Reading tea leaves may be possible, sometimes.
It seems that recent major events were foreshadowed by seemingly unconnected items that in retrospect were truly connected.
Here are two items that made me sit up and notice, but were not publicly connected.
* June 9, 2025: Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the US was diverting 20,000 missiles promised for Ukraine to the Middle East.
* June 11, 2024: US reduces the presence of staffers not deemed essential in the Middle East as tensions rise.
Both of these events seemed unconnected, but in view of the subsequent Israeli attack on Iran on June 13 and Iran’s response, these two seemed to presage the outbreak of hostilities.
When I first heard about missiles being diverted from Ukraine, I wondered, what and where in the Middle East preempted the Ukrainian need for missiles? I considered some possibilities, but with limited information available, at the time it could only be a guess.
When non-essential personnel were withdrawn from the Middle East “as tensions rise”, I wondered, what rising tensions are they talking about?
These questions were answered on Friday June 13 when Israel attacked Iran and Iran responded in kind. It became obvious that advance notice of Israel’s attack had been circulating in US military channels.
American personnel in the Pentagon decided to stay late and order pizza just before Israel’s attack on Iran. Anyone monitoring activity in the Washington area might have perceived that something was up.
And This All Means…
No conclusion can be made from the above, other than to say keeping alert and having one’s options open are always appropriate. (These seemingly disconnected events could be strung together to make a good espionage plot, something in the vein of Eric Ambler’s novels.)
Unfortunately, regardless of hints and signs, the suffering of civilians caught in state violence seems to never end.
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The photo shows two trees. Between the two trees on a hill in the distance is a pagoda-type temple.
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