BF2S Forums Israel vs Permanent US bases in Iraq

We already have bases in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Uzbekistan, I doubt Israel's location is the primary reason why we support it

PureFodder wrote:

Consider the possible situation in which the US ends up with several large permanent military bases in Iraq.

What does this mean for the future of Israel? One of the reasons used to explain US relations with Israel is it's usefulness as a regional ally to exert military power over the Middle-East at the cost of pissing off most of the region, but if the US can end up with a nice Iraqi staging ground what is the use of sending vast amount of money to Israel every year if you can do it yourself? Will the US start to force Israel into being more compliant to ease tensions against them in the region now that they are less useful to the US? If the US can remove troops from Saudi soil and start publicly slapping Israel around a bit they'll likely make their own position in the region a whole lot more secure.

What do you think?

Israel is supported because of the huge Jewish population in the states, allot of powerful rich Jewish ppl.
Very powerful lobby groups.
and the fundamentalists Christians at the heart of government think the Jewish people need to return to the home land so they can be raptured up. Fucking nutters.
USA has military bases all over the region anyway.

JahManRed wrote:

Israel is supported because of the huge Jewish population in the states, allot of powerful rich Jewish ppl.
Very powerful lobby groups.
and the fundamentalists Christians at the heart of government think the Jewish people need to return to the home land so they can be raptured up. Fucking nutters.
USA has military bases all over the region anyway.

I don't buy religion basis. The US has a far greater christian population and happily waged war against the left wing Catholic Preisthood in South America throughout the 80s. Whenever Israeli and US interests clash, the Israeli lobby etc. noticably shut up and hide, for example when Israel wanted to upgrade Chineese anti-air, the US declared 'NO' and AIPAC hid.

I doubt that US planners assist Israel for virtuous reasons, nobody does that. They support Israel because they think they are getting something out of it. If not a major military presence in the region (Israel claim to have Air and armour forces exceeding any non-US NATO force) then what? Support for Israel clearly causes a major headache for the US, so they must think the benefits are worth it.

Currently Turkey isn't playing ball with US forces and hasn't exactly been the most stable place in the world. Turkey has remained US bases, but major changes in the repressive state are certainly not out of the question. The bases in Saudi Arabia were one of the main resons for the 9/11 attacks and the US has since drastically reduced troops there, Uzbekistan booted the US out showing how reliable they were. Kuwait has only had US military presence relatively recently. Israel had been the only resonably stable over 40 years US military influence in the region. If you can replace that with a stable force in Iraq and remove the problems caused by support for Israel......

This thread is a great demonstration that we side with Israel less for strategic reasons and more for political ones.  There are quite a few Jewish and Christian Zionists who have power in our government.   In addition to this, we side with Israel because of the political statement of supporting a technically secular state with democratic institutions among a sea of theocratic and aristocratic Islamic states.

I wish dilbert was here to defend his claim

JahManRed wrote:

... and the fundamentalists Christians at the heart of government think the Jewish people need to return to the home land so they can be raptured up.

They're already there?

this is how you concede a false statement?  lol


you have work, but that didnt stop you from replying in other threads within the last couple of days.  kudos for having employment.