🇺🇸🇮🇷 America's next strike on Iran could put its aircraft carriers in the firing line.
I spoke with former Navy SEAL Matt Bracken about reports that a third U.S. aircraft carrier and thousands of Marines are heading toward the Middle East.
He sees a dangerous gamble developing.
American carriers need to stay far enough from Iran to avoid its missiles. But that distance makes launching sustained airstrikes much harder, with aircraft spending more time refueling and less time attacking.
Move the carriers closer, and they become more vulnerable.
Bracken's biggest concern is whether Iran has developed missiles capable of tracking and striking moving warships. He doesn't know if it has, and neither side is revealing its full capabilities.
But he reminded me of something worth remembering: military history is full of supposedly invulnerable weapons that suddenly weren't.
Then our conversation took an unexpected turn toward Ethiopia, Eritrea and the Red Sea.
Bracken believes another dangerous conflict is developing there, driven by Ethiopia's need for access to the sea, its growing control over Nile waters and rival regional alliances.
What struck me is how many military flashpoints are now converging around the same shipping routes.
Washington is concentrating enormous firepower near Iran while conflicts around the Red Sea threaten to become even more complicated.
And Bracken fears one serious miscalculation could turn another round of strikes into something far harder to contain.
@matt_bracken48