Kevin Barrett – The Unz Review Feb 4, 2024
I remember learning in school that the flashpoint for World War I was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Like most people, I never quite understood how the first-ever World War, involving over 30 nations and leading to almost 20 million deaths, resulted from a gratuitous murder by a handful of radical students. Apparently universities should keep a very close eye on student organizations!
I later encountered the realist school of geopolitics, which argues that the Great War was a disaster waiting to happen. The actual cause of the war, according to realists, was not a random assassination, but the rise of German (and to a lesser extent Russian and American) economic and military power, which threatened the then-British-dominated world order.
Realists say this pattern is not uncommon. A number one power, alarmed at the rise of a number two challenger, allies itself with the number three power, but ultimately fails to maintain its position. The shifting power dynamics, in which the number one power no longer has the economic and military might to back up its top ranking, produces a major war, whose aftermath establishes the new international pecking order. In the case of the two World Wars, which were really one war with two major episodes, the thalassocratic British empire exhausted itself fighting Germany, allowing the US to seize the number one spot.
Today, the US empire is in a position not unlike Britain’s circa 1914. Having industrialized first, built a huge navy, and developed the necessary skills to “rule the waves” and colonize the wogs, the Brits had benefitted from a huge head start; but by 1914 the Germans, Russians, and Americans were catching up, and the Brits no longer had enough relative power to enforce unipolar world domination.
Likewise, 2024 America is still coasting on the fumes of its gigantic post-World War II head start on the rest of the world. The US emerged from World War II with roughly 50% of global GDP. In 1960 it was still 40%. But the decline since then has been steady. Today the US only controls 13% of global GDP. But it still imagines itself as the global Goliath it was in 1960—or maybe even bigger, since the Soviet ideological challenger has disappeared, and the grandiosely narcissistic neocons have seized the helm of the ship of state.
A major war that will reset power relations and take the US down several notches seems almost inevitable.* The question remains, where will the flashpoint be?
The neocons, in their infinite wisdom, have made it difficult to guess, having alienated so much of the world that the coming take-down-the-US World War could break out practically anywhere. Russia and its borderlands…China and its southern sea and/or its errant province of Taiwan…and now, with the genocide of Palestine making the Islamic world even angrier than Russia and China, the whole middle belt of Eurasia and North Africa is equally hostile territory.
But before we start globetrotting in search of flashpoints, why not begin imagining the transforming event a bit closer to home? If the assassination of heir-presumptive Archduke Ferdinand, attributed to allegedly state-supported radical fanatics, could set off World War I, could an assassination of presumptive 2024 president Donald Trump, attributed to radical Iran-supported fanatics, unleash World War III?
Flashpoint Florida
Imagine: It’s October 2024. Trump is leading in the polls 55%-45% nationwide, with a clear edge in all the swing states. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a drone swoops down on Mar-a-Lago, smashes through a plate glass window like a supermosquito on steroids, and stings Trump with its explosive charge just as he’s breaking open his seventh can of diet coke. (Cinematographically, we cut from a close-up of the pssssssst as Trump opens the can to a medium shot of the almost simultaneous explosion.)
Fortunately, almost before what is left of Trump is declared dead, the media tells us who did it. A radical Iranian-Palestinian terrorist named Lee Harvey Atta is arrested on the seventh floor of the Palm Beach School Book Depository and accidentally defenestrated before he can be questioned. Luckily, on the floor of the book storeroom, authorities discover an Iranian-made Manlicher-Carcano drone control rig complete with instructions written in Farsi, signed by the Supreme Leader of Iran.
President Biden, whose cognition has been revived to functionality thanks to an Elon Musk (TM) brain implant, appears on television extravagantly praising the late and much-lamented Trump, canceling the election, declaring that all Americans are united in their thirst for vengeance, and calling for an all-out war on Iran to be personally commanded by a certain Bibi Netanyahu, who will be Lear-Jetted and then helicoptered in from Tel Aviv to take charge in the White House Situation Room. With the mutterings of conspiracy theorists silenced by the new AI-driven censorship algorithms, the US and the world are off to the races.
