The Navy said the carrier would take up a duty station in the Arabian Sea and begin flying daily missions over Pakistan to Afghanistan as of yesterday.
The carrier sailed into the Persian Gulf January 22, reportedly just because Iran had earlier said it would not permit US carriers in the Persian Gulf. Having made its political point, the Pentagon sent the carrier back to its duty station.
The US Navy makes a point of demonstrating freedom of the seas by sending its ships to locations where some countries speak in opposition to the free right of navigation. The United States has been doing that since the 1790s.
