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American Warships Heading to Egypt
Connecticut's newspaper The Day noted on January 24th:
Connecticut
National Guard Detachment 2, Company I, 185th Aviation Regiment of
Groton has mobilized and will deploy to the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, to
support the Multinational Force and Observers.
The unit left
Connecticut Jan. 15 for Fort Benning, Ga., for further training and
validation. The unit operates C-23C Sherpa aircraft and has deployed
three times in the last seven years in support of the conflicts in Iraq
and Afghanistan.
The unit will provide an on-demand aviation asset
to the Multinational Force and Observers commander to support its
mission of supervising the security provisions of the Egypt/ Israel
Peace Treaty.
Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times reported:
The
Pentagon is moving U.S. warships and other military assets to make
sure it is prepared in case evacuation of U.S. citizens from Egypt
becomes necessary, officials said Friday.
The Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship
carrying 700 to 800 troops from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit,
and the Ponce have arrived in the Red Sea, putting them off Egypt’s
shores in case the situation worsens.
Pentagon officials
emphasized that military intervention in Egypt was not being
contemplated and that the warships were being moved only for
contingency purposes in case evacuations became necessary.
In
addition to the Marines, the Kearsarge normally carries around four
dozen helicopters and harrier jets that would permit evacuations and
other humanitarian operations, the officials said. More than 1,000
Marines from the Kearsarge were sent to Afghanistan last month on a
temporary deployment, leaving roughly one-third still aboard, officials
said.
The Kearsarge is an attack vessel.
As Wikipedia notes:
In carrying out her mission, Kearsarge
not only transports and lands ashore troops, but also tanks, trucks,
artillery, and the complete logistic support needed to supply an
assault.
The assault support system aboard ship coordinates
horizontal and vertical movement of troops, cargo and vehicles. Monorail
trains, moving at speeds up to 600 ft/min (3 m/s), transport cargo and
supplies from storage and staging areas throughout the ship to a
13,600 square feet (1,260 m2) well deck which opens to the
sea through huge gates in the ship's stern. There, the cargo, troops and
vehicles are loaded aboard landing craft for transit to the beach. The
air cushion landing craft can "fly" out of the dry well deck, or the
well deck can be flooded so conventional landing craft can float out on
their way to the beach.
Simultaneously, helicopters are brought
from the hangar deck to the flight deck by two deck-edge elevators and
loaded with supplies from three massive cargo elevators.
Kearsarge's
armament suite includes the NATO RIM-7 Sea Sparrow point defense system
for anti-aircraft support, RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles, 25 mm
chain guns and the Phalanx close-in weapon system to counter threats
from low-flying aircraft and close-in small craft. Missile decoy
launchers augment the anti-ship missile defenses.
However, the Kearsarge has also been used in missions to evacuate people stranded in war zones. Wikipedia describes this unique dual capability:
Kearsarge is
fully capable of amphibious assault, advance force and special purpose
operations, as well as non-combatant evacuation and other humanitarian
missions. Since her commissioning, she has performed these missions the
world over, including evacuating non-combatants from Freetown, Sierra
Leone, on 31 May 1997 and rescuing Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady from
Serb-controlled territory in Bosnia on 8 June 1995. Additionally,
Kearsarge is fully equipped with state of the art command and control
(C&C) systems for flagship command duty, and her medical facilities
are second in capability only to the Navy's hospital ships, USNS Comfort
(T-AH-20) and Mercy (T-AH-19). These facilities allowed Kearsarge to
serve a dual role during the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia, as a platform for bombing missions against Serb forces in
Operation Allied Force, and as a treatment facility for Albanian
refugees in Operation Shining Hope.
The Los Angeles Times continues:
In
addition, the aircraft carrier Enterprise is in the eastern
Mediterranean. The Pentagon originally announced that the carrier was
heading through the Suez Canal for the Arabian Gulf, but the crisis in
Egypt appears to have prompted a decision to keep it in the
Mediterranean at least temporarily.
Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea (as well as the Red Sea):
The Enterprise is the longest naval vessel in the world, and is powered by eight
nuclear reactors. The Enterprise does not appear to have any dual role
for evacuations, but is simply an offensive aircraft carrier.
Therefore,
I see no clear indication that the U.S. government has affirmatively
decided to directly involve our military in Egypt. However, it is
obvious that the government is at least planning for the possibility.
Update: Business Insider notes:
A "very senior" member of the US Marine corps is telling people "multiple platoons" are deploying to Egypt, a source tells us.
There is a system within the US Marines that alerts the immediate
families of high-ranking marines when their marine will soon be deployed
to an emergency situation where they will not be able to talk to their
spouses or families.That alert just went out, says our source.
This senior Marine told our source that the Pentagon will deploy
"multiple platoons" to Egypt over the next few days and that the
official reason will be ‘to assist in the evacuation of US citizens."Our source was told that "the chances they were going over there went from 70% yesterday to 100% today."
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That's not a reasonable question, but since you clearly didn't understand the post you first replied to, I'll clarify:
This story is not indicative of a major foreign policy issue, active hostility, or ANYTHING ELSE at this point in time, because there's just nothing to it.
We announced we're moving a tiny number of troops to aid in a evacuation. No one has landed on any shores, we have not commenced any hostilities OR aid, and it's unwarranted and borderline hysterical to get upset about possible implications suggested perhaps by a hint grasped at in a case like this.
How many times did people fly off the handle about the war with Iran we almost started 50 times in the past 3 years?
I'd ask you, though, if California's government collapsed and a few hundred thousand Chinese nationals risked being attacked in the streets of LA, do you think the Chinese blue-water Navy would announce it's coming to assist?
If you use an analogy with any legitimacy you see how whacked-out nutty that comparison was.
"If you use an analogy with any legitimacy you see how whacked-out nutty that comparison was."
I was trying to figger it out too...now if it was the Swiss navy, well then, I could see it ;-)
Pro Mubarak is a Grass Roots / Marine movement... no worries, it is what is good for the people... the sheepeople of Egypt dont need freedom, they need inflation and debt spending...
Thank God the Police can shoot un-armed sheepeople un-restrained by the Army... just like in America!
Just as it should be, the Military stays out of it, and the people can take care of the corrupt Police, when there's enough of them, and their will be, if this thing doesn't stop and real soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmFnY8bM6CE&feature=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cWOK0Lfh7w&feature=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThvBJMzmSZI&feature=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzMOkrfv0uQ&feature=
Murder in the streets by the Police and nothing it done...
just like... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nNvmkFShNI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHjwXx7mvXs&playnext=1&list=PL3E8366D5512EE005
How 'bout some words instead of videos. Got any original ideas?
dont you have anti abortion signs to paint?
dont you have prayers to say, for the rapture to come and sweep you away... you fine soul, you...
How about instead of one line complaints, you offer why I am wrong and / or lying? or how my pictures and facts are just the devils work...
shut the fuck up, you are an insect...
Actually, that would be Procyonid.
This is so very very sad, our sociophatic "leaders" are insane, why can't we just stay the fuck out of others people's business. definately expediting my family's exodus from this country, I fear my children will definately see the insanity of war up close and personal and I'm not going to allow that. And forget the stupid idea of "bugging out" no matter were you go/run/hide you're always goint to be outnumbered outgunned by people/gangs with much less sense of morality that you might have. shame, what was once a great country going down the shitter fast.
Just what radical Islam wants.
Please calm down everyone. The U.S. is just sending it's largest battle ships there to drop off enough ipads to distract the people long enough until they can find a suitable puppet dictator replacement.
We should mind our own business bring all our troops home and bring this country back to what we once were not a shell of our former self
I think if we all started writing our local/federal government representatives we would at least scare the s*** out of them.
Fat lotta good that did when 95% went against the "Stimulus Package".
And not much better is coming of the Tea Party folks.
When it becomes common knowledge that legislators only listen to one or two groups of people (one of those classes not being their constituents) then maybe, just maybe, we can get some work done. Like burning shit down.
