I agree wit the OP that wars are fought over money, etc. and not over idealism.
However, the statement that WW3 is just around the corner seems a bit far-fetched.
1. To have a WW3, you need a willing populace. I don't see the US, the EU or Russian making a full-scale mobilization without the respective governments falling due to popular pressure. Don't forget that we also have the internet, so propaganda is just not as effective as it was 70 years ago.
2. We have been much closer to the brink of global war during the Cold War. You had proxy wars in Asia, Middle East and Africa, with two superpowers armed to the teeth facing each other and that still didn't cause a massive fracas. It's not going to happen now. Not soon at least.
Yes the internet can dispel propaganda, but not if the people themselves want war. WW3 didn't happen during the cold war, I think mostly because a large portion of the population still remembers WW2 from firsthand experience. Heck, my next door neighbor is a WW2 vet, but this generation will soon be gone. To the new generations, war is just a game, and the US has been obtaining easy victories, it will just feed on itself, the people will start to demand and support war. Those who oppose war will be labeled unpatriotic.
Eh, I kind of disagree. As miln40 partially alluded to, the internet has made all people more aware of each other. Now, China and Cuba and Germany and Russia are no longer just nametags on pieces of land, they are people we know and interact with. The more this sort of globalized socialization happens, the more resistant people will be to making war against those countries.
WW2 vets are the ones who still hold the grudges against the Japs and the Nazis. They know war is terrible, but they know that the people of those countries were trying to hurt us just as much as we hurt them. These days, it's the middle eastern folks who get a bad rep among young people, because that's all they know as far as enemies go. In their minds, Mulims are the only ones who want to kill us. All the enemies of WW2 are no longer enemies, but friends, and in many cases, people we know.
JMHO.
