The chances are that if you are reading this, you have heard rumors about “World War Three.” Whether it was in a news article, or you saw a meme about it. All memes and jokes aside, let’s dissect what actually happened to cause these rumors.
According to CNN, on January 3rd, Qasem Soleimani, former Iranian Major General, was killed in a drone strike ordered by the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Trump claimed that Soleimani had planned “imminent and sinister attacks,” on Americans, and that the strike was for protection rather than aggression.
As a form of retaliation, Iran launched missiles on two Iraqi bases where U.S. military forces were being housed. NPR stated that according to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iranians “do not seek escalation or war, but will defend ourselves against any aggression.”
“I think people need to understand the significant difference between the United States and Iran in regards to strength and power and Iran probably does not want to get involved with the United States,” History teacher Mark George said.
Following this event, the media was blown up with rumors of a potential third world war. However, the likeliness of this actually happening is still up for debate. When taking previous conflicts between Iran and the United States into account, there are many scenarios where Iran could have instigated war, and abstained.
“We’ve had conflict with Iran for the last half century, and it’s gotten worse. I mean, they took 52 hostages and still there wasn’t really a war, we paid for somebody else to go fight that war for us,” George said. “There have always been things that have happened between the United States and Iran and still they’ve managed to avoid all-out war, and I just don’t see this being any different than normal Iranian-U.S. controversy.”
The controversy regarding Iran and the United States is a contentious topic of discussion. In the past, presidents have utilized war in an attempt to get re-elected, however George does not believe that will be the case for the upcoming election.
“I don’t think the Iranian crisis is going to deviate very much from the current impeachment process,” George said. “Without 100% certainty, I can’t say that is what this president is trying to do.”
The recent memes about this conflict have led some to believe that a war is either imminent or already occurring. However, an official war has not been declared.
“I would say it’s pretty far fetched,” George said. “Is it possible? Never say never. But I don’t really think that war is a strong possibility.”