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U.S. Navy Flexes Muscles in Persian Gulf
AP via SFGate ^ | 3/27/7 | JAMES CALDERWOOD and JIM KRANE

Posted on 03/27/2007 12:49:52 PM PDT by SmithL

ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS, (AP) -- American warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth exercise meant as a message to the Iranians.

The maneuvers with 15 warships and more than 100 aircraft were sure to heighten tensions with Iran, which has frequently condemned the U.S. military presence off its coast and is in a faceoff with the West over its nuclear program and its capture of a British naval team.

While they would not say when the war games were planned, U.S. commanders insisted the exercises were not a direct response to Friday's seizure of the 15 British sailors and marines, but they also made clear that the flexing of the Navy's military might was intended as a warning.

"If there is strong presence, then it sends a clear message that you better be careful about trying to intimidate others," said Capt. Bradley Johanson, commander of the Stennis.

"Iran has adopted a very escalatory posture with the things that they have done," he added.

The exercises began four days after Iranian forces detained the 15 Britons for allegedly being in Iranian territorial waters near the northern end of the Gulf. U.S. and British officials insist the team was properly searching cargo vessels inside Iraqi waters.

F/A-18 fighter jets roared off the Stennis' flight deck all day, mounting a dozen rapid-fire training sorties against imaginary enemy ships and aircraft. A second task force with the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower also took part in the drills.

"These maneuvers demonstrate our flexibility and capability to respond to threats to maritime security," said Navy Lt. John Perkins, 32, of Louisville, Ky., as the Stennis cruised...

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bombirannow; iran; navair; usseisenhower; ussstennis
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1 posted on 03/27/2007 12:50:01 PM PDT by SmithL
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To: SmithL

bttt


2 posted on 03/27/2007 12:51:37 PM PDT by txhurl
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To: SmithL
Enemy stared down. Check

Saber rattled. Check.

3 posted on 03/27/2007 12:51:48 PM PDT by TChris (The Democrat Party: A sewer into which is emptied treason, inhumanity and barbarism - O. Morton)
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To: SmithL

Ours is a toothless navy. Fun to watch them flex in any case.


4 posted on 03/27/2007 12:52:36 PM PDT by zarf (Her hair was of a dank yellow, and fell over her temples like sauerkraut......)
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To: SmithL

Can the Iranian Navy come out and play?


5 posted on 03/27/2007 12:53:00 PM PDT by mutley
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To: SmithL

...but will they actually be used for anything more than a show?


6 posted on 03/27/2007 12:53:15 PM PDT by ElectricStrawberry (27th Infantry Regiment....cut in half during the Clinton years......WOLFHOUNDS!!!!)
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To: SmithL
F/A-18 fighter jets roared off the Stennis' flight deck all day, mounting a dozen rapid-fire training sorties against imaginary enemy ships and aircraft. A second task force with the carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower also took part in the drills.

That's one bad-ass carbon footprint!

7 posted on 03/27/2007 12:53:35 PM PDT by Night Hides Not (Chuck Hagel makes Joe Biden look like a statesman!)
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To: zarf
Ours is a toothless navy

It is?

8 posted on 03/27/2007 12:53:57 PM PDT by The Blitherer (What the devil is keeping the Yanks? Duncan Hunter for President '08!)
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To: zarf
Ours is a toothless navy.

??????????????

Please elaborate.

9 posted on 03/27/2007 12:54:05 PM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: zarf
Ours is a toothless navy.

Huh?
10 posted on 03/27/2007 12:55:39 PM PDT by Spruce
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To: SmithL

11 posted on 03/27/2007 12:55:47 PM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: SkyPilot
An entire navy can't and won't budge the Iranians. Road side bombs have claimed the will of our Congress.

We are not a superpower.

12 posted on 03/27/2007 12:56:42 PM PDT by zarf (Her hair was of a dank yellow, and fell over her temples like sauerkraut......)
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To: zarf

Those jets off the Stennis are Marines based here in San Diego.
Call a Marine toothless and your ass is grass which it probably is already.


13 posted on 03/27/2007 12:57:06 PM PDT by SoCalPol (Duncan Hunter '08 Tough on WOT & Illegals)
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To: zarf

One carrier group is like all of WW II all sides, Navy and Air Forces, together. Actually several WW IIs. That might be toothless in some book, but not mine.


14 posted on 03/27/2007 12:57:10 PM PDT by RightWhale (Treaty rules;commerce droolz; Repeal the Treaty)
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To: zarf
"....Ours is a toothless navy...."

I sure wouldn't want to get bitten by our "toothless" Navy.

15 posted on 03/27/2007 12:57:32 PM PDT by Victor (If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert." -David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister)
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To: zarf

Please share from your fount of Naval tactical knowledge.

Cast pearls before us unenlightened swine.


16 posted on 03/27/2007 12:57:39 PM PDT by ExpatGator (Extending logic since 1961.)
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To: RightWhale

We have a lot of make up work and settlement ahead boys! God Speed.


17 posted on 03/27/2007 12:58:11 PM PDT by samadams2000 (Someone important make......The Call!)
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To: RightWhale
Sink one of those ships and the Iranians have won the war.

The media and our Congress will have it no other way.

18 posted on 03/27/2007 12:58:27 PM PDT by zarf (Her hair was of a dank yellow, and fell over her temples like sauerkraut......)
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To: zarf

After the Iranians and Iraqis fought to a stalemate and we smashed the Iraqis in 90 days in 1990, they are watching with fear and trembling. We can make them toothless in a region that demands teeth.


19 posted on 03/27/2007 12:59:10 PM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: zarf

Your issue is with elected politicians, not the finest Navy the world has ever seen.


20 posted on 03/27/2007 12:59:13 PM PDT by ExpatGator (Extending logic since 1961.)
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