"Maybe More Lifting...?" (Patreon)

"Do you even lift, bro..?"

So this is a bit dated, I admit, because the Iran-Israel exchange happened a few weeks ago. But I am interested less in the actual exchange as it happened, and more interested in the repercussions as time goes on.

Yes, this isn't a post getting philosophical about what military life is like, this time I'm jumping into some actual analysis of events.

In an Intelligence shop, it is common for the analysts to put together briefings and deliver updates about events. These may be global events, or events focused on specific areas on interest (right now, I deliver a lot of briefings about events in Kosovo and the Balkans, for example, because that's where we're being deployed to). In a training scenario, we may even give briefings about fictional events created solely for training purposes.

Analysts are sometimes allowed or even encouraged to give personal analytical interpretations of the events they prepare to brief on. Not so much an opinion about the people or events, but more of a "reading of the tea leaves" and trying to consider potential follow-on effects of a recent event or action.

All this is public knowledge, I am not sharing anything secret --in fact, the slides Juni is briefing from are all taken from online public news reporting agencies.

In this case, Juni is actually delivering, in the comic, something I myself have been contemplating since the Iranian attack on Israel. Iran did not use their most formidable ally in the attack, the "Hezbollah" organization in southern Lebanon, led by Hassan Nasrullah. They did coordinate their attack with some allies, but mostly minor proxy forces in Syria, Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen.

Of all the agencies that could be used to attack Israel, Hezbollah is probably the most dangerous and capable. They sit right on Israel's border and could --and have in the past-- overwhelmed Israeli defenses with ferocious flurries of drone & rocket attacks. The fact that they weren't invited to this party, but other proxies with little capability were, leads me to believe that this attack against Israel was simply a face-saving gesture, and not a serious attempt at damage.

I can't help but wonder if this will undermine their standing among some of their allies, such as Hezbollah, wondering if Iran is really in this or not.