Excuse me? Did you say we want Israel to drop the Bomb on Iraq and start a war that will engulf the entire Middle East? If Israel drops the Big One on Iraq, do you know how quickly Syria, Jordan and Egypt will mobilize their troops to attack Israel? Jesus, CP, you can't seriously be suggesting that we want this kind of war that could threaten Israel's very existence!
Actually, it would not threaten their existence at all simply because the imbalance of power is so great there (compare Israel's military to that of the surrounding forces), and the nation would probably recieve significant support from the US. Besides, most Israelis
want to fight against their neighboring countries anyway and settle this issue one and for all; the only reason they have not done so yet is this ridiculous pressure of world opinion, so all they need now is some excuse to keep the EU quiet.
That's very debatable, CP. As it is right now, wth the war in Afganistan still not completely concluded (Taliban are sneaking back in and hiding among the Afgan populace) and with other US military deployments around the world, our forces are stretched REALLY thin right now.
Yes, but no amount of extra military forces there is going to change that anyway; there is little we can do there anyway aside from heavy propaganda (which we really need to go heavy on), but that involves different resources. Our forces may be thinned out, but the thing is that we don't
need that many to fight due to the difference in technology; it is what makes all the difference here. (it can just be a repeat of 1991, where they sit back in their ships and launch cruise missiles hundreds of miles away
)
But even if our forces weren't stretched thin, mounting an attack on Pakistan now would be counter-productive while Musharraf is still in power (he's a nominal ally). And if miltants do take over, why would the US commit such a grave error as to attack a country armed with nukes? Even Bush isn't that stupid! So how can you logically say that we can take on Iraq AND Pakistan?
Well you see, we don't need to actually commit a lot of our men to this. The Indians have long wanted to overrun Pakistan and the only reason they have not done so already is the same reason as with Israel: world pressure. If the US simply gives the go-ahead, I have no doubt that would just go with it. Of course, it will be a good idea to send in commando teams to disable the nukes first, but that should be easier than most think considering that Musharraf's life depends on US support, so it should not be too hard to get the information of their locations from him. (if he is given a choice between his own survival and the survvial of his administration, he will probably go for the former)
Besides, Musharraf is sort of a two-sided guy. Since maybe 50% of these terrorist operations in the world are being conducted from Pakistan
with the full support of the government, and this is where the remnants of Al Qaeda now are, it makes sense to go after them. Pakistan has been useful to us in the past, but now they are simply posing yet another threat.
Is that what we're portrayed as in the western media? War-thirsty warlords who would nuke all our neighbours at the blink of an eye? Seems to me that that's the exact situation our neighbours are in concerning us - they are looking for an excuse to wipe us out.
Exactly, so you must wipe them out (their regimes, that is) before they wipe you out; the history of conflict and the cultural inertia there has long since grown too large for any peaceful conclusion. It is now a matter of survival of the fittest.
