Originally Posted by Galrahn

The US is intentionally deploying a rather large percentage of its existing operational, advanced staged development AEGIS ballistic missile defense to the Gulf region, to fight the Iraqi insurgency if you are to believe the political rhetoric. While the two ships themselves do not have interceptors, they do have the latest upgrades to AEGIS BMD, allowing them to be guidance assets in Patriot missile intercept.

I do not believe the US is going to strike Iran, in fact I find the editorial analysis of such a scenario to be a mimic of the lazy intelligence guesswork analysis performed by the CIA regarding Iraq's WMD analysis in 2003 before the Iraq war. Virtually every media editorial theory of US strike is based on the assumption of the US executing its preemption policy, and on expectations US aggression, rather than the possibility of improved intelligence capability since March 2003 in regional affairs.

The mostly defensive naval deployments of AEGIS ABM defense and additional Royal Navy minesweepers to the Gulf region is interesting, noteworthy, and most likely very intentional. It is happening for a reason, and if the reason isn't to prelude to a US strike against Iran, the other possibilities are at least as interesting.