With the end of the Cold War, an alliance with Israel has ceased to be central to U.S. interests. Indeed, our reputation as armorers and allies of Israel only damages us as Sharon rampages through the West Bank and Gaza walling off Arab land and denying to Palestinians that very right of self-determination we Americans espouse. Sharon is making hypocrites of us, and we are cowards for permitting it.
To the neocons, however, Zionism is second nature. They cannot conceive of a foreign policy that is good for America that does not entail absolute solidarity with Israel. They are dangerously close to imbibing the poisonous brew that drove Jonathan Pollard to treason: If it is good for Israel, it cannot be bad for America.
You are very mistaken about that. Pearl Harbor was an act of war by the Japanese Nation against the U.S. The 9/11 attacks were TOTALLY different. Different in that they attacked civilian targets with the objective of terrorising our government. In this, they succeeded. The Japanese (especially Yamamoto) expected us to respond militarily. Al Qaeda had no reason to expect a military response. After all, they were used to Clintoon shooting a few cruise missles at them and that's what they prepared for.
Our response to 9/11 was restrained and proper up to the point of the invasion of Iraq. In WWII, Hitler made the mistake of turnming his back on England to invade the USSR. That proved fatal. We have made the POTENTIAL mistake of invading Iraq BEFORE we have TOTALLY eliminated Al Qaeda. That raises concern with me as to how focused we are on eliminating Al Qaeda. Letting a minor threat like Iraq distract us is dangerous.