World War III - Are we there or heading there?

With imminent security imbalances in most regions and some form of an internal threat looming large over most nations, an all-out war seems inevitable.

Also, a lot of predictions by people in the past have caused the media and others to constantly try and speculate the timing and nature of the next world war.

A popular 'old-school' argument I hear is that this ongoing 'global' war against terrorism is the world war. Going by the literal meaning of the word, I tend to differ and say that a world war is one with more intensity, a fight that takes places everywhere and invovles every other country.

Each time there is a confrontation between two parties these days almost in all cases on one side are the evil radical militants. As the fight starts up, news broadcasters worldwide who speculate for a living start their favorite rheotic of a it being signs of a world war.

I actually heard a similar comment somewhere about the ongoing Israel - Hezbollah crisis and that prompted me to write this blog. Right now, the crisis does not even directly involve two nations - theoretically, the Hezbollah is a funded terrorist outfit. However, indirectly there is the alleged involvement of nations like Lebanon, Syria and Iran.

From this crisis specifically in perspective, I do not see it developing into a major world war as such. I'm quite sure, the super powers will not commit their military and other resources to this region at this point merely for the simple reason that it is a simple issue of prisoner exchange that has ignited this huge conflagration causing havoc all around.

However, uncle Sam, I predict will directly get involved iff, Iran gets involved directly by sending their troops over to Israel or attack Israel etc. Again, with the Iranians embroiled a controversy of their own, there is a very very slim chance for this happen.

Another popular comment I'd disagree with is that terrorism may not be the only factor to fuel a big war - I more so think, it'll be the case of nuclear proliferation that'll cause more widespread concern on a more global level. For, this seems to be an issue that's a potential risk for almost all nations. One evil nation like North Korea can develop long-range inter-continental missiles to target a number of countries within it's radar thereby causing alarm in more nations and triggering a bigger and fiercer response.

Obviously, like all I profess the peaceful co-existence of all nations, but there are some evil minds who don't think this way making the world war inevitable in the near future.