The USS Cole and Lebanon

"These sort of gestures do not work around here," says Timur Goksel, a university lecturer in Beirut and former United Nations official in Lebanon. "Last time they shelled the Druze mountains. What are they going to shell this time? Dahiyeh?"

People have been writing in, asking Abu Muqawama what he thinks of the decision to deploy the USS Cole off the coast of Lebanon. Apparently people in Beirut have been really spooked by this. Abu Muqawama is not sure why. He'll leave it up to the reader to decide whether or not this gesture means anything. Nick Blanford has the best article Abu Muqawama has read so far on the Cole's deployment.