US Navy resurrects Fourth Fleet to police Latin America

[Joanne98]

Washington announced at the end of last month that it is resurrecting the long-ago moth-balled Fourth Fleet to reassert US power in the Caribbean and Latin America. Created at the time of World War II to combat German submarines attacking merchant shipping convoys in the South Atlantic, the Fourth Fleet was seen as no longer necessary after the Second World War and was disbanded in 1950.

The Pentagon’s a statement on the revival of the fleet gave a far vaguer indication of its new duties, saying it would “conduct varying missions including a range of contingency operations, counter narco-terrorism, and theater security cooperation activities.”

“Rear Admiral James Stevenson, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, said the re-establishment of the Fourth Fleet will send a message to the entire region, not just Venezuela,” AHN news reported.

The “message” began to be transmitted just weeks after Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia came into sharp conflict over a border provocation caused by the Colombian military’s bombardment of an encampment of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas inside Ecuadorian territory.

The Fourth Fleet will begin operations on the first day of July out of the Mayport US Naval Station, a nuclear facility in the state of Florida. The fleet, which will operate as part of the Pentagon’s Southern Command, will be comprised of various ships, including aircraft carriers and submarines, and will operate from the Caribbean to the southern tip of South America.

While the new naval unit does not yet possess large numbers of arms and personnel, it will be equipped and granted similar importance as the Fifth Fleet, now deployed in the Persian Gulf, and the Sixth, operating in the Mediterranean.

The thrust of this decision is to give the US Navy a far broader role than it currently plays in Latin America. While Washington can point to no imminent military threat in the region, the reactivation of the Fourth Fleet has a powerful symbolic significance, indicating a return to gunboat diplomacy.

It is a demonstration of US intentions to maintain absolute military dominance over the region, and in particular over those countries with large reserves of petroleum and natural gas, including those that are governed by supposed enemies of Washington, like the governments of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/navy-m07.shtml

[babylonsister]

1. Sure is nice that we're not spreading ourselves too thin, isn't it. nt

[Frustratedlady]

2. Perhaps they are in the area to eventually protect the Shrub?

Paraguay isn't far away.

[Shipwack]

4. lol great minds think alike....

The ships might be there to make it difficult for a group to spirit away people from "Pig Ranch South" for war crime trials...

(yeah, I know, it's unlikely, but a guy can dream.)

[Shipwack]

3. Babylonsister nails it, as usual...

Where are they going to get the ships? Navy ships and personnel are already being short cycled through deployments.

Of course, this might be a way of minting some new admirals and staff officers, then the fleet idea will be discarded after everyone gets their shiny-shinies and scrambled eggs.

Or maybe this will be used as an excuse to award a bunch of ship building contracts to Republican war-profiteers.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Byzantium tried a few times to reconquer the Mediterranean basin

Wasting its treasure and manpower in the process. In the end, it wasn't able to reestablish the Roman Empire in the region and only weakened itself.

But history has nothing to do with us. We're immune.

[TomInTib]

6. Where are they going to get the boats?

The article didn't begin to mention where the ships are going to come from.

From what I understand, our Carrier Groups are already stretched pretty thin.

Maybe this is going to be a Rummy-style Fleet. Rapid deployment, unloading a few Teams of SEALs here and there.

[bemildred]

7. There is lots of stuff mothballed here and there.

Of course it was mothballed for good reasons ...

[TomInTib]

9. Sailors don't get schooled for mothballed boats.

It's hard to retrofit a garbage can.

Hell, the parts would have to be salvaged from other rustbuckets.

I believe this is just more impotent, flag-waving posture from The Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight.

[bemildred]

10. You are right, but when did mere "reality based" considerations stop the Bushites?

For a dog-and-pony show in Latin America the boats don't have to actually fight do they?

[Arctic Dave]

8. This is what I was looking for.

"Reestablishing the Fourth Fleet, with its aircraft carriers as well as US Marine and Navy Seal contingents, provides a floating base for US interventions throughout the continent."

This is the reason for the re-emergence of thr 4th fleet. You can't destablize other countries without a base to launch from.

[cliss]

11. Rumour:

(hum to the tune of "Slip Slipping Away" by Simon).

I've heard that these last few years, the Bush administration was absolutely riveted by Iraq. They wanted it so badly, they had been trying for years to make their move. When their chance finally opened up, they have devoted almost all our resources to holding on to this country. Certainly, most of our financial support has gone to holding on to Iraq.

Meanwhile, it seems that South America has slipped out of our grip.
Sure enough, we're seeing country after country going leftist.

At this point, it's going to be too difficult to "hem in" the disobedient colonies.

Too late, baby.