Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

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Coutries do not invade their neighbors not because of prescriptions by international laws, but because (a) they can't win; (b) it would not be worth while. Do you really believe Israel would continue to exist if its Arab neighbors can feasibly win a war against it? No amount of paper pushing can possibly stand in the way. Do you really believe half the countries and entities in the world would exist if not for the stabilizing effect of the US, just like the British Royal Navy of yore? The Pandora's Box was never closed. Every Israeli-Arab War, with the exception of Yum Kippur of 1973, was a "justified preemptive military attack"; Israel was perfectly entitled to undertake each and every one of them, and the preemptive dustruction of Iraqi nuclear facility in the 80's probably benefitted the rest of the world tremendously.

Nonconventional wars, be it terrorism or guerrilla warfare, can only succeed with outside help from an existing safe tax base (ie. another nation state). The most cost-effective way to fight such nonconventional combatants is to cut off the outside help; the destruction of the current Iraqi regime will go a long way to set an example of what happens to outlaw regimes that sponsor nonconventional combatants. If that is not enough, the positioning of American police assets in a friendly Iraq will also reign in any outlaw elements in neighboring Iran and Syria.