Strategic Liability?

From Helene Cooper's New York Times article:

Some topics are so inflammatory that they are never discussed without first inserting a number of caveats. And so, when Anthony Cordesman, a foreign policy dignitary in this town’s think tank circuit, dropped an article on Wednesday headlined “Israel as a Strategic Liability,” he made sure to open with a plethora of qualifications.

My reaction, I'm afraid, was "Well Doh!"

Maybe my memory is bad, but I can't recall a recent instance when our strategic alliance with Israel profited the US. Nor does Cooper's article, appearing as it does in a charter member of the Israel lobby's press, cite any. These policies had their origin and justification fifty some years ago when we were competing with the Soviets for strategic influence. When the USSR exploded, they lost their strategic justification.

We support Israel out of inertia, and because our Jewish and millenialist citizens insist on it, and have an immensely powerful lobby and propaganda arm, and because many Americans are broadly sympathetic to it. We have a strategic embargo against Cuba for similar reasons. Neither of these policies makes particular sense from a geopolitical strategic point of view.

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