[quote]Dustin wrote:
[quote]Otep wrote:
[quote]Dustin wrote:
[quote]Charlemagne wrote:
The bottom line is this:
Israel is going to find it increasingly difficult to maintain its current political positions (foreign policy, domestic policy, economic policy, nuclear policy) within the world community.
The United States is a crumbling empire and the European Union is coming apart at the seams. Within the near future, Israel will not be able to count on as much political, financial or military backing from either of these because they will simply not be able to afford to. Americans have enough problems, we don’t need to be worrying about another country’s foreign policy concerns. I’m sorry, but Israeli and American interests are not one in the same.
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This thread should have ended here.
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I disagree.
If anything Israel’s existence keeps the arab states off-balance. They’re tempermental, confrontational, and usually in the right. They’re our first line of defense against Iran. An early-warning system, if you will. That’s worth subsidizing.[/quote]
They are usually not in the right, but that’s not the point.
The United States is a crumbling empire and the European Union is coming apart at the seams. Within the near future, Israel will not be able to count on as much political, financial or military backing from either of these because they will simply not be able to afford to.
I don’t care, for the moment, if you (not necessarily you, Otep) statist war mongers support Israel or not. The point is that it won’t be too long before they will have to fend for themselves as stated by the quoted text. And when this happens, Israel won’t be able to throw their weight around without consequence.
And Otep, I’m not buying Iran as any threat to the US anymore than Iraq was. Trust me, I’ve been over there. These countries are shit holes. Their militaries are garbage. This notion that there are all these boogy men out there that want to destroy “Murika” is nonsense.
And, to be frank, I’m really fucking tired of my tax dollars being given to the government of country halfway around the world. You want to “subsidize” Israel with your money, go for it, just don’t expect me to.[/quote]
I disagree that America is a crumbling empire. It has problems. Europe does too. So do the BRIC’s. So do these shitholes. I agree that America needs to get it’s fiscal head out of it’s ass and adopt a more small-state, pro-individual-rights attitude. I do not see it as crumbling.
American Aid comprises 4 out of 68 billion government expenses (Got budget figures from Wiki, assume aid is expensed in the same year its given, because… I doubt ANY government can save). That’s not a drop in the bucket, but even if completely cut off from it, I think Israel will manage to survive.
I’m less concerned about Iran declaring war on the US, and more about them funding terrorist attacks against us. Their alliance with Hezbollah has shown they’re a huge fan of it. Theoretically, this would stop if American ended it’s support for Israel. I don’t beleive that, because Islam as a whole has shown itself to have an incredibly thin skin when criticized, while simultaneously performing a host of actions to be criticized for.
I hear you on the ‘tax dollars to countries halfway around the world’. Really, I do. For a government set up to protect individual liberty, foreign aid fulfills neither the spirit nor the letter of the Constitution. I support cutting down America’s foriegn aid budget with the goal of eventually ending it, and if people want to support Israel themselves, and Israel can purchase munitions with their funds, then so be it. Israel should not be the first country whose aid should be cut. I deem them too politically valuable.
