The WMD genie is already out of the bottle - plenty of countries have chemical and biological (the most dangerous of all) capabilities. At the moment our greatest danger, IMHO, isn't state sponsored attacks on the US but WMD in the hands of those involved in religious and ethnic wars who seek to punish the US for taking sides. That incidentally, is the reason the attacks on Israel have spread to the US.
I certainly see the Israeli-Palestinian War as just that, a war fought over religion and land - just like lots of other wars. Like other ethnic and religious wars, I think we should make it a point to stay out of it - in every way.
Iraq was a basket case. It's equipment was outdated and in short supply. That Iraq was a power in any respect when we invaded and occupied it is a laughable assertion. There isn't any connection between Iraq and 9/11. Don't take my word for it, that's the US government's position - the result of a lack of evidence to suggest any other possible conclusion. Since two (of four) of Pakistan's provinces have elected governments sympathetic to the Taliban you might be right about Pakistan. Since almost the entire region defines us by our support for Israel, however, I don't know why that should be all that surprising.
My concern for our armed forces is really two fold. In the first place, I'm concerned that we're configuring our forces to play policeman to the world and therefore handicapping us in the event of a major, large scale war of national survival. My second concern is that we won't have the military forces in the numbers we need because of recruitment/retention shortfalls which I believe are looming. In my view, we'll need to return to the draft if our committments aren't quickly reduced and we don't return to a policy which places the emphasis on defense instead of playing policeman to the world.
That's like saying you have a leak in your car's radiator, but you don't think you need to fix it.
Like other ethnic and religious wars, I think we should make it a point to stay out of it - in every way.
So you're an anti-Zionist who doesn't see the moral difference between the Islamic pan-arab culture and the Jewish one? In your view, they're just uninteresting cultural combatants in a land that just happens to have oil? Would you have said the same during the Holocaust,, that the Germans were just another cultural combatant? Because if we were to abandon Israel, there wouldn't be a Jew left alive in Israel within five years. That is the stated goal of all of Israel's enemies. And it is not symmetric: Jews are tolerant of Arabs in most situations.
Americans are not too weak to take a stand in support of Israel. We would be considered weak in the eyes of our enemies if we didn't support Israel now.
There isn't any connection between Iraq and 9/11.
What about the first WTC bombing? The OKC bombing? What about Saddam's attack on Bush Senior? What about the use of chemical weapons on our troops in Gulf war I? What about the continual AAA ordnance hurled against our no-fly enforcers?
In my view, we'll need to return to the draft if our committments aren't quickly reduced and we don't return to a policy which places the emphasis on defense instead of playing policeman to the world.
The draft issue is mostly caused by the low pay our service members receive, at least in my view. In any case, you haven't answered my biggest objection to critics of our war in Iraq: the Axis of Evil is a whole that is larger than the sum of its parts. Iraq was the easiest one on the list to neutralize, and I think we're just getting started.