American Carrier Groups in both Iraq War (2003) and Afghanistan War (2001) played relatively minor roles. In case of the Iraq War, Qatar and maybe also Kuwait, provided land-based resources, while the GCC Arabs were complicit in the attack against Saddam. In case of the Afghanistan War, Pakistan provided the land-based resources--several military bases and much more!!
Again, please read what Col. D. McGregor is saying about the role of the CG in a land focused war. Yeah, bombing Kiribati or Tuvalu would have been one thing. But not applicable in case of a giant Middle Eastern war.
BTW, 'projecting' our wishes into likely scenario is a dangerous thing--and that applies to all of us. In that vein, just because Israelis beat up Bedouin armies 50+ years ago in the past, doesn't translate to the 'asymmetric' war facing Israel in last few decades. The enemies of Israel as just as human as Israelis are--endowed with the evolutionary intelligence Mother Nature has given to every human being. A certain Benny K. guy here was discounting that in case of the Palestinians many months ago.