Israel, U.S. scale back war game

[Klukie]

Mar 18, 2007 — JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli and visiting U.S. forces are holding a biennial air-defense exercise this month but on a reduced scale, partly out of reluctance to stoke tensions with Iran, Israeli security sources said on Sunday.

They said the exercise, dubbed Juniper Cobra, this year involves fewer troops and advanced computer simulations — rather than live-fire drills — of anti-missile systems such as Israel's Arrow-II and the American-made Patriot PAC-3.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2960707

[Raven]

1. Interesting! Maybe

a message is getting through...do we dare hope for such a thing!

[Klukie]

3. I don't know.

The whole thing makes me nervous. I would love to know if there is a meaning behind the exercise name Juniper Cobra.

[youngdem]

2. We probably don't have enough available forces to field the exercise

and don't want to embarrass ourselves and expose our impotence.