"I believe we are too politically correct to randomly bomb the mid east...Al Qaida doesn't have a home...I suspect we would probably lick our wounds for a while and try to fugure out what to do..."
Unfortunately you may be correct that we would not respond immediately. What is the alternative? Just sit back and let city after city be destroyed? Even if we counter attacked it probably would not stop the attacks on us. Iran would certainly be destroyed, the tribal regions along the Pakistan afghan border, the sunni triangle, and probably several of the more troublesome arab countries would also be nuked. Would it do any good? I'm not sure.
However, I can't believe they would hit us before they hit Israel...I suspect they won't do anything to hinder their chance to get the Jews...
Of course, that could be tomorrow...