Following an extremist insurgency in Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant against the Shi'ite-led government --
The Pentagon has sent the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush into the Gulf as a preventative measure.
It's an order Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hopes will provide the Commander-in-Chief flexibility -- a military option the Defense Department says is "required to protect American lives."
U.S. President Barack Obama, however, has said that he will not send U.S. troops back into combat in Iraq.
The aircraft carrier is among the largest in its class in the world.
