Thousands of Marines Head to Middle East on Navy Ship as Iran Pledges Retaliation

[jpak]

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/01/04/thousands-marines-head-middle-east-navy-ship-iran-pledges-retaliation.html

A Navy amphibious assault ship with thousands of Marines on board will skip a planned training exercise in Africa to instead head toward the Middle East as tensions there spike.

The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit will not participate in Exercise African Sea Lion in Morocco, Military.com has confirmed. Instead, the Bataan, its crew and roughly 2,200 Marines aboard are moving to the Middle East.

USNI News first reported the revised plans on Friday, the same day Pentagon officials said 3,000 North Carolina-soldiers would also deploy to the region.

The amphibious assault ship and Marines are conducting routine operations while “demonstrating the inherent flexibility of our naval forces,” Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Comer, a spokesman for U.S. 6th Fleet told USNI News. “For operational security reasons, we do not discuss future operations.”

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[mitch96]

1. Here we go again...... on towards perpetual war..

Got to keep the military industrial complex well oiled and a notch in the belt of another
"war prez"....... uffda
m

[Frustratedlady]

2. How many troops do we have in the region with this move?

Close to 100,000? There are 35,000 in Saudi/Persian Gulf alone.

I have that same sick feeling I had when our son-in-law was sent to the Gulf War.

I hope our troops are safe throughout this fiasco and I'd best not ever hear Trump boast about HIS military, again. These troops are going to be mopping up after him and he doesn't deserve any loyalty from them or us after the mess he's gotten us into.

[DURHAM D]

3. Will they stop at a Trump resort on the way?

He needs the money.

[duforsure]

4. This is so sad

Our service members putting their lives at risk for a corrupt serial liar and traitor who has lied about an imminent threat to use to murder a general for profits and political gain, and for distraction. So sad others in Congress (the GOP) have allowed this to where it is with corrupt trump.The GOP are totally responsible for their enabling trump to this point.

[safeinOhio]

5. Just in time for the

Iran, China, Russian joint exercises in the area.

[unc70]

6. Over 5,000 troops from NC

Both the 82nd Airborne and the 26th MEU are based in North Carolina.