World War III: Are we at risk for a global war? | The Excerpt

[Music] hello and welcome to the excerpt I'm Dana Taylor political military and economic pressures along with global alliances and territorial disputes were all factors that led to World War I in 1914 and a second world war that began in 1939 with those same pressures evident today is World War I a possibility what might be the Tipping Point in the spread of regional conflicts That Could set off a global war we're joined Now by USA Today world affairs correspondent Kim helgard Kim thanks for being on the excerpt thanks for having me so let's start with one of the bigger conflicts the Israel Hamas war prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will continue the war with Hamas until it's been completely eradicated how will Israel and the world know when that's been achieved that's a very good question um I think a it the answer to that depends a little bit on where you're sitting they've been saying this over and over for months that that the war will end when they have all their hostages back and when Hamas has been eradicated now what that looks like in actuality is is is is of course quite difficult uh for many people to understand Hamas is a is a physical president presence on the ground it's also an idea you know and it's it's sort of harder to kill ideas and um we've been kind of seeing that um in some of the uh connective tissue to the Israeli connective tissue to other theaters in the Middle East between you know basically sort of metiz events where um you know other other militant groups in the region that back Hamas have been kind of waiting into this war in different ways I think there's a lot of concern about um you know if um Israel's goal is to get rid of Hamas um what does that mean for the you know almost two 2 million people that have been living in Gaza you know they've been dying in in huge huge numbers and it's been extremely difficult for other countries in the Middle East uh to accept and and of course around the world and so when Israel talks about its endgame you know the other side of that sort of equation is well there's all these civilians you know are they going to get pushed out to other countries are they going to have to live in a place that is you know completely destroyed well the conflicts already spread in the region what's happening at the northern border in Lebanon with Iranian backed Hezbollah Hezbollah uh it's a militant group based in Lebanon that is um supported by Iran um financially also helps train it Fighters um and you know Israel has sort of long been in a in a very low uh s or very sort of simmering war with Hezbollah in some way Hezbollah and and the the question of whether it actually um joins this war in a kind of in a more full-throated manner is something that um is of deep concern to the Israelis hisbah is is uh better funded it's it's it's more well trained it's got a lot more Fighters than Hamas these are s battle hardened militants who who've also been fighting in Syria over the years they pose quite a big threat well now Iran has launched attacks on what it calls militant bases in Pakistan the Pakistani government called it an unprovoked violation of their airspace Iran also recently launched missile strikes in Northern Iraq and Syria what's going on there I'm glad you brought that up um these are kind of Tit for Tat attacks that have been taking place on either side of the Iran Pakistan border it's a good reminder that um you know not not all U not all of the the the conflict and War um in that region is is directly involves uh the West um and so basically um over the last couple of days Pakistan and Iran have kind of been trading what they've both described as retaliatory air strikes that have been targeting different militant hideouts on either side of that border and essentially the two countries have accused each other of kind of providing uh Safe Haven to to groups in their respective countries you know it Iran and Pakistan these are these are these are complicated countries they each face their own internal political pre pressures before we pivot from the Middle East I I'd like to talk about what's going on with Yemen's houthi Rebels the US and UK carried out strikes against the rebels several times over the past week or so what are the houthi goals here and has the US Allied response been effective so the hthi goals are um again they're the sort of overarching goal is to D disrupt commercial shipping in the Red Sea Red Sea as many people U may know it's a huge conduit to um getting Goods more easily more cheaply um shipped to um places in Europe North America and so on without having to go Around the Horn of Africa in an active solidarity when the Israel Hamas war broke out the hoodies wanted to sort of you know demonstrate that um they were concerned about everything that was happening in Gaza and the scale of the sort of Israel Israeli bombing campaign there and so the these sort of you know targeting um chips in in the Red Sea was one way that they could do it that of course has brought a response from us and the UK who've been um trying to uh locate and bomb some of the uh hoodi Logistics hubs missile launchers drone sites and all sorts of things that are based in Yemen Hezbollah and the hoodies in particular are dissatisfied with um Israel's sort of connections to the US um and how that impacts the Middle East they feel that the US sort