In a Navy Times article posted late Thursday afternoon Reporters William H. McMichael and Christopher P. Cavas announce that the Aircraft carrier John C. Stennis is preparing to leave for the Persian Gulf as early as the first week of January and that the 5th Fleet confirmed that a “Request For Forces” (RFF) had been received.
http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2438831.php "A 5th Fleet spokesman confirmed that a “request for forces,” or RFF, has been sent to the Pentagon by U.S. Central Command.
“I’m aware that they’ve put out an RFF requesting strategic military assets to be moved to this region,” said Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl. He said additional ground forces had also been requested. He declined to comment on specific units.
Aandahl emphasized that at this point, none of the additional forces would be tasked for a specific mission. “They’d be used as the situation requires,” he said. Additional naval forces would be deployed “throughout the region to meet emergent threats.”
Another Navy official concurred. “There are many competing priorities in that region,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity."
The article suggests that in addition to the Stennis that the Kitty Hawk, Enterprise and Ronald Reagan are also available to be sent to the Persian Gulf at a moments notice and that the Nimitz would only have to complete flight deck certification training to be available, which could be completed while sailing to the Gulf.
Also mentioned in the Navy Times article is that the sources for the proposed additional deployment to the Gulf was a “Senior Defense Official" and that the New York Times reported that the U. S. and Britain “will begin moving additional warships into the Persian Gulf region in a display of military resolve,”
Wednesday in my D.U. Journal entry “Alternative reasons for the “Surge” in Iraq and the Proposed Naval Buildup in the Persian Gulf” I suggested that there were several clues pointing toward a confrontation with Iran in the coming weeks. Deploying another Carrier Strike Group to the gulf is more than a clue.
Iran has a fleet of more than a thousand anti-ship cruise missiles which are reported to have a range of 100 miles. The Persian Gulf is only about 40 miles wide at the entrance to the Gulf.
Iran’s mountainous and sparely populated gulf coast shoreline is ideal terrain to hide those missiles.
If America does launch attacks on Iran, Tehran and most of Iran’s industrial infrastructure is located more than 500 miles inland. U.S. pilots would have to fly over hostile territory for over a thousand miles on every sortie.
Iranians also occupy many vital posts throughout the Middle East’s petroleum industry. Sabotage to that industry would be devastating. A Blogger SailorSam posted about his experiences in the gulf aboard tankers, he pointed out that the insurance carriers for the tankers could shut down the shipping through the gulf just as easily as the Iranians could.
As I tried to point out Wednesday Bush is cornered, America’s voters are fed up with Iraq, the democrats now control the Congress, and Iran now dominates the Islamic portion of Middle East. If Congress begins to exert their power over Bush his window of opportunity to call all the shots is about to slam closed. I expect he will present the new Congress a fait’ accompli with an attack on Iran before they have time to reestablish their role as a co-equal branch of government.
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