You keep assuming a missile hit will actually kill a carrier and that
we can't shoot down a missile, particularly the cruise type that most
antiship missiles are.
As for retaliation, when has killing a ****load of civilians been an
impediment? That stopped even being an issue almost 80 years ago.
WWII was a war that was mostly waged against civilians and that was
the "good" war.
What are ships? A huge "made in the USA" jobs program. That is why
they get so much congressional support. Virtually every district in
the country had a little pork from the Ford construction in one way or
another.
Yeah, I know. The money could best be used on infrastructure and other
expenditures that actually improve the quality of life for more
Americans. Infrastructure improvements put a lot of people in disparate
fields to work.