Another 10,200 American troops are heading to Iran, apparently to persuade Iran to agree to U.S. terms in peace talks during the two-week ceasefire that ends next week.
But yet another reason, The Washington Post explained in its report on the deployment, is staging more forces there for a ground invasion of Iran.
Already, 50,000 Americans are in the region. Their latest mission: blockading the Strait of Hormuz to squeeze Iran economically.
The deployment coincides with today’s vote in the U.S. Senate not to block Trump from continuing to attack Iran.
Some 6,000 Americans are headed to the region on the USS George H.W. Bush, officials told the Post, along with “4,200 others with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group and its embarked Marine Corps task force, the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit,” which will land there “near the end of the month.”
The newly-arriving forces will mean three aircraft carriers and their contingent of jet fighters and other aircraft are now in the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R. Ford are the others.
“The USS George H.W. Bush was close to the Cape of Good Hope, near South Africa, on Tuesday and expected to make an unusual hook around the bottom of the continent on its way to the Middle East, two officials familiar with the matter said,” the Post reported. The Boxer Amphibious Ready Group, which comprises three ships, left Hawaii last week, and included an infantry battalion of more than 800 Marines.
On Sunday, after U.S. negotiators led by Vice President J.D. Vance failed to force Iran to bow to U.S. demands to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end its nuclear ambitions, President Donald Trump announced a blockade of the strait.
U.S. warships in the Abraham Lincoln’s Strike Group are executing the blockade, U.S. Central Command reported today, and vessels are patrolling the Gulf of Oman.
Hellbound and Down 