of backs is Israeli policy in in many different ways not just against um Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and elsewhere but that it essentially is a bad influence on on the region and so therefore they've been sort of expressing that and and striking back in any way that they can let's move on to the other big global conflict that we've been following Russia's nearly 2-year invasion of Ukraine following Russia incursion Ukraine hoped to Fast Track a membership into NATO essentially forcing members of The Alliance into joining the conflict one of the key Doctrine states that an attack on one is an attack on all but there still is a strong Alliance of Western Nations supporting Ukraine at what point are other countries considered to be directly involved in the conflict yeah just to give folks a little bit of context about what's happening in Ukraine at the at the start of I mean there's an effective deadlock um along the whole of Ukraine's Eastern front with Russia Ukraine is not part of NATO um this is the military organization um that has kind of um been one of the um peacekeepers in in Europe since the end of the second world war um neither is Russia for that matter but Ukraine of course is located in a neighborhood where there are a lot of neighbor NATO countries and there there's been a few um kind of close calls about 18 months ago it it's seemed like a Russia missile had um flown into Poland and and killed a couple of farmers it turned out U once an investigation took place that was actually debris from a um from a Ukrainian Miss anti anti-russian missile that had kind of dropped into polish territory Biden Administration Republican lawmakers um are kind of in a deadlock over whether to send um billions more to Ukraine military assistance to Ukraine the the you know various EU countries have been complaining um kind of pointing the finger at each other actually saying that you know not enough weapons are being sent there what's the significance of the US choosing sides in some of these conflicts namely Israel Ukraine and Taiwan and by choosing sides I mean supplying arms how many of our allies are doing the same it kind of depends on where you're looking I mean certainly like if you look at countries like Germany France the UK they've all got their private arms companies that Supply weapons uh to different conflicts and theaters around the world the Russians as well um Nobody Does it as far as I'm aware to the extent that the US does it so I think in terms of the significance of it you know the countries that need those weapons certainly cry out for them you know is it always helpful it's unclear but I have to say other countries are catching up now you're starting to see you know countries that that didn't manufacture weapons get into the game because they feel that it's it's a way to make money um have influence um and um also you know project power in different ways and and also help how might we Define a World War this time around what would be the irrefutable signs that were moving in that direction knock on I just want to say I'm going to knock on some wood in my office while we're where we're chatting because I don't want to you know sound too bullish on the idea that there is no World War 3 out there because um when you kind of say those things they they tend to come back on you um quite quickly but it is a great question Warfare looks so different now than it did compared to you know the middle of the 20th century or you know or earlier where you know you had to have so many troops physically in a place but now that we have all this technology now that we have all these kinds of tools and you know ways to um precisely kill people from like a computer screen you know there is an argument maybe uh to say that when there are these sort of limited strikes that really that's just how world wars in our time um what they look like so you know you know that may be oversimplifying it to try to get your question a little more headon how can we be confident that we're in a third world war um I think that when you will have like you know lots of countries at scale involved you know um coalescing around um certain um ideas and and certain rationals and that there's sort of like clearly drawn um battle lines I don't mean that just sort of militarily but like also sort of morally and I think it'll be easier for a lot of us to understand whether we're in a kind of another Great War but um but maybe that's just an old-fashioned way of thinking about what war is um as I was saying earlier I hope we don't see that scale I think scale is the word Kim thank you so much for joining us on the excerpt thank you for having me thanks for watching I'm Dana Taylor I'll see you next [Music] time

Channel: USA TODAY

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Keywords: usa today, usa today news, war, world war, world war 3, WW III, global conflict, global war, world war III, world affairs, tipping point, fighting, weapons, weapons supply, America, United States, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, U.K., alliance, global alliances, global trade, cutting off trade, attack, attacks, spark, troops, drones, drone attacks, missiles, Yemen, Middle East, Korea, United Kingdom, UK, Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Joe Biden, power, money

Id: F-pVzd9fefk

Length: 11min 20sec (680 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2024