Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh
Remember, though, that in other contexts the strategy has worked.

1) US settlers putting themselves in harm's way with a farm and then engendering military protection was a component through which the USA enacted its "manifest destiny."

2) The British East India Company sticking its nose in for trade, then letting the counter-response draw in the military to "protect endangered British interests."

I'd agree that most of the settlers heading West weren't quite so ideologically driven as those in the West Bank and Gaza, and "ideological" was probably not even in the John Company lexicon, but the strategy isn't too far different.

Similar strategies, entirely different circumstances. Not even comaprable, TBH.