“When word of a crisis breaks out in Washington, it’s no accident that the first question that comes to everyone’s lips is: ‘Where’s the nearest carrier?’” President Bill Clinton, aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, 1993.

Twenty years after Mr Clinton’s tribute to the might of America’s fleet, the location of its carriers still reveals much about US foreign policy priorities. Of the US navy’s 10 operational aircraft carriers, three are in foreign waters: one in Japan and two with the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet in the Gulf.

One of the two, the USS Nimitz, sailed into the Red Sea on Monday, moving into position for possible air strikes on Syria. The other, the USS Harry S Truman, remains in the Arabian Sea, launching missions to support US troops in Afghanistan.