World War Three. How Did We Get Here?

by Elliana Polyak

Is WW3 happening? Will there be a draft? Is it official? Will the UK get involved? 

Young people flee to the internet under the hashtags of #Iran, #WW3, and #Thedraft after Qassim Suleimani, Iranian security and intelligence commander, was killed by a drone strike issued by President Donald Trump last Friday, the 2nd. This prompted the concerns of a new world war in the Middle East. 

WW3 began trending on social media as young men recalled registering after their 18th birthday. One Twitter user posted that he had blocked the account of the United States Army, with the (faulty) reasoning that: “They can’t draft you if they can’t see you.” Interest was so high that it apparently crashed the website for the Selective Service System, the independent government agency that maintains a database of Americans eligible for a potential draft. “Due to the spread of misinformation, our website is experiencing high traffic volumes at this time,” the agency said on Twitter, adding, “We appreciate your patience.” 

Will there be a draft? Here is an explanation of the current military system and what it would take to enact a draft in modern times. Conscription, the act of being drafted, has existed since the Civil War. But there has been no conscription since 1973, when the draft was abolished after opposition to fighting in Vietnam. The modern-day military is now an all-volunteer force, with about 1.2 million active-duty troops. To change that, Congress would have to pass a law reinstating the draft, and the president would have to sign it, actions that would likely require broad political support.

Will WW3 happen? No one can say for sure at this point that this will not be WW3, as much as we can hope not. WW3 fears have been heightened after Iranian leaders have sworn to exact harsh and “crushing revenge” on the US after a drone airstrike killed Major General Qassem Soleimani, issuer and handler of guns and money for Iraqi militia to kill Americans in Iraq. The murder of the Iranian commander of the Quds Force has sparked promises of “harsh retaliation” causing alarm as the latest move in a tense back-and-forth battle between the two nations has been dubbed “a declaration of war from the US”. 

With the military advancements now held by Iran and its allies, the proposition of war is dangerous and could prove to be catastrophic, especially with the use of nuclear weapons. Iran may not have many allies (map shown below,) but these countries are military powers and have the potential to wreak havoc. The US, thankfully, is backed by a large array of countries and will have the upper hand if a war does break.