The obligatory Israel might attack Iran posting

I swear, if I had a nice, crisp, one hundred dollar bill for every time I saw this question or headline — I could retire early.

The story:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has a lot on his mind these days, from cutting the defense budget to managing the drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But his biggest worry is the growing possibility that Israel will attack Iran over the next few months.

Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a “zone of immunity” to commence building a nuclear bomb. Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon — and only the United States could then stop them militarily.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t want to leave the fate of Israel dependent on American action, which would be triggered by intelligence that Iran is building a bomb, which it hasn’t done yet.

via Is Israel preparing to attack Iran? – The Washington Post.

AllahPundit over at HotAir.com tosses cold water on this rather hyped headline or opinion piece.

Between you and me; I highly doubt Israel would do something like that. I could be wrong, but something tells me that Israel is just not going to risk “upsetting the apple cart,” as my grandmother used to call it. This is not to say that I do not think that Israel has the right to defend themselves, I do believe that fully. What I fear is, that Israel will pick a fight with Iran and get in over their heads; and want the United States to pull their butts out of fire. As much as I am sympathetic to the cause of Israel and how much I know the history of Israel and the Biblical connection to the land and the people — I just do not believe that the United States of America is obligated to come to rescue of a Nation, like Israel, that decides to pick a fight with another Nation. We would not do that for any other Nation, so why should we do it for Israel?

Realistically speaking, I believe this little conflict will be resolved via diplomacy, rather than war. Because again, I believe the United States and its allies learned their lessons from the last time that they tried a foolhardy mission of occupation of a Country. I believe that a fiasco of that magnitude will not be repeated anytime soon.  Again, I could be wrong; but I really just do not see this happening again, at least not this soon.

Others: Guardian, PoliticoCNN, Pat Dollard, Weasel Zippers, msnbc.com, Jerusalem Post, Associated Press, War in Context, Israel Matzav, The Enterprise Blog and Chicago Boyz