Trump goes hippity, hoppity towards ground war in Iran as US Navy vacates Asia

(Originally published March 30 in “What in the World“) Trump now appears to be losing not only Iran, but Asia, too.

The USS Tripoli amphibious assault ship and its accompanying carrier group is in the Indian Ocean, carrying 2,500 Marines from Okinawa to the Middle East. They’ll join the 2,000 paratroopers being sent from the 82nd Airborne, several hundred Army Rangers and Navy SEALs being dispatched to the region, and the 43,000 troops already there in preparation for what Iran has warned the U.S. had better not do — invade in an attempt to find and destroy the 408kg of enriched uranium he said was destroyed in U.S. airstrikes last June. Other options include “taking the oil” on Kharg Island, as Trump told the Financial Times, or taking control of the Strait of Hormuz. The Pentagon is also considering sending an additional 10,000 troops to the region.

Those additional forces will join the crew and pilots of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group, but not the 4,500 from the USS Gerald R. Ford. After being away from its home port for more than nine months, including stints in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and the Caribbean that culminated recently in a 30-hour fire on board, the Ford on March 23 began what appears to be a retreat west across the Mediterranean.

That leaves only one carrier group in the Pacific, the USS George Washington in Yokosuka, Japan. None protect Taiwan or the vital sea lanes of the South China Sea. The USS Ronald Reagan is in dry dock in Washington State. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the USS John C. Stennis, and the USS Harry S Truman are undergoing repairs in Norfolk, Virginia. The USS Carl Vinson is docked in San Diego after returning from fighting Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. The USS Iwo Jima, which like the Tripoli is a group led by an amphibious assault ship, is in the Caribbean. Naval forces are spread so thin that the Navy has had to put the USS Nimitz, which was being mothballed this year, back into service. It’s off the coast of Mexico headed to South America.

But Trump’s war against Iran is spreading. Over the weekend, Yemen’s Houthi rebels launched missile attacks against Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered troops to seize more territory in southern Lebanon as part of its war against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Iranian missiles and drones, meanwhile, hit U.S. forces at Prince Sultan Air Base southeast of Riyadh as they continue to strike targets in Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE.

Elsewhere, tensions continue to rise. Norway said last Friday it will raise its defense spending by 115 billion Krone ($11.8 billion) over the next decade, with roughly a quarter to be spent by 2030 on weapons like missiles for its new F-35 fighters.