For one moment, I'd like to play the role of Israel in the months and days leading up to the 6 Day War.

Do I:

Watch the Arab opposition arm and ready themselves and wait for them to attack?

Watch the Arab opposition arm and ready themselves, but press the one possible advantage that any nation can take (that of the First Strike)? There are very few parts of this game that are directly accurate to real life, but the idea that a First Strike can be a deciding factor in a conflict is one of them.

All told, Israel was pretty evenly matched with the Arab nations, but they were surrounded (for all intents and purposes). In that war, the advantage and quite likely the victory would have gone to the Arabs (barring US intervention) if they had struck first.

Let me simplify Israel's decision: strike first or die?

Doesn't take a genius to decide between striking first and dying.


As to what Israel provides the US: INTELLIGENCE!



As to Obama still being president after this election: If that's the case, then the chances of a US Constitutional Convention might actually grow to possible. How long do people think the states are going to sit by while a group of morons in Washington, D.C. continually erode their rights and the sovereignty entrusted to them by the people of their state and the people of the nation collectively? Obama brought change alright; he made Washington infinately worse than it ever was under Bush. Let the states that want to experiment with socialism experiment with it so that the people who want socialism can pay for it themselves! The rest of us can live in states that want nothing to do with socialism or in states that include only the level of government intrusion that we want.