.

Welcome to the US-Iran war, with the potential to be the end of the world.

As we explore through the pages of the history, we track down that its not a new rivalry but they have been enemies since childhood maybe.

It dates back to 1980s and these minor incidents of revenge have huddled up into a bomb, waiting for the spark.

The spark came strolling to them, In May 2018,as US President Donald Trump abandons the nuclear deal, before reinstating sanctions against Iran and countries that trade with it.

Relations between the US and Iran worsen. The US sends an aircraft carrier strike group and B-52 bombers to the Gulf because of what it calls "troubling and escalatory indications" related to Iran.

Then, in May and June 2019, explosions hit six oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, and the US accuses Iran.

And on 20 June,Iranian forces shoot down a US military drone over the Strait of Hormuz. The US says it was over international waters, Iran says it is over their territory.

Since then the cold war has started to go below 0 degree Celsius, freezing not only their thinking capacity but also paving its way towards the impending doom.

So here we are on a ride, to go through the possibilities of war and its consequences.

Better tighten your seatbelts, as it will be a bombing experience!

Importantly, both country’s leaders say they don’t want a war. But the possibility of one breaking out anyway shouldn’t be discounted, especially since an Iranian insult directed atTrumplast month led him to threaten the Islamic Republic’s “obliteration” for an attack on “anything American.” In other words, Tehran doesn’t have to kill any US troops, diplomats, or citizens to warrant a military response — it just has to try.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

Replying to @realDonaldTrump

.... Iran’s very ignorant and insulting statement, put out today, only shows that they do not understand reality. Any attack by Iran on anything American will be met with great and overwhelming force. In some areas, overwhelming will mean obliteration. No more John Kerry & Obama!

There has been a going a war of tweets on social media platforms, oiling up the heat between the two.

It’s at this point that both sides would need to communicate their red lines to each other and how not to cross them. The problem is there areno direct channelsbetween the two countries and they don’t particularly trust each other. So, the situation could easily spiral out of control.

The situation might seem very heated up but the loophole in this hole situation is that is actually “The fog of war” It refers to how hard it is for opposing sides to know what’s going on in the heat of battle. It’s particularly difficult when they don’t talk to one another, as is the case with the US and Iran.

Which means that the way the US and Iran interpret each other’s next moves would mainly come down to guesswork.

Now the Trump administration has to figure out why Iran did that. Some people in the administration might think it’s because Tehran plans to attack US embassies, troops, or allies in the region and is moving its missiles into position to do so. Others might believe that it was merely for defensive reasons, with Iran essentially trying to protect its missile arsenal from being taken out by future US strikes.

It all comes down to the persuasive side, but can at the same time create problem at the international level.

Talking about the chances of US putting the opening salvo,

At this point, it’s hard to be very precise about a hypothetical full-blown conflict. We know it would feature a series of moves and countermoves, we know it’d be very messy and confusing, and we know it’d be extremely deadly.

The US strategy would almost certainly involve using overwhelming air and naval power to beat Iran into submission early on. “You don’t poke the beehive, you take the whole thing down,” Goldenberg said.

There’s another risk: A2002 war gameshowed that Iran could sink an American ship and kill US sailors, even though the US Navy is far more powerful.

The riskiest one — by far — would be to invade Iran.

In midst of all of the war, there will be countries, willing to take the advantage, countries like Russia and China — both friendly to Iran — would try to curtail the fighting and exploit it at the same time, the Century Foundation’s Hanna told me

And since both countries have veto power on the UN Security Council, they could ruin any political legitimacy for the war that the US may aim to gain through that body.

Coming to the other side of the ring,

Take what it could do in the Middle East.Iran’s vast network of proxiesand elite units — like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — could be activated to kill American troops, diplomats, and citizens throughout the region.

Experts note that the Islamic Republic surely has sleeper cells in Europe.

If we are thinking of the possibility of this war, Iran would be emerging as a failed state and would be in debris, but the US will also be in disadvantage, being a world power, it will be pressurised to pay the reparations and that would be a big drain from its treasury.

Not taking into consideration the real loss of the life and infrastructure(right now that’s hardly a concern to these power famished powers), this situation hereby would be a loss on both the sides.

But the real-life conditions, paints a different picture, we might be the witnesses of the next world war and might have to pay its consequences.

With the hope that these two powers might understand this simple quote,

“we make war with the intention of winning over each other, but in the end the humanity is the one which loses its children”.

Hereby I end this ride.

Period.

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