Navy: Exercise Not Meant to Send Message

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States' largest naval exercise in decades, involving the deployment around the globe of seven of the Navy's 12 carrier battle groups, is not designed to send political signals to potential enemies, a senior Navy officer said Thursday.

"We're demonstrating to ourselves as much as to anybody else" what the Navy is capable of in times of crisis, said Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, the Navy's chief of plans and operations.

"If others on the other side of a curtain will want to take lessons from that, I think that's advantageous," he said in an interview with a small group of reporters at the Pentagon.

U.S. allies in Europe and elsewhere will feel reassured by the exercise, Stufflebeem said.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040708/D83MPEJ01.html