Other Potential Flashpoints
The above scenario, or some only slightly-less-ludicrous variation, may not be quite as unlikely as it sounds. Removing Trump, inciting Trump supporters to war hysteria, and blaming Iran—a plausible patsy given its stated desire for revenge for the assassination of General Soleimani—would kill three birds with one drone. The neocons may even have thought ahead to such a scenario when they conned Trump into approving the murder of Gen. Soleimani.
But don’t bet on Flashpoint Florida. It’s a big world out there, and—thanks to the neocons—most of it hates the US empire with a passion. The list of war-trigger possibilities is so long that guessing right would be like winning the lottery.
In our new “Flashpoints for War” episode of False Flag Weekly News, Cat McGuire and I began with the latest crisis: more than 85 US attacks on Iraq and Syria, threats of more to come, and counterattacks from the Resistance. With geriatric Biden under pressure from his right to act tough, it isn’t hard to see how a miscalculation, and/or a false flag by Israel, could set the dominoes falling in the direction of global war.
—
Another Mideast flashpoint, of course, is the Red Sea, especially the Bab al-Mandab. Yemen’s Houthi-led government, backed by everyone in the region, is continuing to attack Israel-bound ships in an effort to enforce the World Court’s anti-genocide order, despite the presence of a US armada unofficially known as Operation Genocide Guardian.
US ships are sitting ducks due to the proliferation of advanced anti-ship missiles. Instead of the long-awaited Persian Gulf of Tonkin incident, one iteration of which was thwarted in 2007 by US 5th Fleet advisor Gwenyth Todd, we could see a Red Sea Gulf of Tonkin incident…only it might involve an actual attack, albeit a false flag one, as in “remember the Maine.”
Another escalatory flashpoint could involve Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which has demonstrated an ability to penetrate Israeli defenses to hit heavily-guarded military targets even under conditions of highest alert. The Israelis clearly want all-out war with Hezbollah, in order to drag the US into the ensuing war with Iran. Only a very firm “no” from the American side prevented Israel from going to all-out war with Hezbollah after October 7. Given subsequent US ineffectuality at restraining the mad-dog Zionists, it isn’t hard to imagine Israel getting its wish and setting off World War III via an all-out war with Hezbollah and the rest of the Resistance Axis and Muslim world.
Flashpoint Palestine
As the above examples suggest, there are many ways that the continuing Israeli genocide of Palestine could indirectly lead to World War III. But could Palestine become a direct flashpoint? The Palestinians don’t seem to have enough military power. But if the war goes badly enough for the Palestinian Resistance, other branches of the Axis of Resistance will escalate their support, with unpredictable consequences. Additionally, there is massive covert support for Palestine among wealthy and powerful elements of regional nations, in some cases among high-ranking members of the state apparatus who wouldn’t be caught dead—or rather would be caught dead—if they uttered their real feelings about the Zionists in public.
One nightmarish potential flashpoint is the specter of a no-return-address WMD attack on Israel. The technology of WMD—micronukes, bioweapons, and the like—has been advancing since the days of the Davy Crockett backpack nukes of the 1950s, and even since the US-developed COVID bioweapon attack on China and Iran of a few years ago (which turned out to be a pretty good proof-of-concept for deniable, no-return-address bioattacks in general). Anger at Israel, in light of the current genocide, has reached the point that it’s virtually inevitable that people will try such things within the next few decades, assuming Israel is still around, and barring unforeseen changes in Zionist behavior.
Flashpoint Ukraine
Zionist fanatics on the wrong side of history have made Palestine and its region a potential WW3 flashpoint. Likewise Ukrainian nationalist fanatics, also on the wrong side of history, have created a parallel danger.
Just as 10 million Zionist Jews cannot defeat two billion Muslims, 40 million Ukrainians cannot defeat 140 million Russians. But the fanatics insist on trying. They know that their only hope is to drag the US into their war in an ever-bigger way. The result would be the destruction of the US empire, which, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, is grossly overextended given its 13%-and-shrinking share of global GDP.
Currently the fanatic faction, led by Zelensky, is fighting the realist faction, led by Zaluzhny. If the fanatics win, their only hope is to false-flag the US into bringing NATO directly into the war. Which means, of course, World War III.
