this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2026
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[–] Rothe@piefed.social 39 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I'm not seeing any reason why a world war would erupt over this. China and Russia are glad that the US has entered into another stupid military mess, they have no reason to actively engage, the US is destroying itself all on its own.

[–] VoiHyvaLuojaMitaNyt@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Saying this is the start of a World War is such a USA-centric brain dead take. Ukraine war is closer to World War than anything that might happen in Iran will ever be.

[–] Eximius@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Ugh.... China is constantly itching while constantly glaring at Taiwan, and (recently) eastern Russia... Distracted 'murica makes braver China

WW started not suddenly, everybody kinda slowly joined the party

[–] Riverside@reddthat.com 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

US and Israel: literally bombing Iran unilaterally during negotiations

Lemmitor: BUT CHINA BAD!!!!

[–] Eximius@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Nonono, s/BUT/ALSO/

[–] CannonFodder@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

China is likely to attack Taiwan while the U.S. is distracted. Pakistan and India could get into it while there's no one available to intervene.

[–] 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

US has been distracted many times when they attacked and invaded like a dozen countries since WWII?

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago

Unlike the US, China isn't governed by a attention-span lacking moron. They want Taiwan, and will not rest until they have it, but they also don't want a war with the US over it, unless they can be certain to win it. This isn't it.

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think it is likely that the Ukraine war will be widely considered the beginning of a series of events that will later be labeled "the ramp up to WWIII", of which this is an indirect extension.

[–] VoiHyvaLuojaMitaNyt@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Exactly my point. The Americans ignore an actual war that has the involvement of multiple countries across the globe, while focusing on some bombing runs done by their HeRoIc fighter jets. Silly and ignorant America-centrism.

[–] mrmaplebar@fedia.io -3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If you can't connect the dots between Ukraine, Iran, Taiwan, and Venezuela then I simply don't know what to tell you...

I can. But if you think that the start of WW3 was bombing of Iran, while managing to connect Iran with the war in Ukraine but still think that the actual war in Ukraine was not the start of WW3... I don't even want to know what I would need to tell you...

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago

Yeah, I don't know that this will cause a world War, but it does give a pretty nice opening for China to do things it wouldn't be able to do under normal circumstances. They can attack a, supposedly, belligerent neighbor and say it's the same thing the US did to Iran, and the US will be tied up with this conflict for an unknown amount of time. World wars don't start from a single thing. They start from rising tensions across the board. The war with Ukraine and Iran are pieces of a larger conflict.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Despots back each other up and form an alliance network, because an alliance network is the only way to be powerful against the West. This hits their alliance and long term makes their alliance weaker. However Russia is busy, and China is too reliant on exports.

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There is no alliance between China and Russia and Iran. Iran is a minor player in this. You are regurgitating Bush "axis of evil" nonsense as if it was actually true. China and Russia doesn't care about Iran, and they were never allied to them. They benefited from Iran in various ways then, they will benefit in various ways from this US disaster.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Lol you don't need a formalized alliance like NATO.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

While the US is distracted on two other fronts (Central America and the Middle East) China can take Taiwan with ease.

[–] mrmaplebar@fedia.io 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why wouldn't China invade Taiwan at this point?

[–] Riverside@reddthat.com 0 points 1 week ago

Because they're not a bloodthirsty empire like the US? China hasn't been at war for over half a century

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Why does it have to involve the big powers for it to be a world war?

IMO that implies that less powerful countries being in chaos doesn’t matter.

I always thought world war just meant a lot of countries in a related conflict.

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Because it is a pretty basic and factual definition of world war. War occurring in different places in the world at the same time does not equal a world war.