| Because "The best defense is a good offense." [1] There is a reason why no other country has a system like the Iron Dome, they simply don't need it. They prevent such a problem from arising in the first place by moving the battle into enemy territory and using a disproportionate response. Example: 9/11 terrorist attacks which killed 3,000 people in the US, resulted in 800,000 people killed and 37 million people displaced in the Middle East and other parts of the world.[2] There are no more repeat Al-Qaeda attacks on US. Now imagine that the US response to 9/11 attacks instead was building and deploying a better air defense system, and not moving the fight to the enemy (and their allies') territory. With each additional private jet hitting a building in NYC, they would incrementally improve their air defense capabilities. At first they would ignore attacks hitting the neighborhoods like Harlem, and only really respond to attacks on Manhattan. But even a response on Manhattan attacks would've been bombing some sand dunes in the desert, and politely asking terrorists and their families to vacate caves before bombing them from the air. Eventually the system will become "good enough", so it will become possible to ignore all attacks altogether, and convince the public that they have to live with the small civilian casualties from time to time. Al-Qaeda would become a specialist in the creation of third-generation kamikaze stealth aircraft, while OBL would constantly brag on Al Jazeera how he brought Big Satan to his knees. Of-course this scenario seems more SciFi-y than Iron Dome's Star Wars-like fireworks.
And that's because unlike Israel, US is a normal, healthy, and strong country, with better thinking and decision making processes. -- [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_best_defense_is_a_good_off... [2] https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human |
> There are no more repeat Al-Qaeda attacks on US.
Would there otherwise have been? Its not like there were a bunch of 9/11's prior to 9/11. I think its risky to assume thd usa's plan worked when there are a lot of other factors involved like if they even had the capability to do a repeat performance at all. And the (long term) cost to the usa has been high. America's over-reaction to 9/11 may even eventually cost it its place as the world's sole super power as geopolitical rivials take advantage of the mistrust it has sewn.
Regardless, what are you suggesting? - that Israel should pacify the region by extreme force, crushing it under its heel to whatever end? Because, even ignoring the humanity of that, it sounds tactically stupid when you consider the geopolitical situation in the region. They'd essentially turn themselves into the world's common enemy, and that's usually a bad play unless they're desperate.