World War III

I have blogged before about the theory that the last great depression was really only solved by the Second World War, which commenced some 10 years after the Stock Market crash. It looks as though this time we will not have to wait anything like as long. News that:

"Israeli officials say that Hamas has also acquired dozens of Iranian-made Fajr-3 missiles with an even longer range. Many fear that as the group acquires ever more sophisticated weaponry it is only a matter of time before the nuclear installation at Dimona, 20 miles east of Beersheba, falls within its sights. Dimona houses Israel’s only nuclear reactor and is believed to be where nuclear warheads are stored.

“Maybe Hamas will get a big present from Iran or Hezbollah, a few good long-range missiles and they’ll use it,” said Limor Brina, 40, a jeweller who is learning the lessons of life under rocket threat: she sleeps with her clothes on and heads to a shelter whenever the siren sounds.

Israel’s worst nightmare is that soon all its cities will be within range either of the Hezbollah Katyushas arrayed on the Lebanese border to the north or the increasingly sophisticated missiles stockpiled by Hamas to the south. Both groups have links to Israel’s archenemy Iran. "

So will Hamas strike at Dimona before their Iranian paymasters do so? Will Israel feel forced to destroy the Iranian nuclear facilities before they are in full nuclear warhead production mode? How long before the US is drawn into the conflict? What about the forces congregating along the Pakistan/India border, two more nuclear powers, how long can war be put off there?

2009 looks like being a great year, doesn't it?