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March 28, 2023 | 11:18 PM ET

The Uneasy Balance between Care and Provocation

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May 5th, 2020 by Walter Pincus, | 0 Comments

OPINION — This past March and April, US Naval Forces attached to Central Command carried out live fire exercises in the North Persian Gulf’s international waters near Iran, using Army Apache helicopters and AC-130 gunships to practice defense against threats from swarming Iranian speedboats.

Such a US exercise was underway on April 15, when 11 armed speedboats operated by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps came within close range of six US Navy vessels including the USS Lewis B. Puller, an expeditionary mobile base vessel from which the Apache helicopters were landing and taking off. The US Coast Guard patrol boat Maui was among the accompanying ships that “identified simulated targets for the attack helicopters to engage,” according to an April 15, 2020 press release from the US’ 5th Fleet Public Affairs.

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Warning Signs of a More Dangerous Global Conflict

BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT — If President Joe Biden’s recent remarks in Poland and President Vladimir Putin’s in Moscow just a day later are any indication of the path forward, the February 24 anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine may represent the beginning of a new and potentially much more dangerous phase of the conflict, which is increasingly looking like a conflict between NATO and the Russian Federation.

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