>>Gulf War, because Israel is going in regardless.
If Arik Sharon pulls any bullshit of that nature, I hope GW Bush has the balls to look him in the eye and tell him that if he does any such thing he will have to send in a vacuum cleaner brigade to collect what's left of the IAF from the Iraqi desert, and that his next air force will have to fly in paper airplanes, because we're not going to pay the bill for anything more.
Iraq is a much, much greater threat to Israel than it is to the US.
I think this analysis is mistaken on several counts. First, Iraq is no longer the major regional threat to Israel, but Iran, whose ex-president has openly warned of an intent to nuke Tel Aviv. The Israelis have no intention of letting the mullahs watch as they once again suck up scuds on Tel Aviv without a response. They know that if they don't re-establish their deterrence, they're dead. Second, the whole reason to stop Israel last time was the "alliance", which no longer exists. We will be going in with help from Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait. Turkey is an open ally of Israel and the US, Israel and Turkey have regularly been conducting war games in the eastern Med for several years now. Jordan has always been a secret ally of Israel, even before the peace treaty, though it has to watch out for civil disturbance. Kuwait is unlikely to make a fuss. Third, Israel makes a damn good ally and I'm sure our boys in the Pentagon would rather risk IAF planes in any dangerous work than American planes. |
