The United States has gathered more firepower in the Middle East than we have ever seen before.  It exceeds anything that we witnessed during Operation Desert Storm, it exceeds anything that we witnessed during the war in Afghanistan, and it exceeds anything that we witnessed during the war in Iraq.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that war is imminent.  President Trump could ultimately decide not to pull the trigger.  But without a doubt, at this moment we are exceedingly close to a cataclysmic showdown in the Middle East.

It is being reported that the USS Abraham Lincoln has officially arrived in the Middle East…

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its three accompanying warships have sailed into the Middle East region, providing President Trump additional military firepower if he decides to strike Iran.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, which is equipped with Mk 57 Mod3 Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missile launchers and can carry squadrons of bombers and early warning planes, and its strike group are in the U.S. Central Command (Centcom) area, which encompasses the Middle East region, the command confirmed Monday.

The addition of the carrier in the region comes as Trump warned Thursday that the U.S. is sending an “armada” toward Iran following nationwide protests in the country, where thousands of demonstrators have been killed by authorities.

Some of us have been carefully tracking the movements of the USS Abraham Lincoln in recent days.

Once the protests in Iran got really crazy, this carrier was redeployed from the Indian Ocean, and it has a maximum capacity of 90 aircraft…

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier is hauling five squadrons of strike fighters, with a max capacity of 90 aircraft.

These include F/A-18 Super Hornets, F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters and EA-18G Growler radar jammers — along with Osprey tilt-rotor transports and MH-60S Seahawk helicopters.

Of course the USS Abraham Lincoln is not traveling alone.

It is being accompanied by three guided-missile destroyers that are “fully loaded with Tomahawk cruise missiles”…

The Lincoln is not alone; it hunts with a wolfpack. It is flanked by three guided-missile destroyers: USS Spruance, USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., and USS Michael Murphy. These ships are fully loaded with Tomahawk cruise missiles, ready for immediate launch orders.

This battle group is just the latest addition to the growing amount of firepower that the U.S. has accumulated in the region.

If the U.S. attacks Iran, the Iranians have already warned that the USS Abraham Lincoln will be a primary target.

In fact, the Iranians just released a shocking video that simulates what it would look like if an Iranian ballistic missile were to destroy the carrier…

Iran’s state-run Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization has released a propaganda video that purports to simulate how Iran’s Fattah ballistic missile could split the USS Abraham Lincoln in two in a potential conflict with the US, as the carrier strike group enters Mideast.

They are openly threatening to sink the Abraham Lincoln.

And it appears that they have the ability to do that.

In addition to the various missiles that they possess, the Iranians could also potentially use drones…

Cameron Chell, CEO and co-founder of Draganfly, warned that Iran’s growing reliance on low-cost unmanned systems poses a credible danger to high-value U.S. naval assets, including the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group.

“Iran’s drone capabilities are worth well into the tens of millions of dollars,” Chell told Fox News Digital.

“By pairing low-cost warheads with inexpensive delivery platforms, essentially remotely piloted aircraft, Iran has developed an effective asymmetric threat against highly sophisticated military systems.”

One drone would not be a problem for the Abraham Lincoln.

But if the Iranians sent hundreds of drones at the Abraham Lincoln all at once, the ship’s defenses could be overwhelmed…

Chell said Iran can launch large numbers of relatively unsophisticated drones directly at naval vessels, creating saturation attacks that could overwhelm traditional defenses.

“If hundreds are launched in a short period of time, some are almost certain to get through,” Chell said.

“Modern defense systems were not originally designed to counter that kind of saturation attack. For U.S. surface vessels operating near Iran, warships are prime targets.”

In addition to missiles and drones, the Iranians also possess large numbers of small attack vessels.

According to Defense News, many of them have now been deployed “across the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman”…

Iran has launched its most visible naval mobilization in years across the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, deploying a dense concentration of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) vessels as a U.S. carrier strike group advances toward the region. Satellite imagery, maritime tracking data and regional security reporting indicate that Tehran is signaling readiness for confrontation at the world’s most critical energy chokepoint, even as both sides warn of the danger of miscalculation.

Western defense analysts say the IRGC Navy has surged Iranian-flagged ships linked to the Guards into key waterways, including waters adjacent to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and along the approaches to the Strait of Hormuz. The deployments follow a week of Iranian missile drills involving both ballistic and cruise systems, and come amid sharp rhetoric from senior commanders declaring that Iranian forces are “more ready than ever.”

During the 12-Day War, the Iranians did not hit us with everything that they have got.

This time around, it would be completely different.

On Saturday, General Mohammad Pakpour warned that Iran has its “finger on the trigger”…

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard commander on Saturday said the country has its “finger on the trigger” at the U.S. after President Trump said an “armada” will head toward the Middle East.

“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard and dear Iran stand more ready than ever, finger on the trigger, to execute the orders and directives of the Commander-in-Chief,” Gen. Mohammad Pakpour said according to Nournews, a news outlet with ties to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

And one Iranian official just told Reuters that if Iran is attacked “we will respond in the hardest way possible to settle this”…

Iranian officials said over the weekend that they are prepared to retaliate if attacked by the US.

Speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, an official said: ‘This military ‌build-up – we hope it is ‌not intended for real confrontation – but our military is ready for the worst-case scenario. This is why everything is on high alert in Iran.’

He then delivered a warning to Washington, adding: ‘This time we will treat any attack – limited, unlimited, surgical, kinetic, whatever they call it – as an all-out war against us, and we will respond in the hardest way possible to settle this.’

What did he mean by “hardest way possible”?

Was he suggesting that Iran could actually use unconventional weapons?

Let’s hope not.

As I write this, even the slightest miscalculation could set the entire region ablaze.

At this stage, there is even speculation that Iran could launch some sort of a preemptive strike…

Israeli security officials describe Iran as potentially operating under a “use it or lose it” doctrine. Fearing that a sudden U.S. “decapitation strike” could neutralize its missile forces before they are launched, Iranian commanders may be weighing an early salvo against Israel—the United States’ closest regional ally—to ensure retaliation capability.

If the Iranians believe that an attack is inevitable, they may just pull the trigger first.

And Hezbollah is telling us that they will join the fight if war breaks out…

Hezbollah has warned that its enemies will ‘taste the bitterest forms of death’ if Donald Trump strikes its backer, Iran.

Kataib Hezbollah, an Iraqi paramilitary group with links to the better-known Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, issued the fiery warning on Sunday, calling on its fighters to prepare for a possible ‘total war’.

Abu Hussein al‑Hamidawi, the group’s chief, claimed the ‘forces of darkness’ are gathering to destroy Iran, adding: ‘We affirm to the enemies that war against the [Islamic] Republic will not be a walk in the park.

‘But rather, you will taste the bitterest forms of death, and nothing will remain of you in our region.’

Speaking of Hezbollah, the IDF just conducted more than 20 airstrikes on targets in southern Lebanon…

Southern areas of Lebanon were subjected to massive attacks by Israeli Air Force fighter jets, which delivered no less than 23 strikes against ground targets, the news portal Naharnet stated.

Airstrikes were reportedly carried out on the mountainous Jabbur area and the Wadi Barguz gorge, where attempts by militants of the Shiite militia Hezbollah to restore their military infrastructure were recorded.

This should be big news.

Why is the mainstream media in the western world so quiet about this?

We really are on the verge of a cataclysmic showdown in the Middle East.

President Trump warned the Iranians not to kill protesters.

But then the Iranians shut down the Internet for the Iranian population and proceeded to slaughter more than 33,000 protesters…

It comes after it was revealed last night that more than 33,000 protesters had been killed in Iran following the regime’s brutal crackdown on anti-government demonstrations, Time reports, quoting two senior officials working for the country’s Ministry of Health.

The death toll from the anti-government protests, which began on December 28, was previously estimated to be between 16,500 and 18,000.

Alongside the death toll, 97,645 have been wounded, with 30 per cent suffering eye injuries, according to research by Professor Amir-Mobarez Parasta.

We have never seen a slaughter of protesters of this magnitude.

The Iranians clearly crossed the red line that President Trump had established.

Now the U.S. has accumulated an unprecedented amount of firepower in the region, and one expert is warning that “the indicators suggest that planning has moved beyond contingency and into executable readiness”…

A newly circulated strategic assessment by regional military analyst Talal Nahle has intensified speculation that the United States and its allies are nearing a decisive military inflection point with Iran, as unprecedented force concentrations across air and naval domains point to preparations far exceeding a limited or symbolic operation.

The report, updated early Monday following the release of the latest NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) at 02:31 UTC, highlights what Nahle describes as a “deafening silence” — a lack of change in Iranian firing-zone declarations — combined with a vast and measurable coalition order of battle. Together, the indicators suggest that planning has moved beyond contingency and into executable readiness.

“This is no longer the language of speculation,” Nahle wrote. “It is the language of numbers that do not lie.”

According to Nahle, the U.S. could potentially launch more than 1,000 missiles “in a single or closely sequenced salvo”…

At the center of the assessment is the presence of 1,018 Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells deployed aboard U.S. destroyers and other surface combatants operating within strike range of Iran.

According to the analysis, this configuration provides the U.S. Navy with the ability to launch over 1,000 cruise or air-defense missiles — primarily Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles — in a single or closely sequenced salvo.

Military planners note that such volumes are designed for missile saturation, a doctrine that overwhelms even advanced air-defense networks through sheer scale. In this scenario, Iranian radar installations, air bases, command nodes and missile platforms could be targeted simultaneously across the country, compressing the defender’s response window to minutes.

Now that the USS Abraham Lincoln is in the region, the last piece of the puzzle is finally in place.

If President Trump gives the order, missiles will start flying back and forth all over the Middle East.

For the Iranians, the USS Abraham Lincoln would be a really juicy target.

Could you imagine how the American people would react if images of a burning aircraft carrier suddenly appeared on our television screens?

It would be quite a shock.

We are just inches away from a nightmare scenario, and once the fighting begins nobody is going to be able to stop it.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.