14% SURVEYED SAY ISRAEL LEAST SERVES US INTERESTS.

The journal, Foreign Policy, on Monday published its "terrorism index," asking a bipartisan group of former "secretaries of state, national security advisors, senior White House aides, top commanders in the US military, seasoned intelligence professionals, and distinguished academics" a variety of questions having to do with US national security issues.

When given a list of US allies and asked to choose the one country that least serves US national security interests, 14 percent of the respondents picked Israel. Russia led the list, with 34% saying it least served US interests, followed by 22% who said Pakistan, 17% who selected Saudi Arabia, and 5% each for Egypt and Mexico.

So, according to this august group, Egypt serves US national security interests more than Israel? There is a list of the participants here, which include Stephan Walt, Richard Clarke, Madeleine Albright, and Jim Zogby--but also Daniel Pipes.

This same group of experts is making news over another one of its findings, namely that they do not think much of the surge in Iraq either:

More than half say the surge is having a negative impact on U.S. national
security, up 22 percentage points from just six months ago. This sentiment was
shared across party lines, with 64 percent of conservative experts saying the
surge is having either a negative impact or no impact at all.

I'd be curious what this same group of experts were saying about the Middle East and Muslims prior to 9/11.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Iraq and The Surge and Foreign Policy Magazine.