"And not much better is coming of the Tea Party folks."
The jury has not even begun deliberations my friend. No matter what happens, it can never be said it wasn't tried first in spite of all the negativity thrown at them.
Have a little faith baby ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuStsFW4EmQ
Edit;
It's my little troll that junked you...just sayin.
Sun, 02/06/2011 - 20:43
If ZH sells out?
We will know.
I don't expect it though. Call me naive, but I believe goodness is real.
Since we aren't drilling our own oil we must make sure the supply is not threatened.
Why? SUV's? Limousines? No...
FOOD
Those huge tillers, combines, harvesters, and semi's full of corn and wheat and soybean, etc. don't run on hopes and dreams nor on wind or solar or electricity.
OIL...for...DIESEL
Before too long it will be China who has subs and carriers there, then what?
Farm equipment is NOT the major cost. Look up something called The Harber Bosch process. Gaseous nitrogen is inert, it needs to be converted, at great thermodynamic cost, to ammonia so that plants and microbes can use it for amino acids and nucleic acids.
There is a natural process catalyzed by bacteria and some cyanobacteria. Some plnts have even figured out how to host these organisms so they get the ammonia. Unfortunately, the thermodynamics are what they are the natural process is not fast enough for the economic growth we needed to support our greed.
N2 (g) + 3 H2 (g) into 2 NH3 (g)
Yes, however, whatever the process the fertilizer will have weight and will need to be transported and spread over the land, and water pumped to irrigate the field.
What will the machinery that produces all our food run on?
We aren't talking about Grandpa's little tractor; we are talking about machines often as big or bigger than the city bus.
People and horses aren't working the land anymore; diesel driven heavy equipment is.
Nitrogen is NOT inert.
They're just going over to ensure a smooth transition from one crony to another.
I dunno, has anyone checked Dick Cheney's email lately?
Too bad the Egyptians are demanding an end to Mubarak's regime only to enslave themselves to a new "democratic" one. How long will it take before humans realize that the notion of good government is a fairytale?
http://www.youtube.com/user/stefbot?blend=1&ob=4#p/u/13/2vlyZLHL00g
About as long as it takes them to realize that good banks are in the same fairy tale.
Why can't we all just get along,
Kiss and Hug, and pass the bong?
Why can't we just make love, not war,
Live life large and feed the poor?
Why can't we all just get along,
Join together and sing a song?
Enjoin our limbs in gentle bliss,
Drink our wine and share a kiss?
Our grandchildren are actually paying for this and everything else - and pretty soon it will be our great-grandchildren paying. Of course if they sign up for military service at birth and have that chip implanted their portion of the debt will be forgiven.
Don't be silly. We're not paying for any of this. We haven't paid for anything for 40 years, and we certainly aren't about to start.
It's been a decades-long version of the big dinner out before the bankruptcy judgment tomorrow.
"The Big Dinner Out"...Classic!
I think you are agreeing with me....not sure?
I know we don't pay for anything...at least we don't pay with anything of real value.
We have been drunk on credit (debt) for so long that a vast majority of Americans do not understand the difference between wealth and money. We have plenty of money (debt)...but as a nation we have little or no wealth left.
We used to have wealth...and in fact, all of us (if you have been alive since the 1950's or so) inherited a massive amount of it from the previous 5 or 6 generations of Americans before us but we have pissed through it...and instead of working, creating, investing and planning ahead....we have gotten drunk, fat, stupid and lazy.
(In addition to the inheritence of wealth that we recieved from 300 years of work in the U.S. - we also have been living off of a massive inherience of energy wealth that came from 100 million years of solar energy that was trapped in the oil we have siphoned without regard and which allowed us to grow exponentially - both of these inheritences are now gone or soon will be).
So, when I say "pay" what I mean is that we are now "paying" with an uncertain future...with a broken polical system, with strife, with 50 million on food stamps, a million+ foreclosures a year, with 17% (or so) un/under-employment and with a feeling of hopelessness that is palitable. And our children will pay as well...with a naton and a world that is not stable...and with a lower standard of living (which may really be a good thing) and with a future that will be uncertain.
