FAROUK ARAIE | Humanity at a dangerous crossroads as World War 3 looms

The threats now being traded between Russia, China and the US could trigger a war that could envelop the most powerful nations on this planet in a conflict that could surpass the destruction witnessed during World War 2. Any nation exercising political brinkmanship must be warned in advance that global war will cause a humanitarian and ecological disaster that will rock political stability to its foundations.

Many nations will not stand by impassively if a massive new war erupts. The death toll and destruction that will ensue will shock this entire planet. On land, at sea and in the air an inferno will rage that will become unstoppable even if nations realise their folly and plead for peace.

Humanity’s cradle of civilisation will cease to exist as it is reduced to rubble in an act of military savagery unprecedented in the annals of modern military combat.

As events unfold and escalate to the point of no return, the complete destruction of the entire area will trigger a call for the use of strategic nuclear weapons.

No nation in the conflict area will escape unharmed. Sailors, airmen and soldiers will perish in any act of total war. Belligerent nations must realise that once war begins they could be decimated beyond recognition. The international laws of military combat will be ignored, the Geneva Convention will be tossed aside, the United Nations' charter will become irrelevant as nation upon nation battle for outright victory and supremacy in a sea of blood.

Regime change will surely bring the world closer to a global confrontation. Before this decade is out one of the major powers will drop nuclear bombs to end the conflict as the world grimly witnessed when Japan was nuked to end the war in the Pacific.

Hypersonic nuclear missiles are being programmed to wreak death and destruction over a vast area, the ecological disaster that will follow will encompass the vast heartland of the entire conflict zone. Only an insane leader will execute a war of such horrific dimensions.

The deserts and the oceans will become avenues of sorrow and mayhem unparalleled in 21st century warfare. Warships will be ablaze, cities will be incinerated, oil wells will burn like the fires of hell, Armageddon will be witnessed by the world in 3D. Any miscalculation could be a prelude to World War 3. Political brinkmanship must be avoided at all costs.

Humanity is at a dangerous crossroads. War preparations to intervene are in “an advanced state of readiness”. Hi-tech hypersonic weapons systems are fully deployed. The conflict in Ukraine is raging unabated, the South China sea is boiling, the Middle East is in peril as the United Nations security council remains paralysed by the veto.

The global killing machine is also sustained by an embedded cult of killing and destruction which pervades Hollywood movies. A culture of killing and violence has become embedded in human consciousness. The devastating consequences of wider war are either trivialised or simply not mentioned.

The Cold War is supposedly behind us, but fears of terrorism and global nuclear holocaust remain. Will mankind destroy itself in a massive trade war, ending in an unrestrained global military conflagration?

Mankind continues to invent and produce weapons of mass destruction. The weapons of World War 1 killed 10-million people. The weapons of World War 2 killed 55-million people. The weapons of World War 3 will kill over 1-billion people, injure hundreds of millions, and displace millions more. The survivors will struggle to eke out a living in the aftermath of such an unwarranted conflict. The living will envy the dead.

Man’s inhumanity to man bloodies our history with genocide. The earth and life on it will barely survive World War 3. More than 15,000 nuclear weapons are still maintained by nine nuclear powers.

The ultimate war lies ahead. We experienced two world wars in the 20th century and World War 3 looms in the 21st century. History documents the evil nature of human beings, and their insane destructiveness in war after war. The direction of events in war zones should keep us awake at night.

Araie is a Sowetan reader