Thursday, April 20, 2017

White House Defends How It Described Aircraft Carrier Movements During Last Week's Heightened Tensions With North Korean



Washington Post: Trump administration defends how it described ship movements amid North Korean tensions

Trump administration officials on Wednesday denied misleading the public about the location of an aircraft carrier and whether it was redeployed as a show of strength against North Korea.

The whereabouts of the USS Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, and its accompanying strike group were swept up last week in an intensifying standoff between the United States and Pyongyang, which Washington has warned is risking American military action by pushing ahead with its disputed nuclear and missile programs.

As North Korea escalated its war of words with Washington, President Trump declared last week that he was “sending an armada, very powerful” toward the Asian nation. He, like other officials, made that assertion after U.S. Pacific Command’s April 9 announcement that the ship was headed from Singapore toward the western Pacific, part of a U.S. response to tensions with Pyongyang.

Read more ....

More News On The White House Defending Its Description Of Aircraft Carrier Movements During Last Week's Heightened Tensions With North Korea

Pentagon Quietly Corrects Mattis Statement About the USS Vinson -- NBC
North Korea: Pentagon addresses confusion over strike group -- BBC
U.S. defense officials may have spoken too soon, but Trump’s missing ‘armada’ finally heading to Korea -- Washington Post
White House defends portrayal of 'armada' push toward Korean peninsula -- Reuters
US: Naval Strike Force Now Headed to Korean Peninsula -- VOA
Timeline of administration's statements shows confusion about location of US aircraft carrier -- ABC News
Donald Trump's North Korea 'armada' gaffe was dangerous buffoonery -- Richard Wolffe, The Guardian
The Mysterious Case of the Wayward Aircraft Carrier -- Phillip Carter, Slate

5 comments:

fazman said...

The media ran their own version of events, how is that the fault of the whitehouse? .
Still ot has probably emboldened kim again, blah blah blah America bluff again , now l really do test.

fazman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jay Farquharson said...

https://www.balloon-juice.com/2017/04/19/annals-of-strategic-communication-the-carl-vinson-task-force-miscommunication/

"How did all this miscommunication happen? Simply put – there are almost no political appointees at the Pentagon (or anywhere else in the US government) right now. Secretary of Defense is, essentially, working without a team. He has no deputy, under, assistant deputy, and deputy assistant secretaries, nor does he have any directors, deputy directors, and/or special assistants at the Department of Defense – though several designees have been named for some of these positions. He also does not have any Service Secretaries in place – though we have have three designated nominees. And none of the deputy, under, assistant deputy, and deputy assistant secretaries, nor does he have any directors, deputy directors, and/or special assistants at each of the Services. All the Secretary of Defense has is whichever Trump campaign and transition personnel are on the DOD and Service Beachhead Teams – none of whom have been chosen by Secretary Mattis. Right now you have a DOD Secretary, the DOD and Service Beachhead Teams from the transition, and then the career civil servants (both Senior Executives and General Schedule) and uniformed military personnel. Basically the entire layer of politically appointed managers, senior to junior, are completely missing. As a result, things are going to fall between the cracks, such as the exact nature of Admiral Harris’s FRAGORD to reposition the Carl Vinson Task Force."

Doesn't bode well for a "shooting war",

Didn't work well for "War Theater" either.

War News Updates Editor said...

I have always believed that the U.S. is most vulnerable in the first year of a new administration. Everything is in flux, and the individuals who are in these positions of power will need a year to know the what and how things are done.

Jay Farquharson said...

Normally, previous appointees stay until their replacements are appointed, confirmed and brought up to speed.

Normally, Administration's take office with their nominee lists full, and average 29 confirmations a day.

Hair Furour fired all the political appointees effective day one, and took office with only 3 Pentagon nominee's on his bucket list, 289 Pentagon positions still don't even have nominees.

It's akin to taking over a Company, firing all Senior Staff and Middle Management, and leaving the offices empty for three months and counting.

LMFAO