Has the world moved closer to WWIII?

Today Turkey shot down a Russian war plane for flying for 17 seconds over it's air space..........American trained and equipped Syrian Rebels destroy Russian rescue helicopter set to try and recover pilots from shot down plane.........During press conference in Washington, White House spokesman says everyone has the right to defend themselves but when pressed by journalists he denies he said he didn't mean everyone.........
Tonight are we the closest to WWIII since the Cuban Missile crisis?

This whole situation is just getting worse by the day.

We do seem to be moving ever nearer to a major conflict

Something bad is definitely brewing - something global.

'Shot dead' as they parachuted to the ground: Militants claim to have gunned down two Russian pilots who ejected from their aircraft as video emerges of rebels chanting 'Allahu Akbar' over one body

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3331558/Turkey-shoots-fighter-jet-Syrian-border-Local-media-footage-flaming-plane-crashing-trees.html#ixzz3sS52E77i

It has been claimed that these are 'Moderate' Rebels who are supported by Turkey.......

I feel as if all the world leaders should be sent to the naughty step - including the leaders if IS - probably indefinitely

astradt1 wrote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3331558/Turkey-shoots-fighter-jet-Syrian-border-Local-media-footage-flaming-plane-crashing-trees.html#ixzz3sS52E77i

It has been claimed that these are 'Moderate' Rebels who are supported by Turkey.......

"Borders" between Middle-east countries have been something of a moveable feast over the past several hundred years - as indeed have borders in central Europe. Modern Greece and Turkey are not the same as they were during the Ottoman Empire, and the map of Syria/Iraq/Jordan and Palestine was drawn with a ruler by the victorious French and British powers at the end of WW1 in total disregard of ancient tribal divisions.

Several peoples in the north of that region found themselves unwillingly part of Turkey, which discovered that it had a problem with Armenia (that continues) but reached accommodation with the Turkmen, described above as Moderate Rebels. An oxymoron if there ever was one.

oftenwrong wrote:The reality is that any time there is dis-harmony e.g. over financial inequalities, each government scuttles back behind its traditional border.

It would be good if Britain could "scuttle back behind its border" and take no part in Turkey's apparent act of self-defence. Sadly we have linked ourselves to this country and there may well be truth in Putin's assertion that his plane was shot down to assist the terrorists. There would be good reasons for this, of course. It is worrying to see that the weapons of the West are in the bloodied fingers of rebels, whom we are assisting against Assad. It looks as if Russia has backed the right horse.

Tonight are we the closest to WWIII since the Cuban Missile crisis?

I don’t think the Cuban Missile Crisis took mankind as close to World War III as many feared at the time. Clearly that was a very dangerous incident; I don’t doubt that Kennedy would have stopped the missiles from reaching Cuba, and fortunately Khrushchev had enough sense to back down. However, just because two countries who get involved in a spat happen to possess nuclear weapons, it doesn’t mean that they will immediately resort to using them; both sides have too much to lose.

The nature of warfare obviously changes over time, and not just because of the available weapons. During the Napoleonic Wars, the uniforms for the French army were made in Lancashire. Warfare was one thing, business was another, in the days when armies and navies were at war but not entire countries. Wars such as the Boer War were something people read about in their newspapers over breakfast. The idea of total conflict, involving much of the world, was unique in the Great War of 1914-18, that “war to end all wars”. It’s possible to view the Second World War of 1939-45 as the second part of the same conflict, since its seeds were sown in the settlement imposed on Germany after 1918. The Vietnam War was an example of another change, where the world’s leading superpower couldn’t defeat a peasant army which didn’t have the decency to identify itself by wearing a uniform!

History is littered with terrorist (or liberation, depending on your point of view) outrages, but they were usually confined within one country (such as those perpetrated by the IRA or Basque separatists). That changed when the Palestine Liberation Front started blowing up planes in September 1970, and then murdering Jewish athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. There were many more examples of terrorism over the next three decades, often related to the Palestine question, and then there was the big one…..

In answer to the thread question, I think the Third World War began on 11 September 2001. The response to the attack on the Twin Towers soon became known as 'the war on terror'. Meanwhile, those who have hijacked and corrupted Islam as a cloak for their evil ambitions have sprung up across the world – not just in Afghanistan, but in a number of African countries and in failed states such as Libya, Iraq and now Syria, with al-Qaeda and ISIS determined to make it a global conflict.

Just as with the Cuban Missile Crisis over 50 years ago, I doubt whether the downing of a Russian plane by Turkey will escalate into a war between NATO and Russia; both sides have too much to lose, and neither would want to see ISIS take over the whole of Syria. Incidentally, one of the pilots of the Russian jet that was shot down by Turkey was rescued and is back at his base, according to Russia's defence minister:-
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/reports-russian-jet-shot-syrian-airspace-011802849.html

A basic human right is that of self defence and Turkey would claim to have exercised its right in shooting down a Russian plane. The Syrian rebels, our adopted friends, were no doubt defending themselves when they destroyed the rescue helicopter. It is so easy to enact legislation and so easy to use it for our own ends, even when those ends are wrong.
One suspects that Vladimir Putin is right in suggesting Turkey was helping the terrorists, for whatever reason.

