“This is a movement of defensive assets operating in an air-to-air role only,” the statement continued. “They are not deploying to take part in any military action against Syria. The (prime minister) has made clear no decision has been taken on our response and the gGovernment has said that there will be a Commons vote before direct military involvement.” U.S. officials describe the Pentagon decision as prudent planning and say it doesn’t suggest the carrier would play a role in any possible strikes in Syria. The officials were not authorized to discuss ship movements publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S. had kept two carriers in the region, but budget cuts in February forced officials to cut to one. CBS News correspondent David Martin reports two submarines — one American, one British — are in the eastern Mediterranean along with four American destroyers and a fifth on the way — all armed with cruise missiles. That’s more than enough firepower for a strike Pentagon officials say would be limited to fewer than 50 targets. Each of the destroyers carries about 40 cruise missiles – a satellite-guided weapon that carries a 1,000-pound warhead, has a range of 1000 miles or more and is accurate to within about 15 feet. Standard procedure would be for the ships to fire an opening salvo at night, wait for satellites to assess the damage and re-strike any targets that were not destroyed — a process that could take a few days. Any strike against Syria, Martin points out, would be designed to convince its dictator, President Bashar Assad, never to use chemical weapons again. But airstrikes never succeeded in changing the behavior of another Mideast dictator — Iraq’s Saddam Hussein — until he was finally captured and hanged.