I predict this post will not age well.

The United States can of course afford to fight with one hand tied behind its back. None of these places actually matter to the USA, and terrorism has always been such a small risk that one can treat it as a completely fake problem. It is actually an interesting moral question whether it would be worth forcing third world nations to accept Western institutions at the point of a gun, which would clearly be better for them in the long run, but the point is moot if we’re not willing to use the means to do so.

The delusion of neocons and counter-insurgency types was that this could be accomplished just by spending a lot of money rather than utilizing the kinds of tactics that Western leaders deployed when they used to actually win their wars.

Israel is a different story though. Its opponents pose an existential threat to its way of life. Despite this, the country has been remarkably restrained. All of the Palestinian civilians killed in the last fifty years don’t even come close to the number of lives lost in the US/coalition war on ISIS, much less the Second World War. This is primarily due to Israel facing a lot more scrutiny than most other nations would under similar circumstances.

That being said, Israel does not strike me as suicidal. The recent attack by Hamas has shocked the current conflict out of the now default war of choice framework and made it clearly a war of necessity. I expect Israel to do whatever it takes to at the very least either dismantle Hamas or establish a buffer zone between itself and the people of Gaza. If it does not, the problem will fester, and the Israelis will find themselves in the exact same position a few years down the line. It would be nice to believe that the Palestinian conflict could be solved by the stronger side being more accommodating towards its enemy. But there is little in the history of warfare, and certainly nothing in the doctrine of Hamas, to suggest this is a viable path forward. The choice faced by Israel is a tragic one, no matter how much in denial those currently calling for restraint are about this fact.

The United States can of course afford to fight with one hand tied behind its back. None of these places actually matter to the USA, and terrorism has always been such a small risk that one can treat it as a completely fake problem. It is actually an interesting moral question whether it would be worth forcing third world nations to accept Western institutions at the point of a gun, which would clearly be better for them in the long run, but the point is moot if we’re not willing to use the means to do so.

The delusion of neocons and counter-insurgency types was that this could be accomplished just by spending a lot of money rather than utilizing the kinds of tactics that Western leaders deployed when they used to actually win their wars.

Israel is a different story though. Its opponents pose an existential threat to its way of life. Despite this, the country has been remarkably restrained. All of the Palestinian civilians killed in the last fifty years don’t even come close to the number of lives lost in the US/coalition war on ISIS, much less the Second World War. This is primarily due to Israel facing a lot more scrutiny than most other nations would under similar circumstances.

That being said, Israel does not strike me as suicidal. The recent attack by Hamas has shocked the current conflict out of the now default war of choice framework and made it clearly a war of necessity. I expect Israel to do whatever it takes to at the very least either dismantle Hamas or establish a buffer zone between itself and the people of Gaza. If it does not, the problem will fester, and the Israelis will find themselves in the exact same position a few years down the line. It would be nice to believe that the Palestinian conflict could be solved by the stronger side being more accommodating towards its enemy. But there is little in the history of warfare, and certainly nothing in the doctrine of Hamas, to suggest this is a viable path forward. The choice faced by Israel is a tragic one, no matter how much in denial those currently calling for restraint are about this fact.

The only reason America give a damn about Israel is because they are an Israel first government and have been incrementally for many decades now.

They pass laws to ban anything anti Israeli....it's a joke....they don't ban anything anti Iranian yet they are both semites. Israeli lobbies fund US politicians and interfere with the selection of respective ones.....something I regard as an unacceptable use of foreign influence.

What other reason would there be to risk a nuclear war? Why else would America care more about the fate of Israel compared to the fate of Yeman?

All this stuff about Israel being the US's greatest ally? What exactly are the US getting out of it? What do Israel do for the US other than giving it huge problems and taking money from it?

The US has been compromised out of its own interests and is being run into the ground by ideologs seemingly obsessed with getting into as many wars as possible.

None of this helps the common man and woman in America....that's meant to the job of government.

Edited by Stirlingsays (18 Oct 2023 5.19pm)

Numerous news reports.