I get your point. I can see that 30-40 years ago Israel was considered a strategic location, I'm not so sure it's as important today. I can see the value of planes on long flights re-fueling there. We do have this sort of relationship with many nations and they don't treat us like their dog. As for the intelligence, I doubt the veracity of Israeli intelligence. I'm not saying that we shouldn't deal with them, I'm just saying that they seem to have an extremely inflated sense of their importance to us, and regardless of anyone's opinion of our current President, this "snap-to" bullcrap coming from some of their officials needs to stop, now.
Well I can agree we should not just blindly do what they want us to do -- but I view our relationship with them as extremely important, both from an economic, and military aspect.
Back when Pakistan was developing a nuclear program the same sorts of articles and opinions appeared in the media. I've seen quite a few articles stating that Pakistan is currently helping Iran so if someone believes the falling domino theory it doesn't make any sense to go after the second domino but ignore the first domino.
I don't think this argument flies anymore. In my opinion, the whole domino theory idea during the Cold War doesn't hold much weight because our security umbrella was large and credible, therefore despite nation X becoming a nuclear power, nation Y felt secure because we assured them we would protect them -- while this remains the case, I think attitudes are starting shift in a post Cold War world.
Even nations like Japan are loudly doubting the credibility of the United States deterrent (in the wake of North Korean testing), and there is a larger and larger push for Japan to pursue its own program. Japan already more or less has the capability, they just choose not to weaponize -- it is the same with South Korea. These nations continue to know that we will back them 100% for the time being.
Apply that to the Middle East however, a nuclear Iran will grossly upset the balance of power in the region -- and can we really expect Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc to rely solely on the United States to counter that? We don't seem to be much of a counter now -- in the absence of a nuclear Iran. I would not expect these nations to put their security solely in our hands -- and if you read the Wikileak cables,and look at history, these nations hate each other.
I would think that if Iran proves it has a nuclear capability (not even a weapon, just a capability), you will start to see Egypt and and Saudi Arabia start to develop their own capabilities. Certainly I think that a strong President could prevent such things, even in the face of the nuclear capable Iran, but I don't think President Obama (or Gov. Romney) is going to be able to do that.
To address the issue of Pakistan, certain the AQ Khan network has been problematic in many areas, and the inability of Pakistan to really control their own territory is troubling. In terms of proliferation worries, a collapsing Pakistan is probably more of a challenge than Iran -- which is why we have been pouring money into Pakistan in an effort to at least protect nuclear sites etc.
