Those of you that are familiar with Samuel’s Huntingdon’s now famous – or infamous depending on your point of view – work on the clash of civilisations, will know that the Harvard professor had outlined his vision for a future world war in the year 2010.

A year on, and Russia Today broadcast an interview with a former republican senator in which he came up with perhaps a chillingly more plausible sequence of events than those described by the good professor.

With Iran developing the bomb, Israel would have no choice but to take out the Islamic state’s capability with a stike that would be met with a military response by Tehran.

Israel would only have one card to play – the bomb.

That would bring in Pakistan, and then later China, when America responds to an attack on her vital ally.

Of course, this could all  be kick-started with a strike on Syria.