As the Vice-President during these trying times, I’m instituting an early-warning system for WWIII. Threat level: It’s happening

Are you trying to give Biden a boner without sniffing a minor? Lol

Dick Cheney already came

https://i.imgflip.com/70xkts.gif

All this pro war talk, you’re gonna give old man Cheney blue balls!

I forgot to mention another possibility: that this is a Ukrainian ordinance. Even wackier: some terrorist group trying to stir up trouble.

Given all the missile and anti-missile missile barrages just across the border, it might actually be more surprising something like this hasn’t happened yet.

Of note, Poland invoked Article 4 — which provides a forum for consultation — not Article 5, the collective self-defense article that has only been invoked once in NATO’s history (after the 9/11 attacks).

Any way you slice it, one stray missile simply isn’t a cause for war. Poland doesn’t want it, Russia doesn’t want it, NATO doesn’t want it.

I’m therefore downgrading to “Why didn’t you listen?” because while it’s unlikely to lead to war, we simply don’t know all the facts, and the whole Russia-Ukraine War is still raging and a f**ked up situation.

REASONS THIS MIGHT NOT BE THE START OF WWIII

—When NATO leaders say they will defend “every inch of NATO soil,” what they really mean is, “we will defend any of our alliance members from a full-scale attack, but we won’t start WWIII over a stray missile.”

—Russia is plainly on the run and losing in Ukraine, and might even be on the verge of some kind of internal coup or revolution, and doesn’t have the ability to attack new countries, let alone the world’s most powerful military alliance. So Russia won’t start a war.

—NATO members are democracies and don’t have the domestic political support for war, so they just won’t do it, no matter what the plain text of their treaty commitments say. So NATO won’t start a war.

—It might not be the start of WWIII because historians might conclude WWIII has already started. For instance, the Sino-Japanese War wasn’t recognized as part of “WWII” until later. Similarly, historians might say that WWIII really began in February 2022 (when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine) or even in 2014 (when Russia annexed Crimea and partly invaded Ukraine’s east).

Verdict: This errant missile in Poland is unlikely to be “the start of WWIII.”

REASONS THIS MIGHT BE THE START OF WWIII

—NATO leaders (including Joe Biden, the most important one by far) have repeatedly affirmed that the alliance will defend “every inch of NATO soil.” An inch of NATO soil was attacked. Ergo, the alliance will go to war.

I can’t think of any other reasons.