posted 12-05-98 12:05 AM ET            

What happen was an attack on the Soviets by rouge Soviet military personal, tiggering a automatic response form the Soviets to launch a limited attack 5 IBCMs at the US at this pt the real cause was discovered. Leading to a mad talk bewteen Soviet and US leadership, result 5 IBCM lauch at Russia, and the end of the war.

posted 12-05-98 12:36 AM ET            

Seriously. I doubt there will ever be a third world war. We are in a relatively peaceful area where there have been no major wars since 1945. What makes us think, in this relatively prosperous, & peaceful region in our long history, a third world war would start. The costs would be atrocious, & I doubt, with the lessons of two other world wars behind them, that people would enlist en-mass, with the nationalism they once had. It just seems doubtful to me that anyone would want to go start another world war. Don't forget, the age of imperialism is, for the most part, behind us. Imperialism was the cause for WWI, & one of the reasons behind WWII.

Just my 4 cents (I defy convention! HA!)

posted 12-05-98 09:17 AM ET            

Gilgamesch

posted 12-05-98 10:26 AM ET            

If it were to happen, it might originate in Taiwan, bringing tension between USA & China, which might in turn give NK the opportunity to attack SK !!!

Of course, we have the whole India-Pakistan conflict, we really have no clue as to how diciplines their nuclear departments are !!!

Of course, there is also India-China, this whole area is a ticking time bomb !!!
With some south-eastern asian dictators who might also be ready to take advantage of certain situations like that !!!

Of course, we have the whole mid-east vs usa &/or Isreal !!! What would NATO and the EU do in such a conflict if say, more than one arab nation were to engage US forces at once .. against one country is easy, but on multiple fronts, the chances of terrorism increases exponentially !!!

Of all the wars in Africa, none of them are likely to incite any major power enter the conflict, but would the UN stand for another Rwanda ??? (Well, unfortunately, I guess the answer is prob yes !!!)
So in any event, it prob won't be in Africa !!!

So, if you look at most of the posibilities, it's more than likely to start in Asia or the middle east !!!

Of course, what would happen if Yeltsin died??? The democratic movement in Russia would most certainly lose momentum ... would it be enough for the former Communist government to take over ??? Not likely, but the possibility is there !!!

From that point, the communist government would side with virtually any nation oppoising the USA, as it was the USA's economic powers that led to the eventual distruction of the communist system !!! (Well, many other factors, but namely Russia's poor economy) The ywould almost jump at the opportunity to make the USA look like fools for a while ... eventually, these smaller wars would turn into a 2nd world cold war ... then who knows what would happen !!!

Anyways, the chances of any of these scenerios happening are fairly slim, but if one were to happen, chances are there would be a domino effect !!!

posted 12-05-98 02:30 PM ET            

Mid-Late 1970s:
In the SAC command center, a training exercise is about to be run when it is discovered that the training tape won't work. So they pop in another tape -- this one simulating a full scale Soviet first strike. CINC-SAC is 30 seconds from calling the President for launch orders when the mistake is found. (This one inspired War Games.)

posted 12-05-98 10:31 PM ET            

Cold Wars on the other hand.... US v. Russia/US v. China even US v. France or Germany or in extrema even US v. UK for a cold war already exists. It is merely the degree of intensity (the fall of the Congo French/Belgian supported can be considered a success in a cold war between US-UK and France)

posted 12-06-98 12:54 AM ET            

An alien ship lands in the United States. The alien is immediately captured, and negotiates his freedom by explaining how his technology works, but he refuses to give the secret of FTL travel away, out of fear for his homeland. The US lets him fly away, but uses the technology to build a fleet of super air force ships that are basically flying battleships. The President declares that all nations of the world must surrender to him or they will be destroyed. A British sub lying in the Chesapeake responds by launching about 10 nukes all on the Washington/Northern Virginia area, utterly oliberating the Pentagon and the Capitol and the White House and the Supreme Court. The President, from his secret command bunker under Mount Rushmore, orders his new air force into action. First he announces to the World that the US will not use nukes, he wants them alive, and asks for the same coutsey. Then he, with his look down radar satellites that see all the foreign missile subs that are moving, orders his flying saucers to destroy them. Then he moves them to Britain (it only takes 30 minutes to cross the Atlantic), and utterly destroys everything south of Scotland. After this outrage, all countries launch their ground based ICBM�s at America anyway, but they are shot down by Star Wars lasers technology from the alien ship used in satellites. Only sub based nukes would be able to hit America and they were all destroyed. But the war is not over yet. A special Russian engineered bioweapon is smuggled into Canada, where it is released upon the unsuspecting populace in an attempt to create a plague that would cross down south. Russia also warns all Eurasian and African airports to close and to shoot down any planes possibly carrying infected people to Eurasia. It works, and all North Americans not in military bunkers die horrible deaths within the next 2 days, except for the very far north Canadians where the disease could not spread by air. With the hardest and toughest Air Patrols ever made, no fleeing Americans make it to Eurasia. The disease continues to spread to Latin America, but while it is doing that, the President decides to take revenge. His flying saucers, after finishing refueling, go on a mission of destruction in Europe to avenge America. But wave after wave of conventional fighters from all over the globe destroy them in the North Sea before they can do their mission. The enraged president, realizing he has lost, has his surviving scientists build him and his followers (there was quite a city beneath Mount Rushmore, plenty of people there) a spaceship that would take him to Alpha Centauri where he could rebuild his empire and take revenge. Soon the entire Mt. Rushmore complex blasts off into space toward AC, with the population in cryosleep. The Eurasians, in chem suits to protect themselves, find some of the knowledge of the aliens in the ghost towns of America and form their own ship to take a special group of them to AC. Though they realize their number of people they are sending is larger, their ship will arrive after the Americans and the Americans will have had time to entrench their position.

