This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The End of the American Dream. 

Let us hope for peace, but right now leaders all over the globe are being gripped by a really bad case of “war fever”.  As I discussed last week, so many of them are openly using the term “World War III” to describe what is coming.  Do they really understand what that would mean for humanity?

We are so close to the unthinkable, and so you would think that global leaders would be scrambling to find a way out of this mess while it is still possible.  But that isn’t happening.  Instead, everyone is just becoming even more stubborn, and there has been one escalation after another.  If we stay on this path, our world will soon see death and destruction on a massive scale.

In this article, I want to discuss the 3 major conflicts that will define World War III.

One of those conflicts will involve Russia.

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, an agreement that would have ended the war was negotiated.  But politicians in the U.S. and the U.K. made it abundantly clear that they would not support the agreement, and so the Ukrainians backed out.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of men and women have died in Ukraine since that time, and most of them have been Ukrainians.

A woman named Maria Mateiciuc recently visited Ukraine, and her sobering assessment of the war has gone viral on social media.  I have included her entire post below…

I just got back from Ukraine, where I was visiting some friends.

Everything we have heard about what’s happening in Ukraine is a lie.

The reality is darker, bleaker, and unequivocally hopeless. There is no such thing as Ukraine “winning” this war.

– By their estimates, they have lost over one million of their sons, fathers and husbands; an entire generation is gone.
– Even in the Southwest, where the anti-Russian sentiment is long-standing, citizens are reluctant or straight-up scared to publicly criticize Zelensky; they will go to jail.
– In every village and town, the streets, shops, and restaurants are mostly absent of men.
– The few men who remain are terrified of leaving their homes for fear of being kidnapped into conscription. Some have resorted to begging friends to break their legs to avoid service.
– Army search parties take place early in the morning, when men leave their homes to go to work. They ambush and kidnap them off the streets and within 3-4 hours they get listed in the army and taken away straight to the front lines with minimal or no training at all; it is “a death sentence.”
– It’s getting worse every day. Where I was staying, a dentist had just been taken by security forces on his way to work, leaving behind two small children. Every day, 3-5 dead bodies keep arriving from the front lines.
– Mothers and wives fight tooth and nail with the armed forces, beg and plead not to have their men taken away. They try bribing, which sometimes works, but most of the time they are met with physical violence and death threats.
– The territory celebrated as having been “won back” from Russia has been reduced to rubble and is uninhabitable. Regardless, there is no one left to live there and displaced families will likely never return.
– They see the way the war has been reported, at home and abroad. It’s a “joke” and “propaganda.” They say: “Look around: is this winning?”.
– Worse, some have been hoaxed into believing that once Ukrainians forces are exhausted, American soldiers will come in to replace them and “win the war”.

There is no ambiguity in these people. The war was for nothing – a travesty. The outcome always was, and is, clear. The people are hopeless, utterly destroyed, and living in an unending nightmare.

They are pleading for an end, any end – most likely the same “peace” that could have been achieved two years ago. In their minds, they have already lost, for their sons, fathers and husbands are gone, and their country has been destroyed. There is no “victory” that can change that.

Make no mistake, they are angry with Putin. But they are also angry with Zelensky and the West. They have lost everything, worst of all, hope and faith, and cannot comprehend why Zelenky wishes to continue the current trajectory, the one of human devastation.

I didn’t witness the war; but what I saw was absolutely heart-breaking.

Shame on the people, regardless of their intentions, who have supported this war. And shame on the media for continuing to lie about it.

Everything that she has said is true.

So much of the death and destruction that we have witnessed could have been avoided.

But now there is no end in sight for this war.  The Russians are on the march, and each day they are gaining additional territory.

And Russian politicians are in no mood for peace at this stage.  For example, just consider something that Dmitry Medvedev just said…

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has said Ukrainians “must make the choice between being part of Russia or death,” in one of his most belligerent statements since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, has made previous outlandish threats directed against Ukraine and its Western allies.

In a post on Telegram, Medvedev added that Ukrainians must choose between “eternal war and inevitable death and life.” He added: “They [Ukrainians] will understand that life in a large common state, which they do not like very much now, is better than death. Their deaths and the deaths of their loved ones. And the sooner Ukrainians realize this, the better.”

As the Russians gain more ground, Ukrainian leaders are going to become increasingly desperate to find a way to draw the U.S. directly into the war.

I believe that at some point the U.S. and Russia will be directly shooting at one another, and that will truly be a nightmare scenario.

Of course I am not the only one warning of such a thing.  In fact, a top NATO official just warned of a full-blown war with Russia “in the next 20 years”…

A high ranking NATO official has stated that people in Europe should prepare for a full on war with Russia sometime in the next two decades.

