8 hours agoThe United States withdraws the last aircraft carrier from the Pacific while Trump focuses on Iran, Western Hemisphere. The United States is moving its last aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific toward the Middle East as the Iran war puts increasing pressure on the Navy’s fleet and crews. The USS George Washington is leaving the Pacific and is expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose deployment has been repeatedly expanded to support operations against Iran. The move will temporarily leave the region without a US aircraft carrier as China steps up military activity around key US allies. Analysts say the change underscores the broader cost of open conflict with Iran, which is stretching aircraft carrier deployments, raising concerns about sailor fatigue and potentially creating years of maintenance delays. “The administration says the Pacific is supposed to be the most important one behind the Western Hemisphere,” said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Instead, the United States is “doing the exact opposite” of its previously expressed goal of withdrawing from the Middle East, he added. No one expects China to invade Taiwan because a U.S. aircraft carrier has left the region, but the carrier’s absence gives the Chinese another chance to show their strength, according to Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner who is a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute. “They are using this as part of the narrative to demonstrate to the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia and others that the United States is not the big dog in the West.” Pacific,” Clark said. “They would simply prefer that countries in the region decide that China is the largest power and that the United States can no longer guarantee their security.” Frank Bradley, head of the US Special Operations Command, has been trying to reassure regional allies about Washington’s commitment. He was in Manila on Thursday and told his Philippine counterparts that US special operations forces are ready to step up joint exercises to strengthen the alliance between the countries. He is also expected to travel to Japan. “We have the ability to project force, the United States, anywhere in the world,” Bradley told The Associated Press. “And when the threat in the Middle East region has been addressed, we will redeploy and reorient that force and we will be able to project that force wherever it is needed.” “I also have a lot of confidence in the ability of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to protect their sovereignty here and that we will stay close to them,” he said. AP contributed to this report.
