Wednesday, August 29, 2012

US Carrier Strike Group Rushes to Persian Gulf

Tensions continue to build around Iran.  Any ideas on what would happen if a big old battle starts around the straight of Hormuz?

The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis is being rushed to the Persian Gulf as tensions between Israel and Iran edge closer to the boiling point.  The Nimitz class carrier, with an air wing of about 90 aircraft, sets sail Monday on an eight-month deployment to the region -- four months ahead of schedule.

In the gulf it will join the USS Enterprise Strike Group, giving the United States a powerful deterrent to any Iranian attack on commercial oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz or a counterpunch to Iranian military action against U.S. military facilities in the region or those of its allies.  "It's tough," U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said to sailors recalled early from leave. "We're asking an awful lot of each of you. And frankly, you are the best I have -- and when the world calls, we have to respond."

Tehran has slammed Western powers and gulf allies for supporting the Syrian rebellion and warned of unspecified consequences. Yet as serious as those issues are, none has topped the conundrum of Iran's nuclear ambitions, which Tel Aviv views as a direct threat to Israel's very existence, an existence that Tehran's leadership repeatedly vows to end.  "The very existence of the Zionist regime is an insult to humankind and an affront to all world nations," the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying in a recent speech. "Confronting Zionists will also pave the way for saving the whole humankind from exploitation, depravity and misery."  Annihilating Israel, he said, was the duty of humankind.

Here;  http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Carrier_strike_group_rushes_to_PersianGulf_999.html

Carriers rushing to the gulf, talk of wiping out Israel, intrigue in Syria, nuclear ambitions....sounds like the making of a great book.  I wonder if anyone would read it?

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home