Shabtai Shavit: 'World War III is Here'

[Camera]

Targeted killings attributed to the Mossad and other security agencies, efforts to stunt Iran’s nuclear program, and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt; former Mossad director, Shabtai Shavit, reveals it all in a fascinating conversation on unconventional warfare

Amir Rapaport

http://www.israeldefense.com/?Catego...&ArticleID=910

A good read. An interesting discussion with the man who headed the Mossad from 1989 to 1996.

[vryhpyammoadded]

Interesting read, thank you.

What’s been amazing me are the uses of financial weapons both the surgical, targeting individuals, states and organizations, and the strategic, manipulating the entire world system. There’s all manner of odd things going on out there as the media and governments spin madly to obscure what’s really going on.

My friends have been awfully confused trying to make sense of such bizarre economic behaviors; my take is that how can a state fund clandestine wars with public knowledge of such funding. It’s not like WWII were one simply declares a bond drive to buy bombs, bullets and beans. Instead we drive bulls to fake market slaughters, shock and break wealth concentrations debasing the world’s reserve currency, and lap up what change shakes loose from avarice and desperation.

[Hollis]

Yes, interesting read, thanks. Interesting comment:

One and a half billion dollars in annual royalties to the Egyptian government is not something that even the Muslim Brotherhood will relinquish for the sake of religious ideology.”

I was wondering about the WWIII comment, but as he explained it, it made sense. Basically the GWOT. Not the WWIII that as a kid I lived under the shadow of, nuclear war.

[Flamming_Python]

One and a half billion dollars is nothing.

[themacedonian]

Yes, interesting read, thanks. Interesting comment:

I was wondering about the WWIII comment, but as he explained it, it made sense. Basically the GWOT. Not the WWIII that as a kid I lived under the shadow of, nuclear war.

By definition a war waged across the world and many places at once is a world war. However so was the Cold War and that was more intense.

It is bit of a spin toward the 911 fight being connected to Iran. As if it is part of the same war.

[Camera]

By definition a war waged across the world and many places at once is a world war. However so was the Cold War and that was more intense.

It is bit of a spin toward the 911 fight being connected to Iran. As if it is part of the same war.

Basically it is an emanation of the same war.

On the operational aspect, Iran sponsors Sunni terror of groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Syria and Hezbollah cooperate with these groups. Hezbollah also contributed to train AQ's operatives in Sudan in the early 1990s.
On the ideological aspect, the ultimate goal of radical Shia and Sunni do no differs.

[JCR]

Sorry but Iran (apart from building the bomb) simply is the enemy du jour because the original sponsors of radical islam around the world occupy an unassailable position due to oil (and having a lot of people in their pockets, I guess) and Iran is their enemy.

So now spin doctors work overtime on connecting a sunni movement with a shia state while the radical theocracy that spawned 911 is our ally.
We're in for a drastic surprise in a few years when all those revolutions have played out.

[Redox]

People have forgotten what a real war looks like if they liken this to the world wars.
Which on the one hand is a good thing. But on the other its sad that people dont realize in what a great and peaceful time we live.

[Camera]

Sorry but Iran (apart from building the bomb) simply is the enemy du jour because the original sponsors of radical islam around the world occupy an unassailable position due to oil (and having a lot of people in their pockets, I guess) and Iran is their enemy.

So now spin doctors work overtime on connecting a sunni movement with a shia state while the radical theocracy that spawned 911 is our ally.
We're in for a drastic surprise in a few years when all those revolutions have played out.

Building the bomb is just the last episode of the problematic relation of the West with radical Iran.
Don't forget that Iran was the first to sponsor Islamic terrorism with Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad since the 1980s and Hamas since the 1990s.
As said, Hezbollah/Iran assisted also AQ in its beginning in the early 1990s when the group was based in Sudan.

People have forgotten what a real war looks like if they liken this to the world wars.
Which on the one hand is a good thing. But on the other its sad that people dont realize in what a great and peaceful time we live.

Shavit explains why he sees it as a WW and in what why this war is different from the previous ones.

[gresh]

I agree with this guy. It's not a war like we've ever seen, but it's still a war. It's a war of ideas and there is no clear enemy.

[BogT]

After reading the article, I do find the use of "World War III" as being gimmicky. The WW3 designation has a meaning, coined collectively over the last decades. He could of used "global conflict", "world insurgency", "war on world terror", etc. ... but he (or the author of the article) knew that WW3 resonates better. If we would go by the logic of the article, every world challenge is part of ongoing WW and we will dilute the term to a "war on drugs" level.

The comparison is more about classical war vs. urban guerrilla warfare driven by ideology, taking into account the modern age. Also, up to a point, it can be argued that the examples listed are mainly problems for Israel that the rest of the world.

I do like the comment...

Still, I think that the West can contain global terror and keep it at a level that society can tolerate, like crime, road accidents, and natural disasters.

... since I get the feeling that this is already happening.

[Camera]

The world "global" should be more appropriate in English, but the interview was conducted in Hebrew for the printed edition of Israel Defense. Since we don't have it, it is impossible to check what were the exact words used by Shavit and how they were reported in this translated version.
The fact the examples given are mainly the ones of Israeli concern are also normal because the article was originally destined to Israeli readers.

[BogT]

... The fact the examples given are mainly the ones of Israeli concern are also normal because the article was originally destined to Israeli readers.

No problem with that! I assumed that was the case myself.

However, if you look at the main problems facing other regions, like drug lords in Columbia and Mexico, you realize that they are still localized problems with global ramifications rather than global problems (seen as the main problem affecting everyone, e.g The Axis Powers 70-75 years ago).

As much as Islamic terrorism is a problem for the West, I am not expecting South America countries to put it on top of their worry list or to care to much about Iran getting the bomb.
IMO, if you just have individual problems, connected by globalisation, than you do not have a WW situation (ignoring the use of the name).