The United States has been reinforcing the Middle East with warships and Marines, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Iran has seized two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. In turn, the United States sent a destroyer and submarine to backup the 5th Fleet in Qatar. The United States has also deployed a Marine Expeditionary Unit, a battalion sized element trained in shipborne operations.
The Pentagon has also deployed F-35 fighters to the region for the first time. Those fifth generation fighters have usually been reserved for the European and Pacific theaters, facing peer adversaries. This shows the growing power and influence of Iran.
U.S. officials have said that the American strikes had forced Iran to scale back its attempts to target American forces in the region. But Iran instead stepped up its efforts to target commercial ships in the Persian Gulf, where more than a third of the world’s seaborne crude-oil transits.
While the United States dramatically withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, the US still maintains a sizable force in the Middle East to manage other countries. Russian jets have been harassing their American counterparts in Syria, while the United States continues to maintain ground forces in Syria and Iraq.