Flashpoint Taiwan
Though we didn’t talk about Taiwan in the latest FFWN broadcast, it’s clear that the anti-China faction of neocons is trying to turn Taiwan into China’s Ukraine, by stoking the forces of fanatical Chinese nationalism and trying to goad Beijing into direct hostilities. If they succeed, World War III could start in the “cleanest” possible way: An immediate, direct war between the sinking #1 power and the rising #2 power.
Other Flashpoints?
This brief discussion certainly doesn’t exhaust the list of potential WW3 flashpoints. I’m sure my readers can think of others. Feel free to drop some into the comments section.
*At least if you are a realist. Since I am an idealist, accepting as I do the arguments of Bernardo Kastrup and the Holy Qur’an, not necessarily in that order, I reserve the right to believe that with God’s help we can avert World War III.
I was watching some vid about how wars, and world wars are many years in the making. I fact, I believe it was a recent Douglas McGregor video.
DM says that WW1 would’ve happened even if Archduke Franz Ferdinand hadn’t been shot. He goes onto say that virtually everything is already in place for WW3, never mind that this cake was in the oven many years ago.
The NFW is in the ring, waiting for the Nazis to show up. Now the Nazis are approaching the ring. They know they’re gonna get beat, so they have a choice, fight and lose, or go back to the dressing room and call in an alien attack? lol
This is where I annoy people. My observation is to all (fundamentalist) believers of the “Big Three” religions: Anyone who believes in these, notwithstanding the often fine tributary streams of say stoic philosophy and disciplined daily living, is in no position to lecture anyone on geopolitics.
In this case, the author subscribes to Islam by choice rather than by birth. No doubt an act of rebellion akin to when a member of the Conservative Party crosses the floor to become a Labour MP.
In the case of Islam, Tom Holland’s excellent “In The Shadow Of The Sword” puts Islam to the sword. Islam is a political system that is 1500 years out of date. That mediocre people need often useful practices – like Ramadan or traditional fasting at Easter – wrapped up in mythology says more about people’s wish to conform than follow where the intellect should take them. For people engaged in the drudgery of day to day living, maybe an off the peg belief system, traditionally tied to state authority is the way to go. But not for me.
The Jews-Christians-Muslims are setting all this up & gradually progressing toward their ‘end times’, Revelation of St. John or WWIII setup. Its all staged & prearranged where the Jew’s win & establish their ‘Messianic Age’. Both ‘sides’ are managed by the same supranational Semitic cartel–just like the NATO-Ukraine/Russia war. What’s the end game of all this Semitic subterfuge? Whiteocide. You see the Overlords desire the extermination of the white race sometime this century. The billions of teeming colored masses of Africa/Asia/Latin America will simply watch from the sidelines as the white masses of Europe/North America/OZ-NZ get nuked or wiped out.
Nostradamus said that Persia(Iran) would open the door and that the next war would be initiated by a naval incident. Time will tell if he was right.
The wars and rumors of a WWIII are most likely more globalist pretexts to usher in the alleged “necessity” of top-down globalist controls through UN auspices.
Just in case there is any doubt that all major events./ policies ./ wars are preordained — Archduke Ferdinand ‘s car plate number is A 11118 — [A] stands for armistice and date 11/ 11 / 18 was end of WW1. The end of the war was determined before war was fought and this was a century ago. Do you think JWO control has waned or increased since then ?
https://news.sky.com/story/a-ii-ii-18-franz-ferdinands-prophetic-number-plate-11551176
with garanty it will be a CIA/Mossad false flag .
maybe some tactical Neutron nuke in the sky
not to destroy houses but to radiate the population
with neutron radiation like they did in Yemen 2015 .
@SIMONSMITH
religion in jew world order will be very unimportant .
they measure their slaves only if they serve willingly
under jewish mafia rules (nazifascist or communist
very unimportant) . did you check that in IDF serve a
lot of muslims with israeli citizenship (secondhand) +
druses,samaritans, tsherkesses, christians etc ! ! !
Markie’s observation, as well as “22” in the Manchester non-bombing, reminds me of the Lincoln-Kennedy synchronicity/coincidences list:
https://halliwell-lhs.co.uk/articles/strange-coincidences/
“Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost children while living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.
Now it gets really weird
Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy’s secretary was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names were composed of fifteen letters.
