[Skwidd]

It's as good a way to start a war as any...

[RandallFlagg]

YES!!!!!

[ex-Texan]

No more standing around waiting for incoming SCUDS!

[Mr. Mojo]

Israel will indeed strike back ......And if Iraq or any other Arab/Islamic nation has the chutzpah to hit them with WMD, Israel has at least 200 - some estimates are as high as 500 - nukes that they wouldn't hesitate to use. These are thermonukes (hyrdrogen bombs), not the relatively primitive fission devices that Iraq is attemting to engineer.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

I wouldnt expect anything less dont take any crap of sadass insane!

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Great!

Join the party...there's plenty for everyone.

[RnMomof7]

Well if Israel gets into it at least we know it will get finished this time..

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

The prime minister's position reflects a widespread belief among Israeli politicians and generals that Arab leaders perceived Israel's restraint in 1991 as weakness.

He is of course correct. Mad dogs are not to be reasoned with. Only killed.

[The Great Satan]

This complicates Saddam's thinking quite a bit. Would the United States really nuke Baghdad in the event of an anthrax attack on US cities? -- especially, say, if the attack caused only "intermediate-scale" casualties, say in the tens of thousands. Saddam might gamble that we are too soft and PC to strike back. But now he has to think about Sharon, too. Is he going to strike the US, but not Israel? I seriously doubt it: his whole personality cult is that he is the leader who will bring the Arabs victory over the Jews. But he knows we can absorb a few tens or hundreds of thousands dead: Israel can't. If he tries anything, Baghdad is a radioactive hole in the ground.

[kms61]

Of course they have every right to self defense, but it's puzzling why they would bother to get involved in more than some token way, since the end of Saddam's reign would be at hand anyway...unless they didn't trust the US to finish the job.

[El Gato]

And some Israeli experts argue that there is little the Israelis could do to hurt Saddam Hussein's government that the Americans would not be doing already. "When you retaliate, you really need to do something that is impressive," said Shai Feldman, who runs the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv. "It is not that easy to do something impressive when a much larger American bombing capability is already in operation."

The "it's hopeless so nothing should be done" crowd exists in Israel too. The Israelis could certainly do more than the US was actually doing, unless there was a boomer sitting in the Arabian sea taking target practice with live missles. What the US is capable of doing, and what they might actually be doing are not necessarily the same thing.

[goldstategop]

Israel's deterrent posture has been eroded in the decade since the Gulf War by a number of factors, including restraint in Gulf War One, as a result of Oslo, the Monty Python withdrawal from Lebandon, and the ongoing Oslo War. Israel needs to demonstrate to the Arabs she's not a pushover. While Israel won't attack Iraq first, in the event Saddam hits Israel with Scuds or chemical or biological weapons, you can bet Israel is going to respond and respond hard to Iraqi aggression.

[hapsgroupie]

Does anyone know if there is a draft for the Isreali army? And if so, how old does one have to be to be drafted?

[PushinTin]

I think they should start with Mecca.....

[LaGrone]

Go Israel, sock it to 'em, sock it to 'em. Sorry, got carried away.

[lodwick]

IDF bttt

[jragan2001]

For the U.S. to expect Israel not to retaliate is absurd.
It would be like Israel encourgaging the United States
to not strike back after 9/11 last year. The U.S. is
NOT the boss of Israel and needs to realize that!!

[dfwgator]

Just send in the Mossad to take care of Saddam, one bullet, it's all over.

[RetiredArmy]

I continue to hang my head every time I see the USA telling these guys they cannot defend themselves if attacked. We certainly have not stood around and done nothing after being attacked. If attacked with WMD, the Jews have every right to respond. If I had nukes, I'd respond with them. I'd make Bag-dad a WalMart parking lot after I was finished with it. They certainly have every right to defend and respond. Why we continue to tell them to sit on their hands is beyond me. The only excuse that I hear is that the other A-rabs would get pissed and join the fight. Fine, they can taste the dust also!