To think we're on the brink of WW3?

[TellMeStraight]

If the US and Russia become at war with each other, can we possibly stay out of it?

What if Donald Trump is president when it all kicks off?

Should I buy a gun? Or build a shelter? Or stock up on tins?

I am genuinely frightened.

Pluto30

I'm not sure the consensus is that Clinton will win by a whisker... The article below shows there are a range of potential outcomes ranging from roughly 1 in 7 chance of a Trump win, and 1 in 3 of a Clinton landslide.

fivethirtyeight.com/features/election-update-there-are-4-ways-this-election-can-end-and-3-involve-clinton-winning/

I do not think WW3 will be between the US and Russia. It may have already started and it may never have an agreed precise start dates. NATO and the UN are like the EU good in theory but agreement on anything takes too long. Russia knows the US are not up for a fight and like Ukraine and Syria can use muscle with the rest of the world standing by gesturing.

Interesting banana. Polls are hard to trust but I thought there was a consensus towards a Hillary win among commentators.

I was about 8-10 during all the hype about nuclear attack, bibbity. As a child I took the threat Very Seriously.

At 18 I too was about the hedonism, shovelling E's down at the weekend, and all I was concerned about was the 9-5 week ending, so I could get back to leaping about like a sweaty loon. Wouldn't have known world politics at that time if they'd been shoved in my eye with a sharp stick. Never watched telly or read a newspaper. Apart from 'Neighbours', of course.

Agree kit kat

do you, spb? so you dont think the ops first few posts could have been a bit concerning? I was absolutely not taking the piss, it was genuine concern for her mental health. sometimes when you have severe anxiety, your thoughts can be quite irrational. luckily, op reassured me she was not seeing it as a likely possibility, but you know what, some people do and dont realise their thoughts are irrational. I dunno, talk of guns and killing your kids makes me twitchy sometimes. anyway, I apologised, perhaps it was a bit of a leap.

Ok. Apologies I havebt taken notice of who said exactly what but there was a general patronising air of "been here before". Things don't always proceed in the way they always have.just because x happened in the 80s and this was the result doesn't mean the same will happen each time something like x happens. Things can and do play put differently.
not aimed at you specifically bur I do feel there was a dismissal of the ops (what I feel to be) valid fears.
Fwiw when historians look back I suspect they will judge the staRt of ww3 to be about a year ago.
But then I'm crap at this stuff. Anyone seriously worried can probably safely ignore me.

I was born in 1979 hence why I had no idea about impending nuclear war in 1983. My family weren't apolitical either. There's no way my DPs would have scared us by giving us mattress related nuclear war advice, knowing full well it would have been instantaneously futile. My Dad was a police officer in the Met at the time. I should think he was more worried about getting stabbed in one of the many riots of the time.

Anyway, am off for a bike ride.

I've just quickly skim read the Guardian article about the alarming nuclear situation in 1983 - but the general public weren't aware of that. By the 1980s we were well into CND.

I'm often very anxious about the world situation, not just now, many many times before. I have to force myself to calm down. Ive even come on here before for reassurance and I've always had it.

What works for me is the ones that tell me to get a grip or even being slightly ridiculed by some. That's what I come on here for, for someone anxious like me it's exactly what I need.

I should imagine it's what the OP wanted too. The last thing we want is posts like "don't read this if you're scared" and then being given a link to something that is bound to cause alarm.

Far better to have someone saying things like, "get a grip " or "you're being a bit ridiculous than "Ooh I known I'm scared too, we're all doomed " type of answer. We want reassurance and we want to be told we're being daft (even if we're not) so we can carry on with our lives without living in a constant state of fear.

Op, I've had dark moments too. A year ago, on here, there was speculation about ww3 after turkey shot down a Russian plane. I lay in bed wondering where i could source cyanide pills for me and dcs. A year on, we're all still here.

If i am feeling anxious, I stay away from Twitter and the comments sections on news sites. They are full of doom mongers out to instil fear and are best avoided. What reassures me is that global war is equally shit for everyone. MAD makes the world a safer place, not even Putin or Clinton or Trump are mad enough to think they are immune to the aftermath of nuclear war.

Anna I completely agree with you, my DH tells me that constantly to reassure me. Now you've said that though, someone will no doubt come along and tell us that the concept of MAD doesn't apply anymore.

If they do, I'll stick my fingers in my ears and ignore them .

whats mad

Mutual Assured Destruction.

Op, because you were too young to remember the nuclear threat of the 80's doesn't mean it didn't happen I was born in 1972 and well remember it all. Threads, When the Wind Blows, discussion in the classroom about what we'd do with our 3 minute warning, the bomb shelter instructions etc. As a child I wasn't even sure I'd make it adulthood (probably a tad over dramatic! )

What the fuck was so dangerous about the 80s?! Apart from Michael Jackson and Jimmy Savile The Cold War wasn't really affecting people then, was it? I also lived through the 80s and had no idea they'd even been a Cold War until the wall came down.

My dh spent much of the 1980s and some of the 90s under the water keeping you safe so that it didn't affect you. Yes, there were other things going on like the Falklands War, the troubles in NI and the IRA, and just after the Wall came down you had the start of the Middle East conflicts with Iraq invading Kuwait in 1990, but the Cold War was always there, and lots of people were very, very aware of it, especially those whose families were involved in fighting it.

Personally, I don't think the Cold War ever stopped...and better a Cold War than a Hot one! As for Russian vessels in the channel, there are Russians sniffing around all the time...you just don't see them, except if their trawlers got caught,, and it wasn't fish they were after.

Is there a possibility that we could go to war, bombing and things, maybe chemical/biological attacks, but NOT go nuclear?

I am old enough to remember the genuine anxiety related to tensions between the US and the USSR in the 1980s. Even though most people rationally knew that nuclear war was highly unlikely, the rhetoric and sabre rattling were terrifying at times.

I think a war between the US and Russia now is even less likely than it was back then. Certainly I can imagine more proxy wars, but not a direct confrontation. Putin is a loathsome tinpot dictator, but he is also a realist. He is interested in expanding Russia's influence (hence the strategy in Syria), not in engaging with the US directly.

I think Russia wants us to believe we are at the brink of WW3.

I also think Russia wants the Americans to vote for Trump as I get the impression (from the Trump/Clinton debate) that Poootin is backing Trump.

Interesting banana. Polls are hard to trust but I thought there was a consensus towards a Hillary win among commentators.

There is... According to article there's only a 1 in 7 chance of Trump winning and therefore a 6 in 7 chance of Clinton.... Clinton's ahead but not by enough to call it, especially given that polls are only snapshots of a group of people who are willing and available to respond to a pollster. The 1 in 3 was for a Clinton landslide which would be a 7+ % point margin.

I'm with Stealth in thinking in years to come historians will probably point at 2015 or so as the start date for WW3 or another Cold War.

bibbitty God I must be living in a parallel universe. I was 18 in 1980 and I have never seen any kind of public information film about what to do in the event of a nuclear war. The 80s for me was all about University and hedonism and a genuine fear of Aids
I think you must have been in a parallel universe, yes! I was 18 in 1982, so your contemporary. I remember all those things, and stuff on the news. When I started teaching in the late 80s loads of the popular children's lit was about nuclear war (Z for Zachariah, Brother in the Land, Children of the Dust) and EE talked about nuclear war a lot. So that covers the late 70s and all the 80s with worries about war. Yes, we worried about AIDS too, but that became a big worry just as I finished University - you must have left before that.

We not EE. They weren't around in the 80s

Yes but Justinbobby would there be any historians in years to come if there was a nuclear war? We'd all be dead.