posted 12-07-98 05:14 AM ET            

Then some general with intelligence backgound assembles the civil war battle hardened Russian army under one flag and installs a totalitarian regime. Arms buildup follows, together with the annexation of "near abroad" (former Soviet Union). Tensions rise, spies are caught routinely every week on both sides. The indecisiveness of Europe fails to incorporate the Central Europe into NATO, and they fall prey to "people's revolutions" and join Russia. A well prepared and live-fire-trained Russian army stands on the borders of Germany.

posted 12-07-98 03:49 PM ET            

War betweem India and Pakistan/China seems to be the biggest threat nowadays. If India is against Pakistan alone, it might have a change, but I bet China wouldn't leave a great opportunity unused.

And Taiwan. The new government said they might join China, if it were democratic. So most of Taiwanese want to eventually join and China might provoke a rebellion and give "aid" to them. If that occurs, there is no way US or UN would help the Taiwanese, especially if Russia and France would be against it, as they always are.

I don't see a way for North Korea to raise her economy enough for a war. I mean people are starving and most of their weapons are from the Korean war. A union is more plausible, with actually South taking over North. Whether or not China will react, I don't know, propably yes.

The collapse of Russia is nearer than ever. Luckily the army supports the government, which is the least likely to use nukes. Possibly lots of small regions will (try) to leave and small wars around the country will make the army even more powerfull. Eventually they might overthrow the government and form an iron junta. Yet they won't be communist, because at least until now the army has had nothing to do with them in order to gain money from the privatization. And the use of nukes in a civil war, unlikely.

posted 12-08-98 06:29 AM ET            

Terrorism is such an act of cowardice .. to think they'd murder innocent people, instead of gathering enough courage to try to make change peacefully !!! To make political change peacefully in many countries is oft more difficult than doing it by war, someone who can incur change peacefully on a society is much more courageous than someone who kills 1000 enemy solders !!!

posted 12-08-98 11:36 PM ET            

It is well known that oxygen causes aging by tearing apart important DNA in its quest for electrons to bring it up to -2. Finally, a solution has been found. Eminent scientist JB makes a new synthetic oxygen in 2056 that supplies all the benefits that oxygen does to our body, without tearing apart our DNA. Now many of the bad effects of aging are reduced. Tested cautiously at first, soon synthaox is being mass procduced in giant vats all over the country in attempts to raise the quantity of it in the atmosphere, and drive the amount of oxygen alreadry there down (to prevent mass fires). People are delighted all over the country as their campfires start to burn an almost greenish glow. Predictions are made that lifespans will double. Fashionable executives had their buildings purified with no oxygen and 25% synthaox.

Then, disturbing news. Chancellor Roland II of the European Community reports that his scientists, after extensive testing of synthaox, have discovered that it actually does rewrite DNA. Their aged chief of xenobiology, Micheal Heffran, claims it is preparing us to be a servitor slave race to a group of incoming alien invaders. This sets off a firestorm of reaction. Immediately, all over Europe synthaox vats are destroyed and replaced by algae vats in an attempt to bring back Earth's old oxygen. Around the world, many fanatics attack and torch the vats as well, but some are repulsed. And in the US and Canada, where JB had originally developed his work, angry protesters coming to smash vats found large police and security forces waiting for them, who mercilessly shot all comers, even those who only intended to ask about it. President Goldwater announced that those findings were completely false and that the real Roland II was dead, and an imposter had made that message. The usurper that claimed to be Roland II was an America-hater playing on the world's fear of technology to try and finance a world war against America.

