Future history will point to the U.S. election of 2006 as the first domino to fall in the path to total war. Concessions and "redeployments" forced by the new congressional leadership emboldened Islamist leaders and governments, producing the expectation that Israel was now fair game and that the U.S. would do little more than posture and offer empty threats, with chilling results as Israel, in a last ditch effort to survive, deploys the weaponry that was only rumored before.