United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently ordered the deployment of a guided missile submarine and an aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East.

This move comes at a time when tensions between Israel and Iran continue to mount. 

The announcement came following a phone conversation between Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on August 11. 

Austin stressed the Biden regime’s “commitment to take every possible step to defend Israel and noted the strengthening of US military force posture and capabilities throughout the Middle East in light of escalating regional tensions,” Pentagon Press Secretary Major General Patrick Ryder recounted on August 11 in a readout of the phone call between the American and Israeli defense functionaries. 

The readout highlighted that the defense secretary ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, with F-35C fighter jets onboard, and that Austin also ordered the deployment of the USS Georgia (SSGN 729) guided missile submarine to the Middle East. 

The US had already started ramping up its military footprint across the Middle East in the wake of Israeli assassinations in Tehran and Beirut earlier in August. 

According to a report by IRNA news on August 11, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were conducting drills in the Western part of the country that lasted until August 13. The Iranian drills took place in the province of Kermanshah, which commenced on August 9, which had the ostensive aim of  bolstering “combat readiness and vigilance,” an Iranian army source informed the agency. 

Israel intelligence operatives allegedly assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on July 31, as he was on a diplomatic visit to Iran. The previous day Israel killed a leading Hezbollah commander in Beirut. Hezbollah and Iran have both promised to retaliate in a heavy-handed manner to Israel’s perceived aggression

For once, can DC mind its own business and not insinuate itself in an unstable region like the Middle East? Unfortunately, DC is Israeli occupied territory where the Israel First lobby dominates politics much to the detriment of Middle American interests. The fact of the matter is that the US needs to be focusing more on securing its southern border and protecting the Western Hemisphere — it’s primary sphere of influence. 

The last thing the US should be doing is getting involved in the affairs of a region that is thousands of miles away, that’s no longer in the US’s national interest.