Carrier doing a frigate's job Down South

David Axe discusses the aircraft carrier USS George Washington's tour of South America:

...is a lumbering, $15-billion aircraft carrier group, with
more combined destructive power than most of the world’s militaries, the right
choice for exercising alongside the tiny coastal navies of South America? That’s
a mission that might best be performed by smaller, cheaper warships,
right?

The admiral in charge of the group, Phillip Cullom, says
no. “An aircraft carrier is the perfect platform to bring down here because it
can cover the entire spectrum of activities … [with] the ability do both the
high-end and the low-end spectrum of training. Plus they don’t see carriers here
very often.”
Sure, it’s a treat for the Argentines to see the world’s most
powerful class of warship up close, and it’s fun to pretend there’s a
Soviet-grade naval threat down south, but are those compelling reasons to send a
carrier to do a frigate’s job?

If we really want allies, and to be apart of a team, (the so-called 1000 ship Navy the brass is proposing) perhaps we should cast off these high-tech halos, come down to earth, and actually work with our allies as equals. Continuing to build a luxury fleet of supercarriers isn't real war fighting.