Tuskegee University Sea power and Maritime Affairs Spring Semester 2013 World War III Theory: Even though countries such as the United States may believe that they are prepared for anything that will come their way. , an event such as World War III would be the end of life as we know it because it would be unlike any war that we have ever been involved in due to the threat of nuclear attacks. Countries like North Korea have already shown their interest in the use of nuclear weaponry. By MIDN 4/c Johnson, Devin 4/7/13
War is a term that humanity is all too familiar with; it is a term that is defined as a state of armed conflict between nations or states or different groups within a nation or state. Humanity has seen their way through all too many bloody wars. Is another war really what’s best for countries? The United States only has seen gory battles such as World War I, World War II, and Vietnam; The outcome of these battles have given us the freedom to live the way we do today but do we really need to consider another world war? What will happen to the future generations if there was to be a world war III?
Will it last longer than any of our other wars? What will be the outcome of this war? These are questions that we must answer if we are to be certain that we can survive another world war. Many may agree that another war would be beneficial to the livelihood of their country but in actuality there is too much at stack to start another world war. World war would be a horrible choice for the United States because we are still recovering from conflicts in the Middle East. We are not prepared to take on another world war especially with the threat of a nuclear attack floating over our heads.
War has evolved from the simple gun to gun combat we were so used to, it is now a conflict of who has the bigger bomb. Threats from countries such as North Korea and Iran have been flooding the presses and it is putting many Americans on the edge of their seats. Most recently North Korea has sent in a threat saying that they have bomb pointed at American targets including US military bases on foreign soil. The threat of nuclear attack is becoming all too real for us and our military is beginning to prepare for any event that may come our way but will it be enough?
Is a question that many Americans would like an answer too? Our government itself is in disarray at the moment and that is an advantage that many would take advantage of. Are we really prepared to get our children involved in another war? Are we prepared to send mothers and father away from their children with the uncertainty that they will return, many Americans would agree that the cost is too great. Aside from the loss of many of the lives of our troops on the ground, in the air, or at sea we must also be prepared for the possibility of attacks on US soil.
The war on terrorism is still in effect and terror threats are still a big issue for our country. Given that we have many dedicated organizations that are ready to meet the threats and end them before they begin we are still not prepared for the possibility of a world war. If we are to accept the possibility of world war, we must also accept the possibility of an increase in terrorist activity. Just as war is evolving so is terrorism. Terrorist have evolved from simple assassination to full on mass murder examples of this would be 9/11, the shoe bomber event, and the trans-Atlantic air airliner bombings.
The United States have been on edge when it comes to the threat of terrorism in the US. American agencies such as the FBI, CIA, NCIS, secret service, and the US Marshalls are already at a moment’s notice when it comes to combating terrorism. The CIA for example has been very active in the war on terrorism by aiding the US military and all of its allies in the pursuit and apprehension of possible terrorist suspects. Even though we have so many agencies and allies on our side we still might not be prepared for world war. The US is very active in its pursuit of its enemies but its enemies are
beginning to show how prepared they are when it comes to fighting back. The enemies of the US have shown that they won’t make any war an easy fight. The creativity of our enemies has become a concern for the US and its allies. Our enemies have developed new combat strategies that are beginning to become a constant threat to the US. In the Middle East, our forces on the ground are facing the threat of IEDs and suicide bombers on very frequent bases. Some of our forces have to take fire every day, which have caused many of our troops to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and issues of the sort.
Since the attacks on the world trade center on September 11th, post-traumatic stress disorder has been an issue that many Americans have to deal with in their daily lives. Both civilians and military personnel can suffer from this disorder and it is extremely hard to overcome. We must ask ourselves if tens of thousands of people can be affected by the attack of the world trade center by airplanes, what would be the effect of nuclear strikes on multiple targets in the US and foreign soil? Nuclear technology has been the topic of many discussions lately including the risk of nuclear fallout.
World war has evolved from simple use of gun to gun combat to who has the bigger bomb. The US and its allies have had the constant threat of nuclear attacks lingering over their heads. Since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan, nuclear warfare has been the trump card of many countries. In early 1939, the world’s scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting a uranium atom; this would soon spark fear and curiosity among the scientific community. It was feared that Nazi scientist would eventually learn of the possibility of utilizing the energy produced by the splitting of the atom for war.
