AIBU to be terrified of WW3 killing us all in the UK soon?

[streetface]

AIBU to be frightened that WW3 is about to happen and my children will be obliterated by a nuclear weapon here in the UK?

Or is that unlikely? I'm hoping someone with a bit more understanding of the situation can explain. All I know is the situation has escalated now Trump has bombed Assad's regime and Russia is mighty pissed off. If the West comes under attack I'm guessing the UK will be nuked?
Bookma

Your kids have far more chance of growing up than the kids in Syria.

The world survived the Cuban missile crisis.
We survived the Cold War.

Here's hoping...

I just knew this thread would contain sly swipes at Brexit (which I am sure will be blamed for the next many years). YAB a bit U - tense times have always happened - I lived through the 60s and the cuban missile crisis. Get a grip as others have said and hope for the best - keep calm and carry on in the best British tradition.

No shit Renaissance

I think WW3 has been going on for some time and I'm sorry but I do truly believe it is going to escalate rather quickly. I'm not sure if it will become nuclear but I do think supply lines will be hit (which will be worrying even if we aren't directly involved in a war) and I think there will be more cyber attacks (the number which hit the U.K. last year are vast and seem to have gone largely undiscussed by the public after small news stories) not just from terrorists but from foreign governments.

Frankly though there isn't anything we as private citizens can do to prevent war. But working to pay down debts and have a few stocks of food is a good focus and doesn't hurt even if war doesn't come about.

I just saw a clip of a man who lost 22 family members includong his baby twins and wife in the gas attacks in Syria as others have said enjoy the privaladged life you have there is so much worse in life than dying!

I am not worried about bring deaded with my family. I'm more concerned about being a survivor in an apocalypse situation. That would be in finitely worse.

We are not out of the EU yet- but will be in two years time.
We are still in NAto though, and that won't change, so britain isn't 'irrelevant'

And in or out of the UK, our government currently support the interventions of the US in Syria and remember how we followed them without blinking an eyelid in 2003.

In our our of the EU*

It isn't "unreasonable" as such to consider the very real danger of conflict. But it isn't productive to live in a state of anxiety about it. So is there anything practical you can do about it?

• Write to you MP/protest against the UK involving itself in military action
• Oppose the whipping-up of hatred against other groups/nations/religions
• Encourage closer ties between the UK and other nations

...umm, that's about it really. Can anyone think of anything else?

Why can't I type today? You know what I intended to type.

All we can hope for us is the best death possible once we are alive. I can't control what's happening in the world so I choose to hope for the best, try and give my kids the happiest childhood possible and if we are all going to be nuked then here's hoping I'm really close to where it's ends up landing.

Well if it's nuclear it should happen quite quickly. There's no point freaking out over something you'll probably be unaware of.

Only if you are one on the lucky ones, within a few miles of ground zero.

Outside that range it is very painful death.

I'm pretty close to central London, I think the initial blast would do us, so will worry more about my 10yr old crossing the road.

Nobody knows if there children will grow up or not op. Focus on the positives or you spoil what you have now. For your children and you. They will pick up on your anxieties and that's not good.

We still have American air bases here, don't we? That would make us a target I'm afraid.

With Trump & Putin in power, things are scary. They are both unpredictable and sociopathic, IMO.

I can remember worrying terribly about nuclear war in the 80's, watch Threads and so on - and Dad used to say 'only way a nuclear war will happen is a computer malfunction, or a madman in charge.

Well, we came as a close as anything to the computer malfunction in the 80's ( Stanislav Petrov ).

I thought of Dad when Trump was elected.

I just posted this on the Trump Syria thread in response to a poster who asked me if I thought Russia wants war with the west. I'm in grad school working on Eastern Europe, although that seemed to piss some posters off on that thread. I don't claim to have all the answers or to know everything, but a great deal of my time is spent studying this stuff and trying to make sense of it and I think it's both fascinating and terrifying at the same time.

I would start by asking a different question: does the west want war with Russia. If we disregard Trump as an unpredictable anomaly, I think most people would agree that the west doesn't want war with Russia. What the west wants it a Russia that subscribes to its own outlook on the world, or at least accepts it. (Look at all the American money invested into Russia in the 1990s). When Russia goes against that, we impose sanctions and support the opposite party (ie Vietnam, Syria, Ukraine, Baltics) which best fits with our own ideology.

I would argue that Russia's desires aren't that different from the west's. What Russia would like is an America, EU etc that subscribes to Russia's post-Soviet ideology and world outlook. When the west looks at the Baltic states, it sees a Russian threat on autonomy and self-determination. When Russia looks at the Baltic states, it sees Russians living in those countries being denied use of their own language, jobs and even passports in some instances. Same with Ukraine prior to Euromaidan. When Russia looks at the rebel groups in Syria, it sees violent extremists (I think people forget not so long ago our former PM wanted to take us into Syria supporting a number of rebel groups, one of which was ISIL in its early stages), it sees brutal treatment of a Orthodox Christians who were treated relatively well under the Assad regime. People underestimate the importance of Orthodoxy in Russia's current world outlook.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't think it's so different from the Cold War, the opposing ideologies have just become more complicated than communism vs capitalism, and therefore harder to understand. I think most in the west don't want war with Russia, but would resort to that if they felt there was no other option. Russia I believe feels exactly the same way.

OP, we're not out of the EU

Rachel - same era - same memories. Also thinking of Sting and the Dream of the Blue Turtles.

I too have a sense that those in charge of the world now (Putin and Trump) are more frighteningly loony than in the past. Brezhenev and Addropov were part of big party machines. Putin is a loose cannon, as is Trump. Ronnie was nuts, but had Maggie to keep him in line (not that I want to sound positive re Maggie).

OP all the stiff upper lip stuff IS comfort. You just need to take it the right way. It's a way of reminding you that there's no point fearing what might never happen.

The air strikes have been condemned by Russia and Iran, but generally global opinion is that this was a necessary action....(even China didn't condemn the action)

I think it unlikely that Russia will unilaterally take on pretty much the rest of the world? global response

I am old enough to remember the CND marches of the 1970s and the arrival of American Cruise Missiles at Greenham Common.

Probably better to be obliterated in a nuclear explosion than have to cope with radiation poisoning, the breakdown of society, lack of food and running water, the nuclear winter that follows a big blast.

Hopefully it will not come to this.

So the OP is genuinely afraid and all people can add is that she doesn't live in Syria? WHy would we all blown to dust anyway? Lots of people lived horrible lives in Japan after nuclear war? I'd be fine with immediate dust though I guess.

I'm with you OP, but have felt scared for a while though. People are way too convinced that our situation is here forever. Nothing in history has given us any reason to believe that this is going to last.