Warships head to the eastern Mediterranean

[unhappycamper]

The amphibious assault ship Nassau is one of three ships headed to the eastern Mediterranean.


Warships head to the eastern Mediterranean
By Anne Gearan and Robert Burns - Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Feb 28, 2008 19:18:38 EST

WASHINGTON — The Navy is sending three ships to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters the deployment should not be viewed as threatening or in response to events in any single country in that volatile region.

“This is an area that is important to us, the eastern Med,” he said when asked about news reports of the ship movements. “It’s a group of ships that will operate in the vicinity there for a while,” adding that “it isn’t meant to send any stronger signals than that. But it does signal that we’re engaged, we’re going to be in the vicinity and that’s a very, very important part of the world.”

Another military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because full details about the ship movements are not yet public, said the guided missile destroyer Cole was headed for patrol in the eastern Mediterranean, and that the amphibious warship Nassau would be joining it shortly. The officer said a third ship would go later, but he did not identify it by type or name.

The U.S. Sixth Fleet, whose area of operations includes the entire Mediterranean, is based at Naples, Italy.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/ap_warships_med_022808/



uhc comment: Perhaps we should "surge"^TM some diplomacy instead of warships.

[Sherman A1]

1. Good Point uhc

Even the Esteemed Mr. Gates has called for an increase in the budget of the State Department. We need to get folks talking and not rely on the big stick philosophy.

[yy4me]

2. Wanted to read the rest of the article but the message is:

(clever!?)
"That page has gone AWOL"

Guess someone does not want us to read about it.

[unhappycamper]

3. The top link still works.

These guys use something called dynamic addressing. When I first started posting, I occasionally would get an AWOL link. My answer was to post links both ways.