Bill Kristol is not the only one who wants America dragged into a worsening conflagration in the Middle East.
Militants who want to test American resolve and further bolster their legitimacy in the eyes of a frightened, frustrated, and weary public may want to trigger the military involvement of the United States on another front in the Middle East.
Now comes the news that the U.S. is going to evacuate Americans caught in the crossfire in Lebanon by cruise ship on Tuesday.
I don’t believe that the neocons would ever try to sabotage our rescue of Americans via a cruise liner. That would be too cynical of me — and they are ideas people, not military practitioners.
But there are players on all sides of this conflict that may find a floating, slow, and poorly defended elephant of a ship too tempting of a target. Real or contrived, any potential attack would look like a Hezbollah attack.
The U.S. is sending a navy destroyer escort — but I think that’s too little.
I sincerely hope that my paranoia about this proves to be entirely wrong, but serious planners have to be worried about sending a cruise ship, a slow moving huge target, into a war zone.
— Steve Clemons
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