Zig Zag Wanderer

*When troops are deployed to the Middle East, they are first sent to bases in Europe. In one such case, a friend of mine's platoon went by ship to a base in Spain. It took nearly a month for the troops to arrive in the Mediterranean. The reason? U.S. naval ships cannot approach any European country in a straight path. They must zig zag their way across the Atlantic, otherwise, the arrival of the ships is assumed to be an act of war. A journey that should take less than one week, takes several because apparently Spain still cannot be 100% sure when the United States Marine Corps sends troops to NATO bases that it is not an act of aggression.