The United States has dispatched a carrier battle group and additional land-based air power to Central Command to watch Iran:
The Trump administration is deploying a carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East in response to troubling "indications and warnings" from Iran and to show the United States will retaliate with "unrelenting force" to any attack, national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday.
Just keep the carrier out of the Persian Gulf, okay? Because if sanctions bite too much, the target might see "peaceful" sanctions as equivalent to kinetic attacks and respond with armed means.
Speaking of potential Iranian retaliation for biting sanctions, did Hamas launch a 700-rocket barrage on Israeli civilian targets last weekend because Iran essentially ordered Hamas to do it?
The violent spasm from Hamas-run Gaza isn't just another episode in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict or merely another incident in a cycle of violence in which the Palestinians are given no agency. It is a significant escalation that tests the prevailing rules of the game with Israel where Iran is demonstrating its ability to intensify the conflict by meddling in Palestinian affairs.
Remember, Hamas has been happy to launch weekly border assaults on Israel complete with balloon incendiary bombs behind human shields that Western media dutifully describes as "protests" in a gross distortion of the attacks. Why change to obvious rocket attacks that only the really drink-the-Hamas-kookaid fanboys (and girls) will swallow as really Israel's fault?
And is Hamas happy be dangled as chum to avoid giving Israel an excuse to invade Lebanese territory to rip apart Iran's real asset Hezbollah?
UPDATE: The reason we wanted extra forces to watch Iran:
The intelligence shows that an Iranian official discussed activating Iranian-backed groups to target Americans, but did not mention targeting the militaries of other nations, the officials said.
Among the specific threats the U.S. military is now tracking, officials say, are possible missile attacks by Iranian dhows, or small ships, in the Persian Gulf; attacks in Iraq by Iranian-trained Shiite militia groups; and attacks against U.S. ships by the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
And this is fine as a general rule:
The commander overseeing U.S. naval forces in the Middle East told Reuters on Thursday that American intelligence showing a threat from Iran will not prevent him from sending an aircraft carrier through the vital Strait of Hormuz, if needed.
We don't need to and we shouldn't, to again note my post linked above.
