Everyone from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah to President Trump seems to agree that storing 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate in the middle of a civilian city was a really bad idea. The explosion of that material last week and the horrific damage and hundreds of deaths caused by the explosion leave no room for doubt on that score.

Hezbollah has used ammonium nitrate for terrorist attacks around the world and has been caught storing it several times in Western Europe. But whether Hezbollah was responsible for the Beirut disaster is still a matter of debate for some. Yet as the most powerful political force in the country at the moment of the disaster, it’s hard to believe that the organization does not bear blame. It makes little difference whether Hezbollah’s was a sin of commission (because it actually put the stuff there and kept it there) or of omission (because, as the entity in de facto control of the country, it failed to take the necessary steps to protect the Beirut population).