The sooner we just acknowledge that we are financially, politically, morally and socially bankrupt and, as a nation, accept what we are going to face...the sooner we can start to re-build. The concept of "never-ending growth" needs to die and die quickly. That is the shit that got us here...thinking that we can "grow our way" out of this mess is assinine.
This may sound like defeatism...but I almost welcome a collapse...I would prefer a world which lives within its means and where REAL VALUE is assigned to things based on the amount of labor and/or resources go into it...not based on some arbitrary number created by some fuck-stick at Goldman Sachs.
The last 40 years should be called the "Trust-fund generation". We have maintained an unrealistic way of life that has been paid for by ancient sunlight and the work of our fore-fathers. The trust-fund is just about tapped out...and we are now going to have to go out and start making a living again...
What scares me is this....look around you....do you think most of the people you run into on a day to day basis have any concept of what it means to be self-sufficient? How are these people going to survive? What will they do when there is no steak at the super-market....what will the eat? hahaha
Sorry...I didn't mean to go into another psychotic rant...I don't want to go there...I'll scare myself haha
Pretty damn good for a second wind. I'd have had to get some rest after your first one.
Get 'em tiger.
[Sorry...I didn't mean to go into another psychotic rant...I don't want to go there...I'll scare myself haha]---Shock and Awful
Yeah, I have to get a good rant out once in a while too. Gets things off my chest, and eases the anxiety.
I always hope those who post a good rant are also taking actions---even small ones---preparing for tough times ahead, i.e. preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.
Regarding our grandchildren's future. We're talking about two generations from today, are we not. They would come into adulthood in roughly 40 years. Who can know what the world will look like in 2051. Personally, I'm not very worried for our children's children. My hope is that they will grow up in a renaissance of liberty, peace, and prosperity in the US.
My worry is that many of our grandchildren will grow up without grandparents and/or parents. The Tree of Liberty...you know.
Prepare the worst and hope for the best!
Yeah, I agree, but I welcome the end of the international financial hegemony, so I don't worry about it.
I have a bit more faith in my fellow citizens than some of the other doomers around here--I believe the USA has a very real potential to be back "on top" of the global power structure if we pull an Iceland and tell the creditors to get fucked.
Honestly, despite all the dire prognostications, I don't even believe this would entail massive pain for the majority of the citizens. We'd have to adjust, and the adjustment period would involve displacement of a lot of the crap we're currently surrounded by, but I don't see any reason to believe famine/chaos/violence are necessary outcomes.
If you're one of the few thousand folks out there worth more than a few hundred million dollars, and you can't stand the idea of losing the abiilty to buy countries and fund private wars, all I can tell you is I'm sorry, but you just look like another asshole to me. And I should know, being one myself.
When you send your checks in to the IRS for taxes, who's name is stamped on the deposit.
Thats who we are paying.
We will be and are paying for the last 30 years of waste, fraud, laziness and easy credit - RIGHT NOW.
Alot of people have been saying for the last 5-10 years (increasingly) that "our grandchildren" will be paying for our lack of fiscal responsibility.
Hell....most people who actually WORK for a living (and I mean WORK in the traditional sense. "Making" money by shifting other people's money around the globe is not WORK because it creates nothing but more debt) have been, and continue to be paying for the waste, fraud, theft and short-sightedness of our nation's economic ideaology of the last 70 years - an ideology that has been applied full force for the last 40 years - and which says that if we give it all to the "investor class" and the "ultra-rich" we will all "prosper"
SERIOUSLY...WHO THE FUCK STILL BELIVES THAT SHIT?
Yet, that is how we still allow our nation, and the world, to be run - and this is the average American is so financially "fuckered"
Oh...our grandchildren will be getting a bill for our glutony alright...but they most likely will not have any wealth (NOT MONEY...WEALTH) to pay it....so, per the plan, they will be in a state of perpetual debt slavery - which is better than real slavery...because the massa's don't have to feed, clothe, take care of or house debt slaves...It is a win-win for the almighty "investor-class"
I think the only way that the world will change course is if the entire system collapses in on itself from it's own weight.
