US aircraft carrier furore is emblem of growing disquiet over Iran war

{"text":[[{"start":9.15,"text":"Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, faces a backlash over poor conditions and low troop morale on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier deployed in the Middle East whose troubles have become emblematic of the protracted US war with Iran. "}],[{"start":24.75,"text":"The furore over the Abraham Lincoln erupted this week after family members of the crew told military news outlets and members of Congress of supply shortages, water contamination and mental health problems including suicide attempts on the ship. "}],[{"start":40,"text":"On Friday, US President Donald Trump brushed off those concerns, disputing that family members were worried and saying the aircraft carrier would soon be replaced by another in the region. "}],[{"start":50.7,"text":"When asked if it had been deployed too long, Trump responded: “No, no, no,” he said. “Not nearly long enough.”"}],[{"start":58.25,"text":"But the outrage about the state of the aircraft carrier, which is carrying about 5,000 sailors and has been away from its home port of San Diego for nearly nine months, comes as Americans have grown increasingly sceptical of the Iran war, seeing it as yet another lengthy and costly armed intervention overseas. "}],[{"start":76.4,"text":"The warship’s struggles are adding to concerns about the depletion of US military resources related to the Iran war on top of the huge expenditure of both offensive and defensive munitions since the conflict began in February. "}],[{"start":90,"text":"They also mark a new test for Hegseth’s tumultuous leadership of the Pentagon. The former Fox News personality has purged several top generals to enforce greater loyalty and sought to remake the culture of the military in line with the administration’s “anti-woke” views, including scrapping diversity initiatives and introducing new testosterone screening standards. "}],[{"start":112.65,"text":"On Thursday during a visit to Panama, Hegseth insisted that reports of poor conditions on the aircraft carrier had been “completely misrepresented”. "}],[{"start":120.9,"text":"“The USS Abraham Lincoln has held the line for the country and they’ve done a fantastic job,” he said. "}],[{"start":127.45,"text":"The pressure on Hegseth is likely to grow as the administration appears increasingly out of touch with both the sentiment of the families of US sailors and public sentiment towards the war. "}],[{"start":137.75,"text":"Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, called for Hegseth to be “fired immediately” in an X post on Thursday, while a group of Democratic lawmakers representing the San Diego area sent a letter to the defence secretary asking for specific answers about the ship. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":154.85,"text":"“This is a national security imperative, and the families of those aboard the USS Lincoln deserve the truth about what is happening, what steps are being taken to protect them, and when this carrier and its crew can safely come home,” Scott Peters, one of the members of Congress who signed the letter, told the FT."}],[{"start":174.25,"text":"“These are the consequences of launching an unauthorised war without Congressional approval or oversight. We don’t know the plan, the exit strategy or when this carrier is coming home,” he added. "}],[{"start":185,"text":"A US official denied there had been an increase in suicide attempts or mental health issues aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The administration was providing “resources” to help the sailors, including five Navy chaplains, one clinical psychologist, one clinical social worker and even one “expeditionary facility dog” to “support crew morale and emotional welfare”, the official added. "}],[{"start":207.45,"text":"On supply shortages, the ship was “operating in a highly contested environment where traditional supply hubs in the Middle East were disrupted by combat actions”. The official added they were prioritising “mission-critical supplies: first food, then hygiene items, then mail” and insisted there was “continuous access to clean water, functional AC, and healthy meal options”. "}],[{"start":230.2,"text":"The Abraham Lincoln has been part of a massive US naval deployment to the Middle East due to the Iran war. It has participated in the campaign of air strikes against the Islamic republic as well as the naval blockade on ships moving in and out of Iranian ports through the Strait of Hormuz. Hegseth said this week that the US could maintain the naval blockade in the region “indefinitely”. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":250.2,"text":"The Pentagon’s leadership has been sanguine about America’s ability to keep US military operations going for an extended period in the region. But Erik Raven, a former under-secretary of the Navy at Beacon Global Strategies, a consultancy, said there seemed to be a “lot of concern” within the top ranks of the military that “deployment schedules and the pace of operations are just not being handled well”. This applied not just to the navy but to the air force and army as well. "}],[{"start":277.9,"text":"“The assumption is just ‘push everybody harder’ and I think there are a lot of military professionals who recognise that has longer-term consequences or longer-term impacts on the readiness of the force,” he said. "}],[{"start":290.95,"text":"Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East programme at Defense Priorities, a Washington think-tank, says the fury over the Abraham Lincoln reflected broader concerns that the US military was being “forced to run on empty for a long time”. "}],[{"start":307.09999999999997,"text":"“I have a lot of sympathy for the troops and their families. But from an analytical standpoint, this is not a fighting force that is well equipped to defend the US if their basic living needs are not being met. Provisioning your forces is rule number one of warfare, and the US is failing to do it,” she said. "}],[{"start":333.65,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1786805792_4294.mp3"}