ONWARDS TO VICTORY....

ONWARDS TO VICTORY. Via Steve Clemons' The Washington Note I see that former National Security Council official (and occasional TAP contributor) Flynt Leverett is following the same line of thinking as the Jon Soltz analysis I pointed to yesterday about what current U.S. troop movements portend. Said Leverett:

The deployment of a second carrier strike group to the theater -- confirmed in the speech -- is clearly directed against Iran. Since, in contrast to previous U.S. air campaigns in the Gulf, military planners developing contingencies for striking target sets in Iran must assume that the United States would not be able to use land-based air assets in theater (because of political opposition in the region), they are surely positing a force posture of at least two, and possible three carrier strike groups to provide the necessary numbers and variety of tactical aircraft.Similarly, the President's announcement that additional Patriot batteries would go to the Gulf is clearly directed against Iran. We have previously deployed Patriot batteries to the region to deal with the Iraqi SCUD threat. Today, the only missile threat in the region for the Patriot to address is posed, at least theoretically, by Iran's Shihab-3.

Oy.

--Garance Franke-Ruta