Quote:
Originally Posted by Stinkum
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the US has no bases or troop presence in Israel and stores only minimal military supplies in the country (and these under terms that allow these supplies to be used essentially at will by the IDF).
Israeli bases are not available for US use.
none of Israels neighbors will facilitate overflight for military aircraft transiting Israeli territory, let alone taking off from there. Israel is useless for purposes of strategic logistics or power projection.
Israel is worse than irrelevant to the defense of Middle Eastern energy supplies; the US relationship with Israel has jeopardized these supplies (as in 1973), not contributed to securing them.
US relations with Israel do not bolster US prestige in Middle Eastern oil-producing countries or assist the US to "dominate" them, they complicate and weaken US influence; they have at times resulted in the suspension of US relations with such countries.
Israel does not have the diplomatic prestige or capacity to marshal support for US interests or policies globally or in its own region and does not do so; on the contrary, it requires constant American defense against political condemnation and sanctions by the international community.
Israel does not fund aid programs in third countries to complement and support US foreign or military policy as other allies and strategic partners do.
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copy-pasta from chas freeman. i can respond with a copy-pasta from blackwill and slocombe (
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/p...-united-states), but we can play that game all day. we both get it, it's a divisive issue. so let's talk practice instead of theory
why do you believe we went to war with iraq? do you think it was for democracy? for WMDs? for 9/11? no, we know it was for the oil and control in the region. what did that war cost us in terms of dollars, lives, and international esteem? now look at israel. what does israel cost us? it's a relative pittance. we've bought a proxy state in the middle east for next to nothing