ONE BIG STEP TO WWIII.
WWIII is not going to be like the first two. In fact, historians might look back and determine that WWIII started with the Cold War. Although we were able to remove the Berlin Wall, and Russia was forced to focus more on economic issues over military growth, Most experts will agree the Cold War never ended. In fact, Romney told us in 2016 that Russia was our biggest foreign threat, and Obama laughed at him. After all the reports of "Russian Interference" in elections, deporting Russian nationals accused of hacking the elections on social media, the back and forth in Syria with Putin and Assad, Putin's annexing of Crimea, and now the Ukraine invasion, is it really still comical that we view Russia as our #1 adversary?
I think the Cold War was placed on a back burner, and it has been starting to chill again ever since Obama focused more on domestic terrorism than threats from foreign powers, such as Syria, China, North Korea and Iran.
Our foreign policy has become weak, and it's emboldening the leaders of nations who see us as their enemy.
Imagine if Russia develops the next SARS/COVID virus and uses it against their enemies. Only this time, the people releasing it have a vaccine ready for their own people...
These are the scenarios that terrify me -- not so much land, sea and air battlefield.
Nukes are always a concern, but we can only hope MAD does its thing and avoids that "situation."