At some point, the United States quietly abandoned a policy that had served global stability for decades: maintaining a continuous U.S. carrier battle group presence in or near the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
No announcement.
No debate.
Just withdrawal by neglect.
That decision was a strategic error—one whose consequences we are now living with.
The Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean are not abstract geopolitical concepts. They are economic lifelines.
A significant share of the world’s oil supply moves through these waters, and freedom of navigation there is essential not only to U.S. prosperity but to global stability.
When the United States maintains a visible, credible naval presence, it deters aggression, enforces sanctions, and reassures allies. When it does not, adversaries fill the vacuum.
Since 1979, the Islamic Republic of Iran has existed as an occupying regime imposed on its own people.
For nearly half a century, it has exported terror across the Middle East and beyond—targeting U.S. forces, destabilizing sovereign nations, and threatening freedom of the seas.
From attacks on American servicemembers in Lebanon to proxy warfare across the region, Iran has shown us exactly who it is and what it does when unchecked.
The regime’s ability to fund this terror depends heavily on oil revenue.
Denying Iran unrestricted access to the Persian Gulf is not an act of war—it is a legitimate exercise of economic and national security policy.
Without a sustained U.S. naval presence, Iran is free to evade sanctions, move oil to hostile partners, and convert that revenue directly into weapons, militias, and repression.
I have always opposed large-scale U.S. ground deployments in the Middle East. The cost—in blood, treasure, and political capital—has been too high.
But air and sea power are different.
They are precise.
They are scalable.
And when properly applied, they deter without occupation.
A carrier battle group offshore is not nation-building; it is strategic insurance.
The Islamic Republic is weaker today than it has ever been. Internal dissent is widespread. Its legitimacy is crumbling.
Yet instead of applying pressure when it mattered most, U.S. leadership stood idle.
The failure to meaningfully support popular uprisings during the so-called Arab Spring sent a clear message: America would talk about freedom, but would not act to defend it.
In the absence of U.S. pressure, the regime imported tens of thousands of foreign enforcers to suppress its own population—murdering citizens in the streets while the world looked away.
I was at Andrews Air Force Base when Freedom One landed with the American hostages after Ronald Reagan took office. That moment symbolized strength restored after weakness.
We should be honest about how we got there.
The destabilization of Iran and much of the modern Middle East began under President Jimmy Carter’s watch, and the consequences have echoed for 47 years.
Weakness has costs, and history does not forgive them.
Today, failing to maintain a carrier presence in this region is not restraint—it is negligence.
It invites aggression.
It rewards terror.
And it places a heavier burden on our servicemembers when crises inevitably erupt.
Let us pray for the brave men and women of the United States military—officers and enlisted sailors on ships and submarines, the crew of CVN-72, and the Navy and Air Force pilots who may once again be called upon to defend American interests far from home.
God bless every one of you, and may you all return safely.
This is not about endless war. It is about resolve.
Collapsing the Islamic Republic’s ability to fund terror through unchecked access to the Gulf is in the clear economic and national security interests of the United States—and of the free world.
It is time to stop drifting, reassert maritime dominance, and finish what decades of half-measures have left undone.
Richard Santomauro is a retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander who spent 30 years in the Submarine Service. He lived through the Cold War and witnessed the fall of Iran and the subsequent occupation of that country by Islamic religious fanatics who have exported terror worldwide for the past 47 years.
The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.
