Great War III

Alternative Names
The war is also known as:

GATO-Initiative War, WaterGATO Scandal, The World War, March Madness

The Beginning of the War
On March 19th, 2007, a screenshot detailing planned attacks by Initiative members on GATO, NAAC, Legion and ODN. Shortly after, the New Pacific Order declared war on GATO for potential espionage and attempting to aid the LUEnited Nations. Many declarations from other Initiative members as well as statements of support followed, and so the war had begun.

Events of the War
Much speculation went on as to what would happen. It was well-known that GATO and Legion had a Mutual Defense Pact signed, and it was noted that Legion's members were at DEFCON 1, so the questions were now "When are Legion going to war?" and "Who will Legion go to war against?" A topic was made on the forums, and the grand majority of people said Legion were going to declare against the NPO. However, on March 20, many Initiative members began to troll against Legion, and shortly before update, Ivan Moldavi of the NPO posted a controversial statement praising Legion on behalf of the NPO, however, this was seen by many non-Initiative members as the NPO shooting themselves in the foot, as after this statement, it was almost certain that Legion would go to war against the Initiative, and if this happened, other powerful alliances would follow.

At 8:54 PM on March 21st, 2007, the NAAC became the first power to enter and aid GATO, by activating their MDP with GATO and declaring war on the enemies of GATO. However, things were about to get a lot better for GATO's side.

It became official at 9:07 PM. VL Empire, Prime Minister of the Legion, declared war on the Initiative, activating Legion's MDP with GATO. "Ave Legio," the traditional battle cry of legionnaires, now became the battle cry widely-used by GATO supporters, and the Declaration of War is filled with it. At this point, the Initiative's trolling increased, and it was noted that the NPO had started to asskiss large neutral alliances such as IRON. A reference to the movie 300 was later made, and after this reference, people in the LUEnited Nations IRC channel became calling GATO and allies "Sparta." There was less than an hour until update, and declarations began to fly.

Less than an hour after update, one of the most unexpected things happened. /b/, an alliance that had long been neutral in these conflicts, declared war on the Viridian Entente and other, select Initiative alliances. This came after /b/ blitzed VE at update without having declare. The Viridian Entente was outraged at /b/'s decleration and declared that they would never declare peace with /b/. /b/ was sentenced to perpetual ZI. This declaration caused the DramaNations meter to go from Red (which it had been at for two days) to Black. Cybernations is !@#$ed. Abandon website.

Declarations really began to fly the next day, when most members were up and about. Many small declarations went about, until LUE, at 8:58 PM, officially renounced the terms of surrender to the Initiative, activating their MDP with GATO and declaring war on Genmay. However, a bigger development was in store after the update.

At 10:31, ODN and CDS jointly declared war on GOONS. ODN have been known for being peaceful, and this meant it was on - ODN, nicknamed playfully "the hippies" in the LUEnited Nations IRC channel, were in. GOONS returned the declaration a few minutes later, and about an hour later Fark entered on GATO's side.

This war has been stated to be a detachment from the normal Great Wars, in that it looks to be prolonged, not just nuclear mass strikes as had happened before.

The DramaNations Meter
With the declaration by /b/, for the first time since its inception Archon's Dramanations Meter went to Black, after having been at Red for three days prior. This was elicited mainly by the surprise of /b/'s entry, however, many had speculated before that if the NPO were victorious the meter would go black anyway.

NPO's Cassus Belli
NPO's Cassus Belli has been denounced by many opponents as weak, and there have been some statements that this was simply a bid for power and that the NPO wanted to destroy Legion, GATO and NAAC so it could become the sole superpower. Indeed, one person has said that the cassus belli merely boils down to "GATO disagreed with us and may have been spying with us," or as the same person said, it further boils down to "We want power." It has also been speculated that if the NPO win, Cybernations will go from slightly fair to having new alliances be told "Join the Initiative or join the ZI Club." As of this writing, no statement by the NPO or any NPO member has been made to attempt to counter the statements against their Cassus Belli.