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.

[StealthPolarBear]

Justin it terrifies me that you agree tbh.

[StealthPolarBear]

I don't think nuclear war. But obv not war of 60/70 years ago with advances and battlefields. This war will be contained mostly of terror attacks, suicide bombers and cyber crime.

[DoYouRememberJustinBobby]

hope I don't think it will be large scale nuclear attack, I again agree with Stealth and also re the smaller nuclear weapons which are being developed and ref in the linked essay a few pages back.

Stealth just anyone agreeing or me? Paranoia, much, me?

[StealthPolarBear]

Anyone :o was hoping for the "probably talking crap" responses

[wowfudge]

With the exception of perhaps North Korea, if it develops its own weapons, I think every state with nuclear weapons knows that pressing the button means the end of the world as we know it and would be catastrophic.

Putin's ships are on their way to Syria - there isn't another route they can feasibly take. He likes to throw his weight about, but I don't believe he is mad or megalomaniac enough to start a nuclear war.

Even if Trump became president (please just no) he'd soon find out that being Commander in Chief is not the same as being CEO of your own corporation.

My view on Cold War public info on what to do in the event of a nuclear attack is that it all the protective measures were actually useless and just designed to occupy people so they didn't panic in their final moments.

The fact OP that you are even thinking you will use your gun (?! Wtf) to kill your own children is deeply worrying.

[XYT123]

Threads was a grim film. It's on YouTube if anyone wants to see what post Nucleur war could look like!

Putin is just building his already solid reputation at home and posturing. He is a very rich man with all the trappings that brings and im sure he doesn't want to jeopardise that anytime soon.

There has been more than one near miss in the past. Obviously Able Archer in 83 was the closest but there have been others and I'm sure if it happens it will be accidental rather than someone purposely making a decision.

[StealthPolarBear]

That's not a comfort...

[RachelRagged]

Threads was grim, very grim and scared the life out of the young me when it aired . Some parts are ingrained on my memory to this day

OP I was like you in the 1980s , as others have said it was a very fraught scary time to live through but we made it through and this will blow over too. Try not to worry and please, if you really feel you would rather shoot your children and yourself (and I understand why in your scenario , awful terrible things happen to women and children in war) please please see somebody as a matter of urgency .

[BlackeyedSusan]

not as near as the cuban missile crisis.

nor watching those films that told you what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. (sod all use for most of the uk)

[TellMeStraight]

Wowfudge and Rachel, you appear to have either grossly misunderstood my posts, or are simply being utterly ridiculous and alarmist. Which considering the question I started this thread with is somewhat ironic.

I do not need to see a doctor. You have no need to be 'deeply worried'.

To be absolutely clear, my posts are about an entirely hypothetical solution to an entirely hypothetical situation which I think we have all established isn't going to happen.

That aside, I think it perfectly rational to consider mass suicide as a reasonable alternative to suffering violent and relentless torture and rape - this being a very frequent, if not certain, result of wartime invasions.

How many hundreds/thousands of women do you think have already done the same over the millennia?

Your insinuations that I am some kind of mentally unstable lunatic are unnecessary, unhelpful and unwarranted.

Perhaps you would like to read the following very interesting articles on the dangers women and children face during occupied wartime?

//www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2002/may/01/news.features11%3f0p19G=e?client=safari

www.timesofisrael.com/documentary-reveals-secrets-of-sexual-abuse-of-children-in-the-holocaust/

Thankfully, it would appear it so unlikely as to practically be impossible that we will have to face such horrors anytime soon.

[RachelRagged]

Oh well just attack why not ..
Jesus, so much for empathy and flowers.
Some people.

[TellMeStraight]

You just told me to go and 'see someone'!!

A previous poster said the same and I gave them a very reasonable and polite response. Forgive me if come page 6 it's gets a bit irritating.

[Teddy1970]

Does anyone remember the early 80s having an atmosphere of an impending attack? This might sound dramatic but It was on TV everywhere, even comedy programes tried to make light of a possible war, The Young Ones, Not the Nine O'Clock News, Only Fools and Horses, and then John Lennon released the single "Imagine", it was on everyones minds at the time I guess..

[aliasjoey]

Previous near misses where we nearly had a nuclear war (Cuban missile crisis aside) were usually mistakes or misinterpretations.... what are the chances this could happen again, but this time with Trump in charge, it gets followed through?

[bumpetybumpbumpbump]

Does anyone realise we are already at war and have been for ages ?? When we look back it will be clearer .

The work the security services do every day to protect us is immense I am sure .

[Pluto30]

alias Trump is stupid, but not stupid enough to think that nuclear war would be anything other than a death sentence for the US.

[Pluto30]

And yes, bumpety is correct. We've been at war for ages now. It predates 9/11, actually. We've been involved in conflict in the Middle East since the 1990s.

[StealthPolarBear]

I don't think anyone's disagreeing with that

[StealthPolarBear]

That was to bumps point. We're not stupid.

[StStrattersOfMN]

Not wanting to sound rude, but you were the one discussing getting a gun with your DH, so you could shoot your DC and yourself. Thinking things like that in the depths of an insomnia filled night = normalish, actual discussion with partner, not normal.

I'm another survivor of the 80's, global warming will get us before WWIII, and I have my doubts about that being scaremongering.

[Pluto30]

Yeah, OP, you can't say peoples' concerns for your mental health are unfounded when you openly admitted that you want to get a gun so that you can shoot yourself and your DC. That's genuinely concerning.

[hopetobehappy]

Just to reassure the Op, I don't think it could ever, in the UK come to a point where we'd have foreign hostile troops in our country going round torturing, raping and killing.

[StealthPolarBear]

Not a challenge as I know nothing about this stuff but why do you sound so sure?

[hopetobehappy]

Mainly because we're an island. The last two world wars were both fought in Europe, and any future conventional war has mainly been planned for in Europe.

[ginandbearit]

I rember the early eighties being a really scary time in the UK , never mind the threat of nuclear war . There was a very strange atmosphere before the Falklands war , the riots in Northern Ireland were on tv most nights and I remember thinking this will happen here , and it did .
There were rumours then about impending war , call up papers being printed and just an unsettled atmosphere , mates in the army and police have since said something was going on in the background but can't say more .