The Isreali Prime Minster just said that they (Isreal) are allies with the US both in times of peace [i]and[/i] in times of war. When asked if they would committ troops he comfirmed that they would.
I may have to quit bitching about them by the time this is over.

I for one am not surprised, that's why they are call allies.

sgtar15

Israel is our greatest of our Allies.  They deal with this kind of thing all the time.

Thanks for the offer, General/Prime Minister Sharon! This is, however, a job that [u]must[/u] be left solely to the United States!

To allow any outside forces in would make this whole effort into a 'united nations cum-by-yah' sort of charade!

When the time comes to pull the trigger, I don't want any other nation's hand on that trigger!

Let our friends and allies support us in every other manner, but when the actual fighting begins, let it be American troops, blood, sweat, and tears.

If there is anything this Country has shown the World in its 225+ year history, it is that we know how to treat our enemies, and we surely know how to treat our heroes!

Eric The(ForwardBasesAndIntelWillDoForNow)Hun[>]:)]

My first disagreement with you.

The war to be expected is more specops, and not of a conventional type.  With this war, it's best to use all available resources.  It's doubtful we will see much of the activities or the solders.  The troops will be from a multitude of countries, including Israel.

If there is a conventional portion to this war, the U.S. troops will bear primary responsibility.

All Bin Laden and the Taliban will have to do during another Gulf War-'Coalition'-type action, is to launch some sort of attack against Israel and the coalition would fall like a house of cards. It's not 1991-1992 again, and the Arab partners will be even more unlikely to hang around if there is a possibility of being caught on the same side as Israel!

This is personal with the United States! This is not a coalition to protect the price and availability of crude oil! This is payback in capital letters.

That will, IMHO, never happen! What Arab nation would sign onto any coalition that included the State of Israel?  It would be tantamount to signing their own death warrant with their fundamentalist opposition!

I hope it never comes to troops on the ground, myself, but that's probably too much to wish for in this situation.

I want troops we can count on, and right now I think we had best just count on our own!

Eric The(EverythingElseIsOpen)Hun[>]:)]

But ya' know Eric, this might be the first opportunity to get those old enemies to join forces for once.

I believe you are most likely going to be proven correct, but if Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rove, Rice and the rest could find a path to align the Muslim nations and Israel in a common bond against terrorism then maybe...

At least by doing so we will define positively which Muslim nations support world terrorism and which do not.

Lots of pieces to this puzzle.

It was my understanding Isreal would stand down on this one.  

Our strongest of allies in the region, yet we are reluctant to use them for fear of making enemies of their enemies.

If they fight with us then GREAT, they have alot of experience in this type of warfare.

Arab troops are useless anyway!Hell the only Arabs that can fight worth a shit are our enemies the Afghani Mujahideen.The Isaraelis can whip the dog shit out of the combined armies of any Islamic country with a quickness and only need a little air support and funding from the USA.If they wanted to join us against the Taliban it would creat a lot of problems for us though.We would go from having Arab nations who were just quietly complicitge to having them turn against us and attack our rear with their retarded "Allah Akbar!"human wave attacks.The IDF could mop these fuckers up pretty quick but they can't sustain an operation that far from their borders for very long so I don't see them committing much more than some of their special teams of Arabic speaking/impersonating commandos to sneak in and kill key "Towlieban" assets.


sopmod

I agree with you that getting the Arabs and the Israelis to 'shake hands and let bygones be bygones' would be peachy keen and would surely let US know which ones we can trust in difficult times.

But, please let US try this out on something a tad less serious, such as 'water rights' in the Negev, air travel restrictions, settlements on the West Bank, maybe even the fate of Jerusalem (just kidding!), but not on something as serious as the punishment of the criminals of September 11, 2001!

There is a distinct, I mean a very distinct, possibility that we will NOT be able to execute judgment and sentence on these evildoers! That Bin Laden and his crew will escape justice in this matter.

If there is such an escape, I don't want to wonder forever if it was one of our allies that spilled the beans on our plans.

Let everyone do their part, but [u]no[/u] one should be told of the true nature and extent of our operations until it's shown on the evening news, afterwards!

Eric The(WouldYouWantItAnyOtherWay?)Hun[>]:)]