Why The U.S. Navy Moved Aircraft Carrier Out of The Persian Gulf

The Lyft driver who brought me home from the city one night last week had served in the Persian Gulf three times while in the U.S. Navy. We had plenty to talk about for 25 minutes. He told me that the reason we moved the USS Theodore Roosevelt out of the Gulf recently was because of the Russians firing cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea into Syria. He said the U.S. had been caught off guard by the range of those missiles, so the aircraft carriers had to be moved out of their range.

Rubbish, I said. Putin would not send a cruise missile to attack an American aircraft carrier. There are missiles in every country in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea and so forth, and none would fire away at an aircraft carrier of the strongest navy on the planet.

He asked me to recall the reports that a few of the Russian cruise missiles supposedly failed, fell into Iran. Yes, I heard and read about it, and also read the denials. I saw a couple photos of holes in the ground that looked like they'd been dug by a couple kids playing with shovels. I didn't see remnants of crashed missiles, not one shard. I don't know the truth, but I'm sceptical of Pentagon leaks and claims about it, and anything that comes out of the mouth of Andrea Mitchell or anybody she gives the okay for an appearance on MSNBC to talk about anything relating to the Middle East.

Lyft driver then suggested that the U.S.N., in an abundance of caution, moved the carrier out of the Gulf in case a wayward Russian cruise missile accidentally falls out of the sky right onto the flight deck and kaboom.

I guess he forgot that the U.S. military would shoot that errant bugger down before it got close, but my ride was over at that point and so was out chat.

Then today I read in The New Khalij that a former Lebanese minister and head of a political party -- a man who must have been sleeping for the past few years -- said that Doha would be bombarded with rockets if it joined with the Saudis and Turks, intervening in Syria militarily in support of the terrorists of Ahrar Ash-Sham and other head choppers.

Now there is a reason to move a U.S. aircraft carrier out of the waters of the Persian Gulf. We must watch out for errant Lebanese missiles on their way to Doha.