Posted on 12/12/2002 11:36:47 AM PST by mdittmar
The U.S. aircraft carrier George Washington and its battle group have begun steaming back to the U.S. East Coast, the Navy said on Thursday, a move analysts said made a large-scale U.S.-led attack on Iraq less likely in the near future.
"They have begun their transit of the Atlantic for return to the home port of Norfolk next week," said Lt. Fred Kuebler, spokesman for the U.S. 2nd Fleet, the command in charge of Navy units on the East Coast.
The move leaves the Abraham Lincoln carrier battle group in the region. Two others are en route, the Harry S. Truman and the Constellation. The whereabouts of a fourth, the Yokosuka, Japan-based Kitty Hawk, were not immediately clear.
The Washington's homeward leg coincides with a Bush administration effort to carefully examine Iraq's detailed response to the recent U.N. resolution on weapons of mass destruction and an apparent willingness to let the arms inspection process run its course for the time being.
President Bush has vowed to go to war if necessary to wipe out any remaining Iraqi nuclear, chemical or biological weapons programs.
The Washington passed through the Straits of Gibraltar en route from the Mediterranean after a six-month deployment, the Navy said. This removed 70 to 80 warplanes that could have been used in an attack, plus the group's combined total of 400 or so long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, the Navy's land-attack weapon of choice.
"That's an indication that a full-out invasion is less likely to occur in the next several months," said Stephen Baker, chief of staff for operations and plans for the Theodore Roosevelt battle group during the 1991 U.S.-led war that drove Iraqi invaders from Kuwait.
Baker, a retired rear admiral now at the private Center for Defense Information in Washington, said the U.S. military would want four or five carriers in the region before launching an attack "at the minimum."
NO DECISION ON TIMING OF ATTACK
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Tad Oelstrom, who heads the national security program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, said the rotation out of the region suggested no decision had been made on the timing of a possible attack.
"That's a reasonable thing to derive out of this situation," added Oelstrom, who commanded U.S. air forces in the Gulf region in 1992, when the United States and its allies imposed "no-fly" zones over northern and southern Iraq.
"The next few weeks probably look like it's reasonably safe" that no attack will begin, he said.
A Pentagon spokesman, Marine Lt. Col. David Lapan, cautioned against reading too much into any one piece of U.S. military movements.
"We have more than enough military assets in the region to handle any contingency," he said. "The position of one particular piece of the overall military readiness doesn't affect the whole."
Even once it has returned to its home port, the Washington could be quickly "surged" to rush back to the region, possibly along with the Nimitz, the next scheduled carrier departure from the U.S. West Coast.
For a further indication of possible U.S. war plans, experts are now turning to the Lincoln, which left its home port of Everett, Washington, in July, and is scheduled to return home next month.
Under standard Navy procedures, a returning battle group enters a 30-day "ready surge" period during which it may deploy on short notice for any contingency.
Such battle groups are considered to have just come off the peak of their readiness as a result of constant drills and training while at sea, Kuebler said.
The Washington will return to Norfolk, Virginia, on Dec. 20, Navy officials said. It was relieved by the Truman, which left Norfolk Dec. 5 for a scheduled six-month deployment to the region.
The Washington wrapped up its last full day of flight operations in the Mediterranean on Sunday, apparently gliding through the straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic at night with its lights off to avoid detection.
Yeah, maybe the order was to head for home, but go real slowly.
It only take a few days to go back there from Norfolk. This is not a big deal.
Bingo
And, ANOTHER one takes IT'S PLACE. It's called "rotation", and it's been practiced forever. Besides, Reuters is not the most reliable of news sources. It's the same news org that calls the terrorist...Freedom Fighters.
I have this warped vision of the battlegroup commander talking to a shop steward.
"No, no, Admiral, I know our boys want to kick Iraqi butt, Heck, I do too, but we're at shift change, and the union rules say we gotta go home and let the next group have a chance. Now, don't sweat it, I'm sure that if something happens, we can get overtime approved, but that's a decision between the union and the SecDef, and we don't stick our noses into that decision unless we want 'em to get punched, you just do NOT mess with the union."
Sigh. You gotta love reporters. Last week: Two, possibly three carriers within striking distance of Iraq. Next week: Three, possibly four carriers within striking distance of Iraq. And this would be a sign that war is less imminent how, exactly? At best it means we're not going to invade this week—wow, way to stay in front of the story, guys, I would never have guessed that.
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