Scientists Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi who both fled the idealistic views of their perspective countries escaped to the US and agreed that the president must be informed about the dangers that this new technology could bring to the US. When Fermi an Einstein attempted to share their information with government officials they were not believed by most. Einstein penned a letter to President Roosevelt urging the development of an atomic research program that was later agreed upon and began to progress slowly. In late 1941, the American effort to design and build an atomic bomb
received its code name the Manhattan Project. At first the research on nuclear weaponry was based at only a few universities Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley. Breakthroughs occurred in December 1942 when Fermi led a group of physicists to produce the first controlled nuclear reaction under the grandstands of Stagg field at the University of Chicago. After this milestone was reached, funds began to allocate more freely, and the project advanced at breakneck speed.
Nuclear facilities were built and nuclear innovation began a face paced evolution. Robert Oppeniheimer was put in charge of putting the pieces together at Los Alamos. The Manhattan project employed more than 120,000 Americans. Secrecy for the project was of the utmost importance. Neither the Germans nor the Japanese could learn of the project. Keeping 120,000 people quiet would be impossible; therefore only a small privileged cadre of inner scientists and officials knew about the atomic bomb’s development. In fact, President Truman hadn’t heard of the project until he became President Truman.
Unfortunately, American leaders would learn that a soviet spy named Klaus Fuchs had penetrated the inner circle of scientists. By summer of 1945, the first bomb was ready to be tested. On July 16, 1945, at the Trinity Site near Alamogordo, New Mexico, Scientists of the Manhattan Project readied themselves to watch the detonation of the world’s first atomic bomb. The device was affixed to a 100-foot tower and discharged just before dawn; No one was prepared for the result. A blinding flash visible for 200 miles lit up the morning sky. A mushroom cloud reached 40,000 feet, blowing out windows of civilian homes up to 100 miles away.
When the cloud returned to earth it created a half-mile crater met morphing sand into glass. A bogus cover up story was created and quickly released, explaining that a huge ammunition dump had just exploded in the desert. Soon word would reach President Truman in Potsdam, Germany that the project was a success. The world had now entered the nuclear age. The history of nuclear warfare doesn’t end at the Manhattan project; it had only reached its infancy. The next major event of nuclear warfare would be the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan.
On August 6, 1945, during World War II, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more were lost due to radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 bomber dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japans Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, 1945, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb”.
Since the bombing of Japan, many opinions on the topic had surfaced. Other countries began to fear the power of the United States new weapon of mass destruction. Some countries had begun to envy the power that the US had just acquired; this would begin a number of terror threats that involved the use of nuclear weaponry. These bombs had awakened humanity to the nuclear age, an age in which our human ingenuity places us face to face with our own demise. We should ask ourselves, is history doomed to repeat itself?
Threats from Iraq and North Korea have seemed to confirm that fact. Iraq alone has been watched by US and its allies due to the threat of their nuclear program. In 1995, Iraq admitted to the IAEA that it had considered several implosion type bomb designs. Iraq claimed that they gave no serious consideration to the simpler Gun-type uranium bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima. Iraq ran the computer codes pertinent to these designs on Japanese NEC 750 computer in Tuwaitha, which was moved to the national computer center after the gulf war.
Based on the facts that were stated previously, if America were to stay on its current course I do believe that a world war is emanate and it could happen as soon as the next 5 years, my generation is at risk of seeing the aftermath of this war and having to deal with the toll that this war is doomed to offer, which won’t be as simple as loss of life but more over the loss of entire populations. The world has been said to have a stockpile of around 19,000 nuclear weapons available to certain countries, this number itself is enough to scare most into building nuclear fallout shelters for the possible event.
Nuclear warfare is not something we should allow as a possibility. If World War III were to be an issue of nuclear power no one would be a winner, we would all lose and have to suffer the consequences of mass loss of life and possibly even extinction. My generation is going to be responsible for the prevention of this crisis and we must rally our allies and come up with a way to deal with this threat. World War III cannot happen to much is to be lost if it were allowed to happen. History is doomed to repeat itself if there is no one to change its course.
It’s not one person’s job, it’s not a president’s job, it’s not an emperors job, it’s everyone’s job. Our military as well as our allies military have been extremely hard to combat any effort to start a nuclear war. We are not prepared to fight another world war. America needs to wake up and smell the coffee if they we want to survive any nuclear attack big or small. We may not be prepared now but we will be if we continue to move forward combat terrorism on all fronts. Countries such as Iraq and North Korea will not succeed if we keep them from ever completing a single warhead. Bibliography
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