If you can tear yourself away from the scandalous shrinking chocolate-bar for a moment, please give a thought to the millions of American citizens who are not insulated by three thousand miles of cold water.

Wish there was room for all the nice ones over here - and Trump can have our Kippers EDL, BNP, Tories and all the rest

All who believe in what the Bible says
Will realise we are in the latter days
Mankind has no answer to the state the world finds itself in
For all the majority think about is sin, sin sin.
Jesus will come along you will find
And sort matters out for all mankind.

Regards.

“They also proclaimed that the present order of things would soon be dismantled altogether, to be replaced by a messianic age in which Jesus would return as king to rule over a new heaven and a new earth.”

That was A N Wilson (‘Paul, The Mind Of The Apostle’, p.100) talking about Christians during the reign of Agrippa, the last king of the Jews who died in the year 44.

“He did not think of himself as founding a universal church……in his belief, the Day of the Lord was imminent, and he was hurrying to tell this Good News to as many god-fearing Gentiles as would hear him.” (p.138)

That was Wilson (p.138) talking about Paul.

A basic tenet of Christianity is that Christ will return one day, and his followers were expecting that in the first decades after his death just as much as some of them are now. Throughout the last 2,000 years they have looked for possible signs of the Second Coming. Outbreaks of bubonic plague were often seen as the beginning of the end of the world, and of course they were for many people. To others, the Great War of 1914-18, the first time that a conflict had been global, was a sign that the end was nigh. Jehovah’s Witnesses used to try to put a date on it by manipulating numbers in the Bible, but they gave that up after their last prediction, 1975, came and went.

So there’s nothing new or surprising in a 21st century Christian suggesting on here that “we are in the latter days”. The creation of nuclear weapons has given mankind – not a mythical god – the power to destroy the planet, but few leaders would be insane enough to use them because of the probability of instant retaliation and obliteration. However, when dangerous sociopaths like Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump have nuclear weapons at their disposal, the world is definitely a more dangerous place. But will there be World War III? I doubt it. Will Jesus Christ return? Don’t hold your breath.

No one will know the time nor hour
When Jesus comes to take over power
The Bible has this to say
So that one must be ready every day
And having considered all the facts
It will not be long before Jesus acts
The world has become a place of sin
But you can be sure in the end God will win.

Regards.

will there be World War III?

I've heard it said that WW3 is currently already in progress

In human terms, WW3 started the minute WW2 ended.

In Biblical terms the Final War is in progress.

Every indication recorded in the Bible is at the present time in full swing.

Satan will soon have his come upance.

Regards.

Just as you think that things could not possibly get worse in the Middle East:

Russia's ambassador to Turkey shot dead

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/russias-ambassador-to-turkey-shot-dead/ar-AAlKtLT?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=iehp

As 2016 comes to a close, the BBC has been asking various historians to say which year in history was the most similar to this awful one. Margaret MacMillan chose 1914.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-38316934

When I heard tonight of the murder in Ankara of the Russian ambassador to Turkey, I immediately thought of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914, and the chain of events which followed. Chilling stuff.

I have warned The Almighty not to rain on my birthday.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/north-korea-warns-of-super-mighty-pre-emptive-strike-and-threatens-to-turn-us-to-ashes/ar-BBA5mPx?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=iehp

Oh, well - I did hope there might be a future for the human race - never mind

HAMBURG — The growing international isolation of the United States under President Trump was starkly apparent Friday as the leaders of major world economies mounted a near-united opposition front against Washington on issues ranging from climate to free trade.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/at-g-20-world-aligns-against-trump-policies-ranging-from-free-trade-to-climate-change/ar-BBDYDln?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=iehp

But the pariah pair, Trump and May, evidently found in each other a BFF.

How can anybody continue to doubt the quality of Mrs. May's judgment?

"Royal Navy being eaten away by 'cannibalisation' of ships for spare parts spending"
Telegraph

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/royal-navy-being-eaten-away-by-cannibalisation-of-ships-for-spare-parts-spending-watchdog-warns/ar-AAui9BM?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=ientp

Cannibalisation of Defence equipment is nothing new, it has been an essential feature of shipyards for as long as they have existed, and continues in all arms of the Services. When I was serving Her Majesty some of us were flown out to Malta for a defence exercise, but couldn't get back again when it was over because although there was a pair of four-engined aircraft lined up at Luqa there were only three serviceable engines between them.

We were forced to spend ten extra days relaxing in the sunshine, getting our knees brown. A tough job, but someone had to do it.