U.S. Carrier Nimitz to Deploy to Persian Gulf - 15 warships in the Gulf

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=2662256&C=america

Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz will sail April 2 to support U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. Navy said, amid a spike in tensions over Iran’s seizure of 15 British marines and sailors.
The Nimitz, and its battle group of destroyers and guided-missile cruisers, will relieve the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, which this week took part in war games exercises in the Gulf with another carrier, John C. Stennis.
The new battle group will be in position by late April, but there will be no overlap with the Eisenhower, and the number of U.S. carriers in the area would stay at two, a navy official said on condition of anonymity.
"If anything, there would be a point where there is only one in the region," the official said, on condition of anonymity.
The Stennis and the Eisenhower wound down their show of force involving 15 warships in the Gulf on March 29.
The two-carrier deployment in the Gulf was the highest level of U.S. naval presence in the gulf since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
The Nimitz will support operations in Iraq, the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan, the Navy said in a press release.
The Stennis had been operating in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea but entered Gulf waters March 27, escorted by the guided-missile cruiser Antietam, the 5th Fleet said

[mike_c]

1. awful lot of naval fire power floating around off Iran....

Just sayin'.

[seemslikeadream]

2. yea

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15582.htm

“The US and NATO countries had amassed the largest military armada in the Middle East. The US armada consists of carrier Strike Group 12 led by nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, Eisenhower Strike Group—another nuclear powered aircraft carrier with accompanied military vessels and submarines, Expeditionary Strike Group 5 with multiple attack vessels led by aircraft carrier USS Boxer, the Iowa Jima Expeditionary Strike Group, and the US Coast Guard. Canada has sent its anti-submarine HMCS Ottawa frigate to join the American Armada in the Persian Gulf. On October 1the USS Enterprise Striking Group has crossed the Suez Canal to join NATO armada at the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

The NATO force is composed of troops and naval vessels from several countries and is lead by Germany. It includes German command naval forces, Italian navy, 2 Spanish warships, 3 Danish warships, 10 Greek warships, 2 Netherlands warships, and French, Belgium, Turkish, and Bulgarian troops in South Lebanon.”

Akleh adds ominously, “This is the largest massing of military power in the region, and it is gathering for a reason.”

[woodsprite]

3. Gathering cause *co feels threatened at home. n/t

[FogerRox]

7. The USS Boxer is not an aircraft carrier

Just helo's & AV-8B Harrier's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibious_assault_ship

Boxer is 850 ft long

Stennis is 1,092 ft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Stennis

[seemslikeadream]

9. Thanks FogerRox

:hi:

I guess the Iranians will feel a little safer

[FogerRox]

13. The few things I ve seen from Info clearinghouse are usually pretty good

Yeah the Iranians will sleep better knowing that they face 35 fewer F-18's


LOL.

[CGowen]

19. Do you think the Iranian F-14's the US gave them still work? nt

[Roland99]

4. One thing we are not fed thru the M$M: # of missions flown to drop bombs on Iraq/Afg.

I can't even begin to imagine the devastation American bombs wreak every day on the Iraqi landscape and population.

[Selatius]

5. 1 carrier can hold roughly 90 to 100 warplanes. 2 carriers is pushing 200 warplanes.

Add in the fleet of B-2 stealth bombers and B-52s at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and the hundreds of land-based warplanes from Kuwait to Iraq and you have tremendous air power to use against Iran. We probably have even more warplanes stationed in Afghanistan and some Central Asian repubics.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

6. How many were in the area at the initiation of the Iraq debacle?

:scared:

[FogerRox]

14. I forget, IIRC 3 or 4 Carrier groups

Bahrain will not let us use the Air base to attack Iran, good for them.

[spanone]

8. For What It's Worth...

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

[HockeyMom]

10. Will we never learn?

I am just getting too damned old for all of this.

[blues90]

15. I don't think we will ever learn

Either we got here once again because of distraction through the years , we thought once nam was over we were done with this shit .

I really do believe the only way for man to learn how foolish and self destructive they are as well as self indulgent and greedy is for them to have their nuclear war and have the result staring them right in the face . Let them who survive it then sort it all out .

I am honesty sick of a life of worry of wars , sick of all the needless death and the enormous waste of funds on war machines all over the globe while people starve so the better off can live well and profit .

The US has been robbing countries for decades of resources and have given nothing back other than toxic waste and poverty . Look what Union Carbide did , they had a toxic release and then left . Look at Exion Valdez did and still the crap exists with no compensation and they continue to rake in the high profits .

We had years to stop the oil dependence and ignored all .

Not only have we not learned we have become even more greedy and ignorent . Bad ideas and plans end badly .

[seemslikeadream]

12. I've been waiting for something to happen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFowNFvmUxw



I've been waiting for something to happen
For a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines
And the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember
When you know that youve seen it before
Where a government lies to a people
And a country is drifting to war

And theres a shadow on the faces
Of the men who send the guns
To the wars that are fought in places
Where their business interest runs

On the radio talk shows and the t.v.
You hear one thing again and again
How the u.s.a. stands for freedom
And we come to the aid of a friend
But who are the ones that we call our friends--
These governments killing their own?
Or the people who finally can't take any more
And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone
There are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

Theres a shadow on the faces
Of the men who fan the flames
Of the wars that are fought in places
Where we cant even say the names

They sell us the president the same way
They sell us our clothes and our cars
They sell us every thing from youth to religion
The same time they sell us our wars
I want to know who the men in the shadows are
I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never the ones to fight or to die
And there are lives in the balance
There are people under fire
There are children at the cannons
And there is blood on the wire

[kath]

16. HIGHLY recommend this video! Very powerful.

[seemslikeadream]

11. Madeline Albright is talking about the warships on Hardball

right now

[formercia]

17. no money no war

The troops have money until July but without signing off on the bill, Junior runs out of cash to play.

[rodeodance]

18. Russian media reports imminent US strike on Iran

Russian media reports imminent US strike on Iran

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Friday, March 30, 2007


Russia told the United States on Thursday it must take care not to aggravate tensions over Iran with its naval presence in the Gulf, amid Russian press reports of an imminent US strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. The US Navy has this week been conducting its biggest exercises in Gulf waters for four years. The Pentagon said the war games were brought forward because of mounting tensions between Iran and Western states.

"The Persian Gulf is today in such an agitated state that any action in this region, especially one that involves the navy or other military forces, must take into account the need not to aggravate the situation even further," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

Al-Arabiyya reported on its Web site on Thursday that the Bush administration is preparing to launch a military operation, dubbed "The Sting," to strike 20 Iranian nuclear plants, disabling Iran's atomic program for at least five to seven years.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb