[A.J.Armitage]

We may well need entaglements with the Israelis and Western Europe(I'm still out on that one), but if we didn't have them the attack would not have happened. It was a reaction(an evil reaction, of course) to our policies, whether or not the policies are necessary on our part. It does matter whether or not they're necessary, because if they are these kinds of attacks are, to put it somewhat coldly, a price we have to pay, and if not our leaders are fools, but it's now important as a question for future historians and policy in the non-foreseeable future. For now, they only thing that matters is the conflict ahead of us.

[annalex]

We may well need entaglements with the Israelis and Western Europe(I'm still out on that one), but if we didn't have them the attack would not have happened.

I double disagree. If the attack wouldn't have happened without alliances with Europe and Isreal, then we don't need these alliances. Those Americans who have individual attachment to Europe or Israel could volunteer their help individually, like they did in World War I before 1917 and in the civil war in Spain.

But an attack would have happened. When, without our poking and prodding in the Middle East, a solidified Arab states had a firm grasp on the OPEC spigot, and when enough dominoes would have fallen in Europe, we'd be facing hungry looters at our door.