Admiral Rob Bauer, chairman of Nato’s Military Committee, told reporters following a meeting of Nato defence chiefs in Brussels that governments need to start putting preparations in place, and that civilians will need to be mobilised on a large scale.

“We have to realise it’s not a given that we are in peace. And that’s why we [Nato forces] are preparing for a conflict with Russia,”Baur declared.

He continued, “But the discussion is much wider. It is also the industrial base and also the people that have to understand they play a role.”

“It starts there,” Bauer continued, adding “The realisation that not everything is planable and not everything is going to be hunky dory in the next 20 years.”

The war in the Middle East will be another one of the conflicts that will define World War III.

Unfortunately, it appears that the entire region is about to erupt in flames.

On Saturday, Israeli warplanes killed five members of the Iranian military during an airstrike on Damascus…

Five members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) serving in an advisory capacity were killed Saturday in the Syrian capital of Damascus when Israeli warplanes struck a residential building they were staying in. Iran confirmed the deaths of the Guard members.

Syrian state media reported that the attack was carried out against the Mazzeh neighborhood by planes operating in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel has yet to comment on the incident. Some reports say ten people in total were killed in the attack.

We are witnessing escalation after escalation, and it is just a matter of time before all-out war breaks out along Israel’s northern border.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military just conducted a seventh round of airstrikes on the Houthis in Yemen…

On Saturday the Pentagon conducted yet another round of airstrikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, which marks likely the seventh round of such Western coalition attacks. It follows a round of strikes the day prior.

Even after this steady progression of escalation, which comes in response to near daily Houthi attacks on commercial ships transiting the Red Sea, the Pentagon still says the US government does not believe it is at war in Yemen. It was only on Thursday that President Biden issued a surprise admission, saying that the bombing is not working, yet it will continue anyway. The comments to the media included Biden responding when asked whether the strikes are deterring Houthi aggression: “Well, when you say ‘working’ — are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes,” the president said. 

So far, the Houthis have not been deterred from attacking shipping in the Red Sea, and that means even more airstrikes are coming.

Also on Saturday, Iranian-backed militants used ballistic missiles and rockets to attack U.S. forces in Iraq.  According to Centcom, “traumatic brain injuries” were suffered by some U.S. personnel as a result of the attack…

Iranian-backed militants attack al-Assad Airbase, Iraq

At approximately 6:30 p.m. (Baghdad time) time Jan. 20, multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched by Iranian-backed militants in Western Iraq targeting al-Assad Airbase. Most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems while others impacted on the base. Damage assessments are ongoing. A number of U.S. personnel are undergoing evaluation for traumatic brain injuries. At least one Iraqi service member was wounded.

We are at war in the Middle East.

But most Americans don’t even realize this yet.

The third major conflict that will define World War III will involve China.

At this point, even the mainstream media can see what is coming.  The following comes from a New York Times article entitled “A Peaceful Solution on Taiwan Is Slipping Away”…

Conflict between China and the United States just got a little more likely.

On Saturday, Taiwanese voters handed the Democratic Progressive Party, which asserts that Taiwan is already independent from China and should stay that way, an unprecedented third consecutive presidential victory. In doing so, the island’s people shrugged off ominous warnings by China that a win by President-elect Lai Ching-te — considered by Beijing to be a dangerous Taiwan independence advocate — could trigger a war.

While Joe Biden is in the White House and the U.S. is distracted by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, China has a window of opportunity to strike.

Will they use it?

Let’s hope not.

In recent years Congress has tried to help prepare Taiwan for a potential invasion, but a lot of the weapons have not been delivered yet.

In fact, it is being reported that there is a “$19 billion backlog of uncompleted orders”…

Those fears are like to surge even further given a new report from The Wall Street Journal this week that warns that billions of dollars worth of American weapons that Taiwan needs to defend itself from Chinese invasion have not been delivered and could still be years away from arriving.

“Most contracts for defense equipment signed under both the Trump and Biden administrations have been stalled by bureaucratic delays and capacity limits at defense manufacturers, creating a $19 billion backlog of uncompleted orders” the report said.

I realize that I have gone through a tremendous amount of very complex material very rapidly in this article.

But I think that most of my readers can handle it.

The bottom line is that war is coming, and so I hope that you have been getting prepared.

World War III is going to be unlike anything that our planet has ever seen before, and those who are able to survive it will have their lives completely turned upside down.

Michael’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s extremely controversial new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written seven other books that are available on Amazon.com including “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned)  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream, and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  You can connect with Michael on social media on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and sharing his articles on your own social media accounts is definitely a great help.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.