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They can range the entire gulf with shore batteries along the coast in caves and other terrain where it’s hard to root them out," he added. “And when they are inside the Persian Gulf, the Iranians perceive them as being an easy target. “The Iranians don’t perceive carriers and a threat to their ability to project power because they project power through gray zone activities and terrorism - the kinds of things that carriers aren’t very good at dealing with." “It’s an asinine strategy,” said Bryan Clark, a former senior aide to the chief of naval operations and now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. “And part of that is based, and part of that deterrence is obtained by our obvious force presence in the theater - force presence that was not there in the spring of 2019 that led them to undertake the cycle of violence that culminated in January.” “It is my best judgment that we have reestablished a form of rough deterrence - what I would call contested deterrence - with Iran in the wake of the striking of Qasem Soleimani and the attack on our bases,” McKenzie said. Qasem Soleimani and a retaliatory strike from Iran on U.S.
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assassination of Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. McKenzie went on to tell lawmakers he believes that the reduction in Navy carrier presence in early 2019 and years prior may have contributed to the latest cycle of escalation from Iran that came to a head with the U.S. And I view a carrier as a critical part of a deterrent posture effective against Iran,” he said. Kenneth McKenzie told House lawmakers that the aircraft carrier “has a profound deterring affect principally upon Iran.” During testimony on March 10, Central Command head Gen.