People have been predicting the outbreak of World War III since the conclusion of World War II. You gotta take it all with at least a little grain of salt.

But this guy, well, when he makes a momentous assessment of global geopolitics, you might hold off on the salt for a bit:

A French historian who accurately predicted the fall of the Soviet Union over a decade in advance says that World War III has already begun as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.

The comments were made by Emmanuel Todd, one of France's leading intellectuals, during an interview with the Le Figaro newspaper.

"It is evident that the conflict, initially a limited territorial war, has evolved into a global economic confrontation between the whole West on one side, and Russia, backed by China, on the other. It has become a world war," Todd said.

It sounds bad on those merits. But M. Todd's assessment of the situation is grimmer even than that:

According to the historian, U.S. control of the world financial system is at risk because the Russian economy's resistance to sanctions is pushing "the American imperial system" toward the precipice," with Russia still able to rely on China for monetary backing.

Todd says America "cannot withdraw from the conflict, they cannot let go," because it has no exit strategy and the stakes are too high.

"This is why we are now in an endless war, in a confrontation whose outcome must be the collapse of one or the other," said the intellectual.

I believe I speak for the United States, Europe, and basically all of the entire world when I say: