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Settling Out of the Smoke of Intentions

Reader comment on item: What's Next for Trump and Iran?
in response to reader comment: Doubling the Tensions Already Felt

Submitted by M Tovey (United States), Aug 11, 2020 at 19:24

Settling Out of the Smoke of Intentions
As the investigation continues in the attempt to find the cause of the detonation and sparking explosion of the 'fertilizer' stockpile, allegations are swirling like the clouds that still stifle the air over the ruins of central Beirut; and everyone is looking for a scapegoat if not the actual culprits to lay the blame and shift the scrutiny away for recognition of the fact that no one who may be responsible is going to look good for causing this disaster. The fact of the matter is; everyone in Lebanon is partially to blame, even those actors not actually in Lebanon. There are multiple suspects.
The other fact of the matter is that not all of the multiple stockpiles of hazardous materials were detonated: who holds the receipt of delivery for those? If the rumor is true that enemies of Israel had design on the use of such materials, but like the issues of Iran losing certain facilities due to actions of others, the greater issue is that alternatives are being looked at to recover the loss of one plan and another or others is/are moved up to replace it. Lebanon is so centrally placed that even the little skirmishes along Lebanon's southern border have an effect on whether or not a general defensive strategy is in order or to be on the lookout for tactical maneuvers to be distracting while a greater threat is enhanced.
Here is irony. A definitive threat of the COVID-19 pandemic panic is, in and of itself, a distraction to what lays ahead and attempting to assess the potential of an environmentally hazardous material attack cannot play well in this hazardous military zone. But that makes sense when evaluating proxy intentions.

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