by Itunuoluwa Adebo
Citizens of the United States were left bewildered as the White Housewas talking about sending a naval “armada” to the Korean Peninsula, when the very ships in question were on their way to participate in military exercises in the Indian Ocean, 3,500 miles in the opposite direction.
The gross mistake was blamed on 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, also known as the East Sea, as an expected show of force to North Korea.
On April 8, US Pacific Command, which oversees military operations in the region, issued a statement saying that the 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. The announcement that the Vinson had been dispatched to the region increased tensions with Pyongyang, with its official Korean Central News Agency calling it “nothing but a reckless action of aggression to aggravate the tensions in the region.”
