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| Two U.S. Aircraft Carriers Head for Gulf Region |
| 2008-08-07 |
| Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times. Kuwait began finalizing its “emergency war plan” on being told the vessels were bound for the region. The U.S. Navy will neither confirm nor deny that carriers are currently en route. U.S. Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment because of what a spokesman termed “force-protection policy.” While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believes are heading for the Middle East, The Media Line’s defense analyst said they could be the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan. Within the last month, the Roosevelt completed an exercise along the U.S. east coast focusing on communication among navies of different countries. It has since been declared ready for operational duties. The Reagan, currently with the Seventh Fleet, has just set sail from Japan. The Seventh Fleet area of operation stretches from the East Coast of Africa to the International Date Line. Meanwhile, the Arabic news agency Moheet reported at the end of July that an unnamed American destroyer, accompanied by two Israeli naval vessels traveled through the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean. A week earlier, a U.S. nuclear submarine accompanied by a destroyer and a supply ship moved into the Mediterranean, according to Moheet. Currently there are two U.S. naval battle groups operating in the Gulf: one is an aircraft carrier group, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, which carries some 65 fighter aircraft. The other group is headed by the USS Peleliu which maintains a variety of planes and strike helicopters. The ship movements coincide with the latest downturn in relations between Washington and Tehran. The U.S. and Iran are at odds over Iran’s nuclear program, which the Bush administration claims is aimed at producing material for nuclear weapons; however, Tehran argues it is only for power generation. Kuwait, like other Arab countries in the Gulf, fears it will be caught in the middle should the U.S. decide to launch an air strike against Iran if negotiations fail. The Kuwaitis are finalizing details of their security, humanitarian and vital services, the newspaper reported. The six members of the GCC – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman – lie just across the Gulf from Iran. Generals in the Iranian military have repeatedly warned that American interests in the region will be targeted if Iran is subjected to any military strike by the U.S. or its Western allies. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, while there is a sizeable American base in Qatar. It is assumed the U.S. also has military personnel in the other Gulf states, TML’s defense analyst said. Iran is thought to have intelligence operatives working in the GCC states, according to Dubai-based military analysts. The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has left the Arab nations’ political leaders in something of a bind. The TML analyst said they were being used as pawns by Washington and Tehran. Iran is offering them economic and industrial sweeteners, while the U.S. is boosting their defense capabilities. Presidents George W. Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad have paid visits to the GCC states in a bid to win their support. |
| Posted by:Sherry |
| #8 they could be the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan. Heh, how appropriate. We don't have a carrier named after Mad Anthony Wayne, do we? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-08-07 23:03 |
| #7 The Germans used pictures from prewar photo albums as the basis for their reconstruction efforts at the turn of this century. By the mid '90s, there were places where one couldn't tell it had ever been bombed into rubble and rebuilt in the '50s and '60s on the cheap. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-08-07 19:36 |
| #6 Maybe the people in Tehran and Qom should be taking lots of pictures of the city these days. You know, so they can remember later how it used to look before... |
| Posted by: Hupiling the Galactic Hero1106 2008-08-07 18:55 |
| #5 If I were the mullahs in Iran I would be fantasizing out loud about what additional weapons I would like to be able to bring to bear. Heck, I'd even consider saying that we had a working nuke! |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-08-07 17:18 |
| #4 What's interesting is the number of EUro ships in the neighborhood. I believe normal announced rotations call for a very large number of vessels to be in the area in November. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-08-07 17:03 |
| #3 If I lived in Iran, I would be looking for a mile deep hard rock mine to live in. One with a lot of vertical shafts spaced far apart. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-08-07 16:48 |
| #2 If I was the mullahs in Iran, I would head for Morocco. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-08-07 16:19 |
| #1 Oohhhh, someone's been bad;) If I was Iran, I'd be digging me a nice hole in my backyard to live in. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2008-08-07 16:17 |