On The Israel Question
Posted on October 8, 2008 by andrew
This really bugged me last night, so I have to mention it. A veteran in the audience asked McCain and Obama whether they would be willing to commit troops to defend Israel in the event of an Iranian attack, even without international approval.
To put it bluntly, the question makes no sense.
If Iran attacks Israel with nuclear weapons (the prevention of which is the scenario both candidates chose to address), the United States committing troops isn’t going to do anyone any good. On the other hand, if Iran attacks Israel with conventional forces, Israel won’t need our direct assistance. They have a military more than capable of defending the country against any state in the Middle East (or at least capable of making the attack a nearly suicidal proposition for the aggressor; that’s why Israel went to all the trouble of acquiring nuclear weapons as a deterrent). Everyone knows this; it’s why Iran would never attack Israel in the first place. On top of that, no one bothered to address the question of whether Israel would even want our military to get involved. For a number of reasons, they might not. Are we going to bother to ask the Israelis in this incredibly unlikely hypothetical scenario, or are they a part of the international community we need to ignore in order to protect our allies?
A lot of the questions last night were lousy, and they were made worse by the lousy format of the debate. However, this one was downright terrible. It told us nothing about the candidates, their policies, anything that might help us make a choice in this election, or even anything related to the reality of the world. Tom Brokaw screened and selected every single question we heard. Let’s hope no one is foolish enough to ever give him that job again.
Sphere: Related Content» Filed Under 2008 presidential election, Iran, Israel, Middle East, Tom Brokaw, foreign policy, presidential debates
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[...] 8, 2008 by stevenmaloney Andrew thinks the Israel question in last night’s debate was nonsensical: If Iran attacks Israel with [...]