[ALJAZEERA] Military officials in the United States are debating whether sending more forces to the Middle East risks further emboldening Israel, according to a report in The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
US officials say its policy of military support for Israel seeks a ''de-escalation of the situation through deterrence and diplomacy.'' But some bigwigs now question if it is having the desired effect, the paper says.
In the 12 months since Hamas
 ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
attacked Israel, the Pentagon has supplied billions of dollars of weapons to Israel, while sending its own aircraft carriers, guided missile destroyers and fighter squadrons, as well deploying 43,000 troops in the region.
The Times said several Pentagon officials expressed concern that Israel was waging an increasingly aggressive campaign against the Lebanese gang Hezbollah, knowing that ''an armada of American warships and dozens of attack planes stand ready to help blunt any Iranian response.''
One official was quoted as saying it was in Israel's interest to take advantage of the beefed-up US military presence in the region to achieve its objectives of destroying Hamas and Hezbollah.
Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who previously commanded U.S. air forces in the Middle East, has raised the issue in meetings at the Pentagon and at the White House, The Times reported, citing US officials.
''If you're Israel and you're a military planner, you want to do all that while things are in the region, not after it leaves,'' said Dana Stroul, the Pentagon's former top official for Middle East policy, of US military presence.
On Sunday, Biden administration officials said they had talked to Israeli officials about limiting its ground invasion of Leb
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
. But Israel's raids this week have so far looked more like a more extensive operation is planned, other officials said. 
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