Marine Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Randolph Cullenbine was a military analyst for CNN Headline News. After nuclear strikes on Tel Aviv and Tehran and a third, unconfirmed one on Qom, Cullenbine offered his analysis on the situation in the Middle East. He explained that the Iranians had perceived that the U.S. had been so weakened by the Yellowstone Supervolcano eruption that they could attack Israel with impunity. Not only had the U.S. been heavily harmed economically but the volcanic ash and lava had rendered most land-based ICMBs unusable. However, the U.S. retained its missile submarines and manned bombers and so wasn't helpless. Also, Israel retained its own nuclear capability since Cullenbine's sources indicated it was their strikes and not U.S. ones. However, he also cautioned that other hot spots may come to a boil and the U.S. wasn't able to do as much about them as it could have before the eruption.[1]
