'If you talk about the "Third World War", everyone's very scared because they picture mushroom clouds. But at no point does Russia actually want to cease existing over Ukraine. At no point does the US or China want to die in a fiery hell over Taiwan.

'No one's that madcap about this. So we're actually back to warfare the way it used to be, which is countries fighting over something (while at the same time) they can actually be almost cooperating on something, somewhere else,' Mr Crump said.
'You're fighting through proxies, which the US did in Vietnam, arguably. It did in Korea, arguably. We (the West) certainly fought proxies that were backed by China.
'But the US was never actually fighting China. It never struck the Chinese mainland. It's gonna be a bit like that - widespread regional conflict.
'I think that's more likely than an all-out World War,' he said. (UK Defence Secretary) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne....ws/article-12969249/