this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2026
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The US military base in Bahrain was there for much longer than the administration. While it may have been sufficient for operations in Iraq, it makes absolutely no sense to supply an aircraft carrier operating outside the Persian Gulf from within the Persian Gulf... I don't understand how any planners thought this made sense. They knew Iran could shut off or severely endanger passage of the Hormuz straight.
How could the base resupply the Lincoln even if it wasn't destroyed? Did the US really have no logistical capabilities in the Arabian Sea? They have facilities in Djibouti and Oman.
I think we are letting Hegseth's stupidity take the fall for a clear diplomatic or military planning failure.
I agree that it's a fault with the process of military planning.
However, keep in mind that fascists etc. has the kind of leadership to ignore experts' advice, an even override their existing processes.
So while we don't actually know what exactly happened behind the scenes, it's not unlikely that Hegseth had, metaphorically, a team of military experts telling him not to charge straight into the front of the machine gun positions, but he still told them to do it "for glory". Or that this happened at a lower level, by "leaders" with the same mindset, that he put there.
They knew Bahrain was a problem and therefore moved operations to Diego Garcia, which is further away. Djibouti can be hit from Yemen, where the Iranian allied Houthis are after all. However then Diego Garcia was hit as well. They did not destroy too much, but the Navy moved logistics further away. However that would have pulled Lincoln out of combat range. Otherwise it would have to stay in place in range of Iranian missiles. Iran hitting an aircraft carrier would have been a massive issue.
So apparently they believed it was smarter to keep it in the fight, since Trump was going to end the war in a few days anyway since a few months now.
This is why the US used to avoid going to war with Iran. They knew it would turn into a shit show.
They have 11 carriers in service and no other active war. West Coast to the gulf takes 40 days. Why not exchange the carrier?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_of_the_United_States_Navy
They do with George Washington coming from Japan to replace Lincoln. Bush has done the same for Ford. Nimitz is currently sailing around the Americas as a sort of good bye journey, as she will be replaced by Kennedy soon.
The rest is training or being maintained. Generally speaking warhsips are often ordered in multiples of three. One training, one being maintained and one deployed.
You're right, it's not Hegseths fault. It's his fault + all the Republicans enabling the destruction of america + all of the dumbest people in charge, who's only qualifying feature is making Trump richer.
That’s the thing. We have a base in Djibouti.
It’s a little farther and would have taken some of the focus off of AFRICOM, but would have been a regional base outside of Iran’s capability.
And Houthis are just across the strait. Seemingly whole thing depended on USA being undisputed top dog.