Now hang on to your seat
Lincoln was shot at the theatre named ‘Ford’.
Kennedy was shot in a car called ‘Lincoln’ made by Ford.
Lincoln was shot in a theatre and his assassin ran and hid in a warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and his assassin ran and hid in a theatre.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
And here is the kicker
A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe”
With this in mind, is it possible TPTB could illustrate their power to the “initiated” by arranging these things; some of which would require years to come to fruition.
“Flashpoint”–I think Icke called it a starting-pistol, fired when the two sides have been chosen and we all know who is supposed to hate whom
There is a good likelihood that Israel could be destroyed sooner than in the next couple decades, given their consistent history for the lack of compliance with the Geneva Convention in treatment of the imprisoned Palestinians and indiscriminant flagrant attacks on their Arab neighbors.
The following is just in:
https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=64283 Israeli Lawmakers Move | Feb. 06, 2024
Sufficient evidence has already surfaced by testimony of eye witnesses, former IDF members intimate with security measures, etc., that debunk the Oct-7 criminal narrative. Israel being unable to deal with the truth of their false flag operation now in true Bolshevik style censures the truth with prison terms.
This is to be expected though, they are Bolsheviks. They continue to live up to their motto, “By deception thou shalt do war.”
In normal societies operating under universal laws of justice, crimes such as murder, rape, theft, false witness that defames a neighbour or side steps justice, property destruction, harmful neglect and wilful injury toward others, etc. are punishable.
To these Bolsheviks, it is words expressing truth that are the most harmful.
They continue to make light of their criminal acts by excuses. They have constantly demonstrated a lack of respect for the established Geneva Convention rules of war, murdering and abusing their prisoners and civilians within the territories they occupy.
Their relentless destruction of the life support systems of the Palestinians, their homes, hospitals and medical care facilities, schools, utility infrastructure systems, sanitary sewer treatment systems, storage buildings, roads and transportation systems, not to mention also the wholesale murdering of the unarmed civilian population to include the elderly, women and children have illustrated they have no redeeming value at all.
How they ruthlessly attacked the Turkish civilian supply relief ship Mavi Marmara in 2011 in International waters of the Mediterranean Sea, resulting in death and destruction, mirrored that of the 1967 unwarranted attack of the unarmed USS Liberty communications monitoring ship in International waters off the coast of Egypt, which also resulted in much death and destruction.
There is much documentation available on abuses, for example:
https://casebook.icrc.org/case-study/israel-blockade-gaza-and-flotilla-incident
Much of the world is now awakened to the Palestinian’s plight by Israel’s abusive policies and actions, especially now being brought to light in the International Court of Justice case prompted by South Africa.
But perhaps, the greatest reason for provocation is Netanyahu’s Greater Israel map encompassing the Arab nations but excluding the Arabs. The theft of the land from Turkey’s Ottoman Empire by the British Army coupled with the unjustified attack on Turkey’s relief ship providing needed aid to the Palestinians during Israel’s 2011 Gaza blocade, theft of lands from Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt have already started a boiling pot.
The Arab world is now seeing that they will be treated no better than their brothers, the Palestinians. Israel’s Ashkenazic leadership even mistreats their Arab Sephardic Jews, who are considered as second class citizens.
Thus, it is not hard to imagine that a land the size of the US state of New Jersey could be quickly reduced to a WW2 Dresden with several key missile strikes, wiping Israel off the face of a map.
The US no longer has the manufacturing base it had during WW2. Most products are now imported. It’s military is already weakened by a leadership vacuum provided by Obama’s firing of top leadership. It takes approximately 20 years to groom good top leadership. Homosexuals are now a promoted, protected class in its Defence Department, acting as a strong deterrent for real fighting men to join.
A few key strikes upon infrastructures / key cities on US soil plus sinking several of its carriers could provide a blow that would take many years for the US to recover from. The US is now incapable of providing proper deterrent responses or defence of its borders.
Thus saith the L-rd GOD: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; … Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the peoples that are with thee; I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field, to be devoured. Thou shalt fall upon the open field; for I have spoken it, saith the L-rd GOD. And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that dwell safely in the isles; and they shall know that I am HaShem. Ezekiel 39:1b,4-6 (Jewish Publication Society)