Roland II promptly and swiftlly denied that he was an imposter in the real Roland II's place, and that this was not a scheme to start a war against the US. "I simply ask that we slow down and examine the evidence. I will be the first one to hop on board if we can conclusively prove these claims false. But until then, we need to dismantle these and slow down." He pointed to evidence that people who worked and lived in the buildings that used nothing but synthaox were noted to be far more obediant and uncreative than before than their colleagues, and humanity in general had seen that trend the last 6 months. President AUH20 (as he was called for short) quickly responded with "Aliens! Haha. How silly. Everyone knows that there are no aliens. And this is all circumstantial evidence, you have no conclusive proof tying synthahol to increased obediance, and 95% of bad kids chew gum, does that mean we should ban gum? No. So we refuse to dismantle our vats. You're just insane, maybe we need to go over to your side of the pond and put a real government in."

Still, the damage was done. It was now very unfashionable for building to have their own private purifier installed, and quickly started replacing them with all oxygen purifiers. People on the street were worried about the massive amount of synthahol in the air. In an interview, one tourist in England named DJ RRebel said that "I'm afraid to go back to Canada, too close to that madman president!"

At this point, Roland II decided to strike. Most other nations had temporarily dismantled their vats, though some still kept them operational. So the rising of the percent synthaox in the atmosphere stopped rising, and was still around 15%. But he decided that was not enough. He gave the orders, and soon killersats detonated all American military satellites and missiles streaked toward locations contining the vats. He also went on world-wde TV to warn the American people and remind them of his good intentions, from a super-purified bunker in Austria of course. With the lack of much ABM technology in America and Canada, almost all the missiles hit and it looked like the Europeans had won the day. The President and many of his top military aides had simply disappered, and America stood confused about who was in charge.

All this soon changed, though. A core force of the president, his aides, Congress, and the top figures of the Pentagon soon began dispensing orders from seemingly nowhere. All attempts to trace the message hopelessly failed. And the orders weren't to strike enemy military bases or anything, they were things like "tell the public to watch TV today. There will be a very important announcement." But there never seemed to be. But their inferiors dutifully lined everyone up to watch the show in the army, and a great majority of the people watched TV anyway. People around the world watched too.

posted 12-09-98 02:07 AM ET            

Imran Siddiqui was running fast. He had escaped the destruction of the CTP outpost, he knew if got abck inside the SMAC shelter he'd be okay... if he just ran a little faster-

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

posted 12-09-98 07:38 PM ET            

Concerning Snowfires scenario, it is not all that implosible (except in everything happening all in one day) but I propose the following

A terrorist faction sets off a small/medium nuclear device in New York City, Manhattan is gone and New York Harbor is toast. The President calls for the heads of the supplier, the financer, and the leader of the terrorist movement on a plate within 24 hours. The CIA, FBI and NSA all scramble as fast as they can but come up with nothing on such short notice, thus they decide to falsify evidence that Hazballa set up the Nuke, Hussein funded it, and a little known Russian missle commander sold them the bomb.

The President under massive pressure to do something NOW orders the launch of a tactical nuke against the palace in Baghdad, and all known Hazballa bases. He then informs the Russian President that one of his commanders is selling nukes and HEAVILY advises that the man be handed over for trial and firing squad immediately. The nuke to Baghdad fails to neutralise Saddam and he responds by launching every rocket he has topped by chemical weapons and set to detonate in the jet stream. The Army assumes that they were all misfires.

The Russian President after getting a report from his advisors that the story was false and the officer in question was in Moscow for his annual physical when he was accused of selling the nukes, and he was seen at all times while in the hospital, refuses the Presidents demands and calls for UN reprimands of his use of nuclear weapons.

Upon hearing the Russian response the President orders SOG teams to enter the offices of the heads of all three agencies and retrieve all documents relating to thier investigation. It comes to light that the story was untrue and that no one knows who set up or set off the nuke that destroyed Manhattan. Knowing that he could never tell this to the American people now he instead buries the documents and prepares to defend his actions to the UN.

The biological agents released in the Jet stream have now spread across Europe to America, infected individuals have spread them even further virtually the entire globe has been exposed by now. The first few victims begin to show signs but most doctors dismiss it as a flu or bad cold it is several days before the first staffer at the CDC notices the outbreak of simmilar symptoms, by which point it is far to late. Within the next 7 days approximately 1 billion people die, mostly in China and India, within the following week the populations 3rd world countries are wiped out 99% casualties in more develped nations only 50% die as advanced antibiotics and experimental antiviral treatments are used to combat the diseases.

Heckler