No....ahem... but I know lots of people familiar with McLean, VA!
How's Tyson's Corner these days Virginian's???
LOL
The US modern military is a projection of our economic might. The fact we can field an offensive force is related to our need to project power more than hide behind walls. The reason 9-11 is such a devastating psychological blow to some others is that they felt very secure behind the ocean's distance.
These same people were the ones blowing their saxophones so loudly during the 1990's and who failed to properly defend America's interests.
Once again, the military is acting to project our strength in order to take the front lines away from America and into the home of our enemy. So, we are the primary combatants in this battle, not Israel. The ones really obfuscating things are the Israeli's.
While I am aware that the intifada is a perceived threat to Israeli security, it does not really threaten the IDF's stability. The intifada really seems more of a lawless uprising of criminals than a real military threat.
With this in mind, separating the combatants of the Intifada from the Iraqi or Iranian regimes is skillful. In a military sense, it separates the field troops from the supply lines. The US is attacking the body of the snake. The IDF is attacking the head.
Separating the two theatres/fronts seems reasonable. Thanks for serving our nation...
I wish it were. If we spent 2/3 as large a fraction of our total wealth on our military now as we did, say in the mid 1950s, we'd have such a force that we wouldn't be debating this topic, the show would already be over. There wouldn't have been any need to ramp up production of guided weapons, we'd have had plenty in the armory already. But America has always thought it could defend itself on the cheap. Still better than the Eurowienies who don't think they should defend themselves at all, for the most part.