Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
I have heard that all girls in Israel do military service for 2 years (1 year less than men). Can't even imagine what that is like, for girls! I honestly can't see myself at 18 managing 2 years of military service, but these ladies seem to take it in their stride! Some people claim that it's America that props up Israel's army, but that doesn't seem true to me - there are no American bases there, and it's the Israelis themselves that spend years of their life in the army and fight for their country, and pay taxes to support their defense.
I can't help but to admire the IDF even if I perhaps don't approve of everything that I read about them.

Global Firepower - 2012 World Military Strength Ranking

These guys (who caveat that the rankings are subjective as there is no authority who can objectify the statements) rank US and Russian militaries as #1 and #2, and Israel as #10, right behind Japan, but ahead of the majority. As for support - I was always told that US and Israel support each other militarily, but I've also been told that Israel's army is N2FW, if you'll excuse my politically incorrect term)

EDIT:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...iran-us-israel
Here's one I found from January, talking about US and Israel working together.. also talks about US/Israel/Iran war games, which if there was more info on them would be a better answer about militaries and their comparative prowess - as it is, they had to write the article on anonymous source info, so I guess there's no hope of finding more on it