If the military can no longer be funded...if the police can no longer be funded..and if our governement - in its current, bloated and ineffecient form can no longer be funded...then MAYBE, just MAYBE...we can build something new, something equitable, and something fair out of the ashes of the current, corporatist / fascist system we now call a "democracy".
Seriously though...I far that unless and until we have a complete economic and societal collapse - both in the U.S. and the rest of the industrialized world.... NOTHING and I mean NOTHING will ever change.
To have a re-birth ...we need a death
(I know this post is about U.S. imperaialism....so sorry to ramble on..I do think that our over-sized and wasteful military, and the idea that we should be sticking our nose up everyone's ass is one of the main reasons we are fucked as a nation though..so I guess my rant does have SOME logical tie to the subject matter? - hahaha
"
You've expressed the sentiments of many who know the real score.
Whoever junked you is an asshole.
Don't worry, the laws of Nature are working on it. Simple things, like fresh water, are about to be a real problem and despite Gov. Sonny Perdue's solution (R-Georgia), "praying" for rain ain't going to cut it.
GW, good post as usual.
6th Fleet will move around and do its 'influence' thing. 26th MEU (SOC) has qualified (that's the 'special operations capable X) to perform non-combatant evacuation operations (NEO).
But the reporting is a little breathless:
Well, kinda'. A MEU is built around an infantry battalion/composite squadron and the loggies to keep everyone good. nfw can it stand up to Egyptian Army, armor/mech infantry. At the worst, the MEU would run out of bullets before the Egyptians would run out of men.
But they can run a NEO and might put in a block on the narrow part of Suez canal if necessary to transit from SoH to the Med. Enterprise group would help with the block. Still risky to transit Suez.
The 'multiple platoons' scenario only happens in a 'benign' environment.
- Ned
[ed. spelling]
[But they can run a NEO and might put in a block on the narrow part of Suez canal if necessary to transit from SoH to the Med.]---New_Meat
Thanks for the info, Meat. Every bit helps.
MEU?...NEO? WTF.too busy to write it out?
I guess I'm not "inside enough"...Oh Well "FTW"
Sorry about that, (did spell out NEO).
Marine Expeditionary Unit
26th MEU http://www.usmc.mil/unit/26thmeu/Pages/mses.aspx
My wife used to say that we could have entire conversations that sounded like they were in English, yet she couldn't understand a thing.
- Ned
Wait what? I thought we were broke. Is the international community paying for this?
WTF?
Who is paying for it?
You, your assets, your IRA, your Pension, etc. - you just don't realize it.
Oh yeah, and any born or unborn progeny and their as yet unearned taxes working at "ChiAplleOtle" serving their Chinese Overlords.
Where have you been bro? No one has to " pay" for anything. Just add a few digits on a keyboard.
Swwweeeeeeeet.
Does 2nd Hand Gunsmoke cause Cancer? Just a thought.
Gunsmoke....no.
Delpleted Uranium...YES!
DU is only harmful when made aerosol, for example in the immediate aftermath of it plowing through armor, or thick heavily rebarred concrete. But most soldiers who have survived DU rounds hitting near them will tell you that their increased risk of cancer pails in comparison to their luck at still being alive at all. Making war against the U.S. is not a good plan. It is even more dangerous to your health than breathing second hand smoke or eating saturated fats or even listening to talk radio.
you are woefully, and no doubt willfully, uninformed.
should you ever wish to learn about the use of depleted uranium, the effects it has on human bodies, including those in the military, I can recommend Dr. Doug Rokke:
http://www.amfirstbooks.com/IntroPages/ToolBarTopics/Articles/Featured_A...
if you don't like reading, try a search for him on "youtube". . .
* The Mouse That Roared Effect notwithstanding. I mean, a lot of countries around the world should thank God they were defeated and occupied by the U.S., notably Germany and Japan.
The U.S. that defeated Germany and Japan bears no resemblance to the U.S. of today!