The situation in the Middle East could be ratcheting up to new levels, with the U.S Consular Office issuing new “guidance” to American citizens in Lebanon.

While the focus justifiably has been on Israel dealing with Hamas, and strategizing how best to begin the necessary ground invasion into Gaza, Hezbollah keeps trying to get themselves invited into the invasion party. As we all know, the terror group to the north, backed by Iran, likes to lob missiles into Israel’s northern areas just to remind everyone that they are still there, and they are still assholes. The concern has been that Hezbollah, at Iran’s direction, might open up a second front on Israel to divide their forces. Joe Biden has even addressed this possibility directly, even though his delivery was, shall we say, lacking energy.

"What is your message to Hezbollah and its backer, Iran?"

BIDEN: "Don't don't don't don't"

"Don't……. come across the border?"

BIDEN: "That's right" pic.twitter.com/3SLT2cZben

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 15, 2023

Our naval carrier strike group in the Mediterranean Sea was supposed to get a second strike group joining them. However, Secretary Lloyd Austin announced that the second group would be strategically moved somewhere else on Saturday night.

As tensions heighten in the Middle East amid the escalating Israel-Hamas war, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced late Saturday that the U.S. will redeploy one of its strike groups to the Persian Gulf, as well as send additional air defense systems to the region.

Austin also said that he has placed additional U.S. forces on “prepare to deploy orders,” but did not detail how many. Austin earlier this week ordered 2,000 troops to be prepared to deploy to the Middle East.

The latest decision followed “detailed discussions with President Biden on recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces across the Middle East,” Austin said in a statement.

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its strike group — which last weekend Austin had announced was being deployed to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to join the USS Gerald R. Ford — will instead be heading to the Persian Gulf, Austin disclosed Saturday.

Austin also said he ordered a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile battery, and Patriot missile defense system battalions, to the Persian Gulf as well.

So, with one strike group parked near Lebanon, and with one strike group being moved to park themselves near Iran, it seems like the Biden administration is at least making a show of force at the moment to back up the “don’t” warning. But in the meantime, the situation in Lebanon is apparently getting to a breaking point. The guidance from a few days ago was “please leave Lebanon as soon as possible,” along with a travel advisory to not go there. As of yesterday evening, that language had changed to “get the heck out NOW.”

U.S. citizens who wish to depart Lebanon should leave now, due to the unpredictable security situation. There are still commercial flights available, but there is reduced capacity. Please check flight options at Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport . Please monitor local media reports and follow the instructions of security and emergency response officials.

Why right now? Does the U.S. government know something about Hezbollah and Iran that we don’t at the moment? That’s always possible. But they can also read a calendar, just like the rest of us. And do you know what today is?

State Dept: “U.S. citizens who wish to depart Lebanon should leave now”

Monday is the 40th anniversary of the Beirut barracks bombing.

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) October 22, 2023

Yes. Today is the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.

At 6:22 on Sunday morning Oct. 23, 1983, a 19-ton yellow Mercedes stake-bed truck entered a public parking lot at the heart of Beirut International Airport. The lot was adjacent to the headquarters of the U.S. 8th Marine Regiment’s 1st Battalion, where some 350 American service members lay asleep in a four-story concrete aviation administration building that had been successively occupied by various combatants in the ongoing Lebanese Civil War.

Marine sentries initially paid little attention to the Mercedes truck. Heavy vehicles were a common sight at the airport, and in fact the BLT was expecting one that day with a water delivery. The truck circled the parking lot, then picked up speed as it traveled parallel to a line of concertina wire protecting the south end of the Marine compound. Suddenly, the vehicle veered left, plowed through the 5-foot-high wire barrier and rumbled between two guard posts.

Sergeant of the guard Stephen Russell was alone at his sandbag-and-plywood post at the front of the building but facing inside. Hearing a revving engine, he turned to see the Mercedes truck barreling straight toward him. He instinctively bolted through the lobby toward the building’s rear entrance, repeatedly yelling, “Hit the deck! Hit the deck!” It was futile gesture, given that nearly everyone was still asleep. As Russell dashed out the rear entrance, he looked over his shoulder and saw the truck slam through his post, smash through the entrance and come to a halt in the midst of the lobby. After an ominous pause of a second or two, the truck erupted in a massive explosion — so powerful that it lifted the building in the air, shearing off its steel-reinforced concrete support columns (each 15 feet in circumference) and collapsing the structure. Crushed to death within the resulting mountain of rubble were 241 U.S. military personnel — 220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors and three Army soldiers. More than 100 others were injured. It was worst single-day death toll for the Marines since the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima.

Within 10 minutes of the attack and a few miles north a suicide bomber in an explosives-packed pickup truck targeted a nine-story building housing soldiers from the 3rd Company of France’s 1st Parachute Chasseur Regiment. Guards shot and killed the driver, stopping the truck 15 yards shy of the building, but the terrorist still managed to trigger his device. Though only half as powerful as the bomb that had leveled the Marine compound, the second blast brought down the French barracks, killing 58 paratroopers—many of whom had been standing on outside balconies, trying to discern what had occurred at the U.S. base just down the coast.

An unknown group calling itself Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the bombings. Investigators later concluded that Hezbollah — the Iranian- and Syrian-sponsored proxy army — had organized the attacks, which were significant in two ways, beyond the appalling death tolls. For one, they signaled an upswing in terrorism that has grown steadily worse over the last three decades. The attacks also made it clear extremists had altered their tactics. For years Islamic militants struck out at the West mostly with kidnappings — the 1979 abduction of more than 60 U.S. Embassy personnel in Tehran being the most conspicuous example. With the Beirut bombings such terrorists had raised the stakes, exhibiting a willingness to kill themselves in attacks aimed at slaughtering as many Westerners as possible.

We don’t know if anything is actually going to happen today. But, as Tammy Bruce points out, we do know one thing for certain.

Islamist savages love anniversaries. https://t.co/HEmVACOqXh

— Tammy Bruce (@HeyTammyBruce) October 23, 2023

There’s a reason that Benghazi happened on September 11th. Will Hezbollah take the opportunity, 40 years after their attack in Beirut, to formally open up a northern front in the Israel-Hamas war? If they do, then this conflict should be renamed. Hamas and Hezbollah are just the patsies for Iran right now. Right now, the war is regional, confined to southern Israel (save the rocket attacks that can get as far north as Tel Aviv) and Gaza. If Hezbollah attacks, this really will become a regional war between Iran, their puppets, and Israel. And then we would be forced to find out if the Biden administration, which has continually fallen flat in foriegn policy, would have the balls to stand up to Iran, after all these years of coddling these vipers.

And we also know that Iran LOVES using American hostages to make money. Do you really think they would be above holding Americans stuck in Lebanon as leverage to get the United States to make Israel back down?

In the meantime, telling Americans to get out of foreign countries ASAP before something very bad happens is fast becoming a trademark of the Biden administration. That’s not a good thing.

Featured image: flag of Lebanon via Shahen books on Wikimedia Commons, cropped, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0 DEED)