_4th Fleet returns, gunning for drug smugglers - Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times_ (http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/04/SATURDAYnavy_4thfleet_042608w/) mmmmm... more naval power directed at what exactly ? US military walking thru the poppy fields are ordered not to interdict opium in Afghanistan _The Associated Press: Marines ignore Taliban cash crop to not upset Afghan locals_ (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iWZXcYDoSB3_wHJJSmD6MH__8OpQD90GASN02) ; but we need new special ops fleet working with HSD and USAID and getting more involved with southern neighbors in joint programs??...mmmmm Some low lights of this new fleet 'projection' : * The fleet, Stavridis said, will be focused on preventing and responding to mass migration of refugees, as has happened in the past from Haiti and Cuba, as well as stopping the flow of illegal drugs and partnering with countries throughout the region. * “We will also seek to build the ability of the 4th Fleet to work with interagency partners like U.S. Department of State, [U.S. Agency for International Development] and Department of Homeland Security,” he said. * Navy Expeditionary Combat Command also could play more of a role in the region as part of what Stevenson calls “soft power” projection. * “We’ve had Seabees down here the past couple of years, ....Stevenson said. “We’ve also reworked our training exercises down here to have maritim e interdiction operations, diving and small-boat evolutions — things that are more brown-water than our traditionally blue-water operations.” * But it’s the Navy’s riverine warfare commands that could see an even greater role in the coming years in SouthCom. * “There’s tremendous river systems in South America where our partner nations are responsible for security,” Stevenson said. “As you know, our riverine forces are being ramped up, and in the future, I could see them operating down there in cooperative training missions where our sailors may learn as much from their river forces as they do from us.” Peace, Hugs, and Purrs Carolyn Rose Goyda Saint Louis, Missouri USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
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