An American newspaper stressed in a report: Although the US government has intensified its rhetoric and economic pressure on Iran, it seems that in fact, the main focus on Iran in its national security strategy is shifting to Russia and China.
According to Fars News Agency, the administration of US President Donald Trump has intensified its rhetoric about Iran’s alleged threat this year. On the other hand, military officials and experts believe that the US military has reduced its presence in the Persian Gulf region and has withdrawn its ships, military aircraft and missiles. No US aircraft carrier has been replaced in the region since Theodore Roosevelt sailed from the Persian Gulf to the Pacific last March, according to the Wall Street Journal. And this is the longest time in the last two decades that no aircraft carrier has been sent to the area. “Until recently, American aircraft carriers had a permanent presence in the Persian Gulf region,” the report added, they had thousands of people and dozens of military planes, missiles and other military equipment with them. “”But the United States has not been able to fill that significant air force presence in the region lately.””
In addition, senior US military officials told the Wall Street Journal last week that Secretary of Defense James Mattis plans to try to redeploy US military capabilities outside the Middle East in October and focus on China and Russia, at least 4. It will remove the Patriot missile system from Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain. “This apparent discrepancy between estimates of Iran’s threat and the US military situation in the region stems from a variety of factors, including strategic changes in the United States and the limited equipment it faces,” the report said. The 2018 US National Security Strategy Report focuses more on China and Russia as the country’s biggest threat, it is focused on Iran.
“At the same time, scheduling support programs and upgrading US military equipment are affecting the availability of US aircraft carriers, and the US military currently lacks ships and other equipment needed to address all security threats.” According to the Wall Street Journal, “US officials have said they have sufficient military resources to deal with Iran and other countries but have confirmed that Patriot aircraft carriers and missile systems will also act as a show of strength.” “Military analysts have warned that such US military equipment will be withdrawn too much.”
“The main concern is that the President of the United States is a controversial Twitter personality, ” said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, an Iranian think tank in Washington. “If the rhetoric is not supported by a credible and tangible threat and the tangible presence of US troops, there is a danger that Iran will assess that there is a lot of exaggerated American sentiment behind these harsh rhetoric of the president, and there is no mention of American steel.”
“Supporters of US sanctions and rhetoric are the kind of deterrent that could push Iran toward dialogue, just like the president’s strategy toward North Korea,” the paper said. National Security Adviser John Bolton said last week that Washington expected “extensive changes” in Iran’s behaviour. According to the report, the Pentagon said it did not have enough aircraft carriers to send to the Middle East, Europe and Asia at the same time, and that fewer of them were available this year due to repairs, and active ships were being sent to the Atlantic Ocean. And they are calm. In addition, of the 11 American aircraft carriers, only two, the Carl Vinson and the Harry S. Truman, have been in the U.S. Army for a year. There have even been times when the US military has not had any aircraft carriers.
According to the report, US Navy officials have also confirmed that they are facing changes in strategic goals and issues related to the number of troops and the maintenance of equipment.
“Our global security environment has changed and we are in an age of great power competition … In order to compete in this new space, we need to improve our naval capabilities,”
said Navy Chief of Intelligence Greg Hicks.
Brian Clark, Senior Member of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Evaluation, which deploys US troops around the world according to the US government’s audit office, which was released in 2015, it will take about 23 years to upgrade the equipment needed by the US Navy.
He also said that the shortage of active US aircraft carriers and equipment needed by the US Navy is expected to continue for another two years and that US officials, while acknowledging this in their private circles, are reluctant to raise it. The public refuses to allow this issue to be widely reported in the public mind.
