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Israel asks America to strike western Iraq first

Now I don't care for that. It's like Israel is saying we're it's personal weapon. "Hey, go get these guys next! Heh heh heh."
We're fighting terrorists that attacked, and may someday attack again , the United States.
Israel needs to understand we're not fighting THEIR war.
Bush needs to do what's best for America first.

I don't understand why we are talking about targeting Iraq at all. What does Iraq have to do with Al Qaeda? Bush's poppa got us all worked up about Saddam, and never followed through and got him. Now Bush Junior is going to get us worked up about this guy again? Shouldn't we focus our energies on avenging 9-11 by going after Bin Laden and the other perpetrators? Why this change of focus?

Western Iraq is mostly desert. There just ain't much we can do about a few scuds (loaded with anthrax or not). But we can establish complete air superiority and make damn sure anything that gets by us will be no problem for the IAF. Assuming Iraq has nukes they won't be light enough to go on a scud. What if Isreal nukes Bagdad after taking an anthrax hit. Where does that leave us? 'We deplore the loss of life but also understand that Sadam brought this down on himself...'

Isreal and the US has another problem. The Isreali right wing is really far gone and is as convinced god is on their side as Osama was (I suspect he knows better now, once Satan had Osama's virgins reveal their leathery wings and fangs, psych). For now the isreali right wing is a loose cannon. There will be a time and a place.

After we knock down Iraq our 'friends' in Saudi/Kuwait/Egypt will have to deal with their internal issues (we will turn up the heat on occasion). They need to decide which side they are on, controlled pressure on them puts them over a barrel. Too much pressure will make them jump the wrong way too soon. I expect them to ultimatly jump anyhow, but not untill after a bloody set of civil wars.

Think about what happened to the trecherous French. They went through a series of wars starting with Napolian and ending in WWI that left them with no genes for balls (and inches shorter). This is what needs to be arranged for the house of Fahad and others. Before this is done they will be out of oil or oil will be obsolete (I know its a liberal dream but look at the curve for $/watt on photovoltaics, It needs one more halving to be economical. Then the liberals will take back seat to physcal conservatives getting bargin power). The rest of the world can go back to ignoring them.

The loyalty of Iraqi pilots to Saddam, and their readiness to die for him, while his regime is crumbling, is not at all the same as that of Japanese kamikaze pilots, who were ready to die for their emperor at the end of World War II.

Actually, it is only a popular myth that the Japanese kamikaze pilots were that dedicated. Most (including a close friend of mine who was training when the war ended) were kids in their mid or late teens, many who had been spared from the draft because they were the most promising of students. They were strapped into planes with just enough fuel to reach the target and told that they would explode if they tried to land. They "volunteered" only for the sake of their families.

The idea of kamikaze pilots actually came from the torpedo 1 squadron of the U.S.S. Hornet during the battle of Midway. They arrived at the target early without benefit of fighter escort. Rather than attempting to break off and escape (which would've been fruitless against the faster Japanese Zeros anyway), they plowed right though and into the ships. While the damage was minimal, the Japanese task force admiral was said to have remarked to his second in command that if this is typical of American courage, Japan had made a grave mistake in attacking Pearl Harbor. Minutes later, the American dive bombers arrived and proceeded to damage 3 of the 4 carriers while the Zeros were concentrated on mopping up torpedo 1.

|||||||The Pentagon meanwhile is very interested in technologies, weapons systems, and military doctrines developed in Israel over the past few years. In meetings in Washington with top defense officials and representatives of the Israeli defense establishment, led by Defense Ministry Director-General Amos Yaron, and including the head of weapons development and technology infrastructure Maj. Gen. Dr. Yitzhak Ben-Israel, videos were shown demonstrating examples of Israel's policy of "pinpoint targeting" in the territories. The emphasis was on combat helicopter attacks that caused no collateral damage to anything other than the target, even if many civilians were in the area.

American officers, from both the air force and special operations, visited Israel to learn about "pinpoint targeting" from IDF special operations commanders in the territories. Among other things, the Americans wanted to know about long-distance assassinations, along the lines of the operation - to kill Saddam Hussein - that foreign reports said was being rehearsed at the time of the Tze'elim 2 accident. The Americans were offered Israeli assistance in many areas, including inoculations against anthrax.|||||