American Notes the Military

Big powers have long used gunboat diplomacy to intimidate troublesome local rulers. Only now the gunboats have grown considerably larger. A U.S. aircraft carrier displaces up to 90,000 tons and carries enough conventional firepower to level all the airfields in, say, Libya. Normally, the U.S. Sixth Fleet has at most two carriers in the Mediterranean, but soon there will be three. This week, the America leaves Norfolk, Va., to join the Saratoga and the Coral Sea.

The carriers are Ronald Reagan's big stick of intimidation against Middle East terrorism. With a dozen support ships around each carrier and 70 to 85 planes soaring off each ship, the biggest threat to the fleet seems to be a midair or midsea collision. "We'll need a traffic cop," jokes a Pentagon official. The Saratoga should return to the U.S. in April. Still, this effort to impress Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi is not cheap: operating a carrier at sea costs about $800,000 a day.