It is only three days into the New Year and something horrifying is trending on Twitter: WWIII. World War 3 isn't something any human being wants to hear ever and yet in most parts of the eastern hemisphere this was trending on the evening of 3rd January. The west woke up to this horrifying trend. So why were #WWIII and #FranzFerdinand trending?
This hashtag was trending all over the world. Hundreds of thousands of tweets expressed their worry or decided to make light of it by making memes about draft dodging.
Qasem Soleimani was Iran's most powerful military leader. He was killed in Iraq by a US drone strike on 3 January 2020. According to the Americans this was a preemptive strike to prevent attacks that were being planned.
According to some sources, the provocation for the drone strike on the Iranian commander was a response to the mob attack on the US embassy in Baghdad. This mob was backed by Iranian militia and it is thought that the mob would have taken over the embassy if US Marines had not fought it back.
People will be drafted into the military if there is a war. People are already planning for how to dodge the draft.
The news of the US drone strike that killed the Iranian military leader reminded us all of a history lesson from school.
There is a Scottish band by the name of Franz Ferdinand. That is not the reason this hashtag was trending.
The murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1914 was the triggering event that led to the First World War as we all learned in school. Many thought there were striking parallels between that event and the execution of Soleimani; that this could be just such a precipitating factor.
There could be some very serious, global fallout of the recent events.
Are genuinely worried. Others are tweeting on Twitter.
Are reacting with funny memes.
The fact that WWIII is trending doesn’t bode well for the year to come.
It seems oddly fitting.
Ignoring the fact that women have been campaigning for decades to get into combat roles in the military, some decided to tweet on this theme.
It would make a nice movie, I suppose.
There is a long of sabre rattling on either side. Donald Trump, who ordered the strike that killed Soleimani, has indicated that he will not back down form an escalation. Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader has said that ‘a harsh retaliation is waiting’ for the US.
Tweets dating a few years have not aged well; particularly in light of current events.
‘Distract and deflect’ is a classic tactic from the politician’s playbook. Trump thought this was happening then. Is he doing it now to distract from the impeachment proceedings or for future political gain?
We may be laughing but inside we’re scared. As we should be. Some old men with unimaginable power may start a war for their political and vested interests; secure in the knowledge that they stand to lose nothing personally. Brinkmanship born out of their own massive egos could simply spiral out of control. We the people pay the price – with our lives, our livelihoods and even our families.
We had a warlike situation last year and we sensibly said #SayNoToWar. Now with #WWIII and #FranzFerdinand, trending we need to revisit the world’s tragic and bloody history and say the same: #NoToWar, #NeverAgain.
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