Washington has just sent a second aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf, joining the rest of the fleet of American warships just south of Iranian shores. Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet said the deployment is “routine and not specific to any threat.”
Ain’t that the truth. Flooding the Gulf with warships is certainly routine and targets no actual threat. They’re there to police the world and threaten Iran.
Why menace Iran when it presents no threat to us? When Obama accelerated the deployment of warships to the Gulf in 2010, the New York Times described it as “part of a coordinated administration strategy to increase pressure on Iran” and also “intended to counter the impression that Iran is fast becoming the most powerful military force in the Middle East.” Onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz last February, BBC reporter Jonathan Beale explained, “This carrier and these [fighter] jets are more than just a show of force, they’re here to send a clear message to Iran as to who really controls these waters.”
