Aircraft Carrier Wasn't Sailing to Deter North Korea, as U.S. Suggested
Source: New York Times
By MARK LANDLER and ERIC SCHMITT APRIL 18, 2017
WASHINGTON — As worries deepened last week about whether North Korea would conduct a missile test, the White House declared that ordering an American aircraft carrier into the Sea of Japan would send a powerful deterrent signal and give President Trump more options in responding to the North’s provocative behavior.
The problem was, the carrier, the Carl Vinson, and the four other warships in its strike force were at that very moment sailing in the opposite direction, to take part in joint exercises with the Australian Navy in the Indian Ocean, 3,500 miles southwest of the Korean Peninsula.
White House officials said on Tuesday they were relying on guidance from the Defense Department. Officials there described a glitch-ridden sequence of events, from a premature announcement of the deployment by the military’s Pacific Command to an erroneous explanation by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis — all of which perpetuated the false narrative that an American armada was racing toward the waters off North Korea.
By the time the White House was asked about the Carl Vinson on April 11, its imminent arrival had been emblazoned on front pages across East Asia, fanning fears that Mr. Trump was considering a pre-emptive military strike on North Korea. It was portrayed as further evidence of the president’s muscular style two days after he ordered a missile strike on Syria while he and President Xi Jinping of China were finishing dessert during a meeting in Florida.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/world/asia/aircraft-carrier-north-korea-carl-vinson.html?emc=edit_na_20170418&nl=breaking-news&nlid=57435284&ref=headline
= new reply since forum marked as read
(but can track a tiny cell phone to a tower)
the world can't keep up. It makes our heads spin.
Ordering missile strikes over chocolate cake. Faking out foreign nations with false ship movements.
Sure Donny, go on with your bad self.
I deserve it.
Despite talk of a military strike, Trump’s ‘armada’ actually sailed away from Korea
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The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson transits the Sunda Strait between the Indonesian Islands of Java and Sumatra on April 15, 2017, after the U.S. Navy announced it had sent a carrier-led strike group to the Korean Peninsula in a show of force against North Korea's "reckless" nuclear weapons program. (Mc2 Sean M. Castellano/AFP/Getty Images)
By Simon Denyer and Emily Rauhala April 18 at 11:18 AM
BEIJING — As tensions mounted on the Korean Peninsula, Adm. Harry Harris made a dramatic announcement: An aircraft carrier had been ordered to sail north from Singapore on April 8 toward the Western Pacific.
A spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command, which Harris heads, linked the deployment directly to the “number one threat in the region,” North Korea, and its “reckless, irresponsible and destabilizing program of missile tests and pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability.”
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters on April 11 that the Carl Vinson was “on her way up there.” Asked about the deployment in an interview with Fox Business Network that aired April 12, President Trump said: “We are sending an armada, very powerful.”
U.S. media went into overdrive, and Fox reported on April 14 that the armada was “steaming” toward North Korea.....................
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/despite-talk-of-a-military-strike-trumps-armada-was-a-long-way-from-korea/2017/04/18/e8ef4237-e26a-4cfc-b5e9-526c3a17bd41_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_nkorea-840am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.0b58b346cdb0
Seems to me the initial 'miscommunication" was the Overstatement and bragging by Trump!
Official: White House, Pentagon miscommunicated on aircraft carrier's location
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/politics/carl-vinson-korea-trump/index.html
By Jim Acosta and Ryan Browne, CNN
Updated 6:02 PM ET, Tue April 18, 2017
Official: Miscommunicated US 'armada' location
Story highlights
Trump highlighted the deployment as part of the administration's response to Pyongyang
But when the White House was touting its "armada," the ships were sailing 3,500 miles in the opposite direction
(CNN)As the White House was talking about sending a naval "armada" to the Korean peninsula, the very ships in question were on their way to participate in military exercises in the Indian Ocean, some 3,500 miles in the opposite direction.
A senior administration official blamed a miscommunication between the Pentagon and the White House over reports that the aircraft carrier has not made its way to the Sea of Japan as an expected show of force to North Korea.
The official blamed the mixup on a lack of follow-up with commanders overseeing the movements of the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier.
On April 8, US Pacific Command, which oversees military operations in the region, issued a statement saying that the USS Carl Vinson and an accompanying strike group would leave Singapore and head to the Western Pacific, with a US military official telling CNN that it was a "show of force" in response to North Korea's provocations.
Following the announcement, President Donald Trump and some of his top aides highlighted the deployment as part of the administration's response to Pyongyang's recent missile tests.
"We are sending an armada. Very powerful. We have submarines, very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier, that I can tell you," Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network....................
