The USS Cole deployment.

The Badger recently transmitted his translation of Al-Jazeera where it quotes Lebanese opposition politician Nabih Berri (who is also president of the Lebanese parliament) as claiming that the US ME deployment of the USS Cole was designed to focus attention on Lebanon "in order to cover up the massacres being committed in Gaza". The motivations of such military deployments are often murky, but this one is especially so. The timing of the move has stirred up passions throughout the ME and have even raised eyebrows back home and since no obvious explanation for the move seems forthcoming, it will be difficult to argue down such extreme claims.