Tripoli, Lebanon, or Links in Blogger Comments Don't Work

View August 2013 in a larger map
Stu doubted the veracity of the caption on an earlier post, claiming that Tripoli is in Libya (from the shores of Montezuma ...) and not in Lebanon. I hadn't even noticed. He is right, Tripoli is in Libya, but he was also wrong, because there is a Tripoli in Lebanon as well. Not nearly as big, and not nearly as well known (obviously), but it's still there none-the-less.
    Since I went to trouble to check it out, I thought I would put a link to a map in my reply. After all Blogger says

You can use some HTML tags, such as <b>, <i>, <a>

    Well, the only use I know of for the  <a> tag is for making links. So while it's a bit tricky, I've put in enough links to know the basic syntax, so I do.
    This morning I am making my rounds and I notice that - gosh darn it - the link I so carefully hand crafted doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't work not because I made an error in typing it, but because blogger switched it out to point at nothing. So that's why we have a map of Lebanon today.
    All of which leaves me wondering what the heck the  <a> tag is good for.