1) When was the last time a US carrier was attacked? Sunk? Doubtful anything other than multiple hits or a nuke would do it. Plus these third world nutballs don't have the technology to set up launchers and tracking, etc.. It would be like giving a machine gun to a caveman.
SCUDS were the perfect example of Iraq using a glorified catapault that was lucky to hit a CITY. The only reason we went after them at all was for
PR purposes (Israel), they had no strategic valuel.
2) The description about the Phalanx was BS. (original article posted). As a regular "gun" firing normal rounds, by definition the encounter is VERY close and last-ditch but it was designed to work that way.
3) How many US ships have been struck in the last 25 years where crew screwups didn't contribute to the problem? In other words (Stark) those guys sat around not knowing what was going on. It wasn't because they were dwarfed by some awesome technology.
4) Oh yeah, anything flying Mach 2 isn't a cruise missle.
And for someone to suggest the US is 10 years behind is an idiot. Nobody spending any dough on defense is that far behind. The guy who wrote the article writes an interesting tale. And I am sure there are accurate facts in there, but they don't support the conclusion the US could be run out of the Gulf. Get real.