Interesting times, part XXVII

Posted By lex, on January 22nd, 2007

The aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, sailed from San Diego this weekend, diverted from its scheduled WESTPAC deployment to the Arabian Gulf. She was accompanied by San Diego homeported escorts, including the guided missile cruiser Antietam and the guided missile destroyer Preble :

The Stennis and its supporting ships are expected to reach the Persian Gulf in about a month, joining the Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier strike group. It will be the first time since the 2003 invasion of Iraq that two U.S. carrier battle groups are stationed simultaneously in the gulf.

Meanwhile, Ol’ Beady Eyes – under attack on several domestic fronts for spending more time and money on pet causes such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and pet rocks such as Hugo “Don’t call me ‘Hew-go’” Chavez in Venezuela than on his faltering economic policies at home – is eschewing offers to take a the de-escalatory off ramp and planning additional missile tests in the Persian Arabian Gulf:

Determined not to budge under pressure, Iran announced new tests of short-range missiles Sunday, and hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed criticism that the country’s economy has been hurt by U.N. sanctions imposed for its suspect nuclear program…

The deployment appeared to alarm some in Iran’s hardline leadership, including a member of a powerful cleric-run body who warned last week that Washington plans to attack, possibly by striking Iranian nuclear facilities. U.S. officials have long refused to rule out any options in the faceoff with Tehran, but say military action would be a last resort.

Hopefully, Ol’ Beady Eyes is better at managing the approaches to hostilities than he is at understanding markets – that same Time article excerpted above closed by quoting the Iranian president as saying that “”We assume enemies want to damage us by decreasing the price of oil,” a power his “enemies” only wish they had – because while our nation building capacity is pretty much maxed out right now, our nation taking apart capacity is largely sitting idle.

Interesting times.

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