Left Coast Leaner: Third World War

Third World War

I'm no historian, so I don't really know at which stage wars get named. We can look back and refer to the Gulf War, and everyone knows what we're talking about. Vietnam War, obviously. That was pretty easy. There's been a bunch of mini-wars that have failed to secure very descriptive monikers. And I guess we're always bombing something... even Billy C dropped mad bombs over Baghdad.

This war, the "Iraq War" so far, has certainly ballooned out of the "mini" status, and will soon demand an appropriate title. I just don't know how or when we came to refer to World War One and World War Two as such, or even more confounding, when we started calling the second one "the Great War."

They have tried a number of titles, to be sure. It all started with Operation Iraqi Freedom. That was back when the neocons expected nothing more than a few weeks of a scuffle-- how can we forget Rummy assuring us the battle could last "six days, six weeks... I doubt six months." (I wish I could find the video, but alas...)

Then... hmmm, I forgot what was next. It's always tough to keep track of doublespeak because, you know the nature of it is always changing. But there were some others that clearly didn't fly. But it seems they have settled on referring to the general conflict a part of the "Global War on Terrorism."

I have come to find that very interesting... a GLOBAL war. So would that be a WORLD war? Is there a difference? There is something inherently political, indeed even melodramatic, about calling this the Third World War. World War III doesn't mean anything to me, because, I don't know, it sounds like an alien movie or something.

But the "Third World War" has interesting connotations. The obvious one, because, well, the world is at war. Again, I am unsure what the "Coalition" forces number, but plenty of countries at least have a chef in there or something. But the Middle Eastern region is involved in this massive conflict, and the borders are starting to get blurred. If you think of it as a war among the "third worlds," it kinda works. (Granted, Iraq was not a third world until we bombed the shit out of it).

We got stuff in Iraq, spilling over the border into Syria. Syria's other border with Lebanon is becoming increasingly unstable with accusations that Syria was responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese prime Minister Rafik Hariri. That brings us right near the ol' West Bank where things are far from cordial. Of course there is Iran, next on the hit list, and the one sensible military move the US attempted in Afghanistan, which doesn't seem to be going so hot itself. And who could forget the Kashmir conflict between Pakistan and India (although Ma Earth got sick of that and shook things up a bit over there... who knows where anyone stands?) Then there are the Russian friends up north past Turkey, in Georgia. Those Chechen rebels are scary, and have no intention of backing down.

These wars will soon become one. It's some sort of entropy-- they will all dissolve into one another. This is a World at War, and by my count... that's about three so far.