Threats About World War III - US vs Iran Conflict

An airstrike ordered by President Donald Trump killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani early Friday, escalating a simmering conflict between the US and Iran that had flared up after an American contractor was killed in Iraq in late December.

The decision to kill Soleimani, who was one of the most powerful people in Iran and directed bloody conflicts around the Middle East, followed a New Year's Eve attack on the US embassy in Baghdad by an Iran-backed militia. Iranian officials vowed revenge for Soleimani's death, and the US is reportedly sending 3,000 more troops to the region.

The attack threw social media punditry into overdrive and sent unverified or bogus information flying around the internet.

This being 2020, though, many people took these dire predictions — it's World War III! — and did what any sensible person with an internet connection would do: channeled their existential dread into memes.