[Pox]

He gave the Syrians a 72 hour ultimatum

I was under the impression that this had been denied by the Israeli government.

is that he is prone to escalate the kidnapping of three persons into a global crisis

Okay, I have reservations concerning the "value" of those 3 persons. If they were American soldiers, I would personally move heaven and earth to free them if at all possible, and if that meant evolving the conflict from a local to global affair, so be it.

If the entire world is on edge to the point where this could be taken to a global crisis, then the issue is not truly centered on those 3 soldiers, it it?

The true issue, IMO, is the islamic fanatics in the mideast, and Iran and Syria in particular, along with the nutbar running NK into the ground, being appeased until they have the capability to annihilate a city in their area or elsewhere in the world with the push of a button.

Given the track record of islamic nutjobs and their goals of annihilating Israel, that situation cannot be allowed to come to fruition. To allow them to possess nukes spells certain doom for Israel. MAD is not a consideration of islamic militants. Give them a nuke and Tel Aviv is history, IMO. MAD will not allow us to simply wait them out the same as the USSR. The situations are not comparable, and to believe they are invites disaster, IMO.

If Iran pops a nuke on Tel Aviv, 1 billion muslims, and a hell of a lot of anti semitic Europeans and others across the world, including many leftists here in the U.S., will applaud for Iran, most not openly, but many will be dancing in the streets over the result, even if it means that Tehran will be annihilated.

The islamic nutjobs do not think as you do, nor as the russians or chinese think. Look at their society, look at how it has stagnated for centuries. Yet their society persists. That should raise the alarm in any civilized mind.

[DCPatriot]

If the entire world is on edge to the point where this could be taken to a global crisis, then the issue is not truly centered on those 3 soldiers, it it?

I don't think many people back in 1917 thought that Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand's assassination would start WWI.

[jeffers]

Pox wrote:

"Give them a nuke and Tel Aviv is history, IMO."

There is a difference between throwing a punch, and landing a punch.

If those not familiar with orderly planning are not permitted to interfere, the expiration of the plausibly deniable ultimatum may demonstrate this.

I cannot be any clearer at this time, sorry.

If worse comes to worst, we may have to write off Tel Aviv, and essentially all of Israel. They understand this.

Tel Aviv will not die alone.

But that subject is premature.

Wait and watch. It's not like you have other options anyway.

:-)