Steve's 2 Cents: 3 Recent Stories That Made Me Happy

This month I’ve got 3 cents worth of stories that made me happy recently.

The first is the capture of: Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a historic leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, a son of El Chapo, were arrested by U.S. authorities in Texas.

While this makes me happy, the leadership of the transnational Sinaloa cartel does not change much as Joaquin’s brother Ivan remains at the top. The conflicting stories of Joaquin making a deal with the Feds then tricking Zambada into flying into the US make me laugh.

Stop reading here if you get queasy when governments target terrorists.

The second is the death of: From AP: Hamas’ top political leader was killed by a “predawn airstrike” in the Iranian capital.

I call BS – the Israelis are not stupid. They did not fly a combat aircraft mission into Tehran. A cruise missile or a stealth drone are more likely to have thwarted Iranian air defenses.

The third is the death of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, Lebanon. This came hours before the assassination of Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Iran, for which the Palestinian group has blamed Israel.

According to Israeli military planners, Shukr had been responsible for the missile strike that killed 12 children playing football in Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday. Hezbollah, for its part, denied responsibility for the strike.

This is also the man responsible for the Marine barracks bombing in 1983.

For more on the bombing, check out: the first in a new in-depth nonfiction series examining the devastating terrorist attacks that changed the course of history from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr and Pulitzer Prize finalist James M. Scott, beginning with the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut: Targeted Beirut .