The Buildup to War

From the Jerusalem Post:

A US Navy strike group led by the assault ship USS Bataan steamed through the Suez Canal on Tuesday on its way to join the buildup of American forces in the Middle East...

The Navy is in the midst of a regional buildup, with the group of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis on its way as well as 21,500 US soldiers being sent to Iraq. The carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is already in the region.

The United States has not had two carriers in the Mideast since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The Bataan will join a second amphibious assault ship, the USS Boxer, which was on port visit in Dubai on Tuesday.

Brown said the Pentagon recently extended the tour of duty of the Boxer's US Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is in Iraq.

Emphasis mine. We have 2 carriers there for the first time since the invasion. We are bringing up a strike force with amphibious assault capability. Why? Here is what the official claim is:

The Bataan is on a routine six-month deployment to the region to conduct "maritime security operations" which includes boarding and searching ships suspected of carrying terrorists or nuclear components to Iran, the Navy said.

Oh, yeah..."maritime security operations." That reminds me of a time a friend of mine claims he saw SWAT teams sealing off a road in the Hollywood Hills with lots of heavily armed officers deploying. He stopped and asked one officer in the back what was going on. The response: "Just routine."

Let's also keep in mind this latest development (from the LA Times via Guysen.Isra×›l.News

The United States is intensifying its pressure on Iran. According to the Los Angeles Times, American fighter planes will soon start to survey the Iraqi-Iranian border in order to spot and neutralize if necessary, Iranian convoys of explosives to Iraqi Shiite militias. This measure comes after the dispatch of the second American aircraft carrier ship to the Persian Gulf. President Bush said that he has no intention of invading Iran.

This kind of thing is almost bound to create "border incidents." Remember, even Germany claimed Poland was the aggressor due to "border incidents."

Bush really seems to be planning something big. And given the horrible failures of all the other big thing he has "decided" to do, I can only expect the worst.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

| | | | |