US firepower pours into Middle East

It's quite like old times - under George W. The White House is sending such a potent force to the Gulf region that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard must be thinking twice about going ahead with its apparent plan to attack American troops and/or assets in Iraq and elsewhere. The mighty carrier strike force headed by the USS Abraham Lincoln is in spitting distance of the Gulf, and now another warship, USS Arlington, an amphibious transport ship, has been deployed to join the carrier group. B-52 strategic bombers have already arrived in Qatar and they are being joined by Patriot anti-missile systems. The key thing, of course, is that none of this movement of warships and bombers is being carried out in secret. It's all being announced either from the White House or from the Pentagon. It's what a US president and his military advisers love to do because it "sends a signal" to the potential adversary - Iran in this case - to watch its step and put down its guns or face the wrath of a superpower. It's a great moment for Pat Shanahan, now finally to be nominated to be the proper defence secretary, rather than an acting one. He can now feel far more confident about making decisions because everyone in Washington knows that he is, at last, the chosen one for the Pentagon job. It's like being given four stars instead of just three or two. His standing in the Washington establishment has shot up overnight. So it must have given him a real boost to announce that he was sending Patriot missiles to the Gulf to see off those nasty Iranians. That decision was actually vey easy. The boss of US Central Command had asked for them some days ago, presumably explaining that they were needed to shoot down Iranian missiles. The intelligence that everyone is talking about without giving any details must have been pretty specific: ie the Iranian Revolutionary Guard was planning to attack shipping in the Gulf and American troops in Iraq, or something ike that.Shanahan in his new role as acting but soon-to-be-nominated Pentagon chief, gave his approval to the Patriots, although if he hadn't agreed, the Boss in the White House might have withdrawn his nomination pledge haha!