Trump Brings Troops Back Home to Saudi Arabia

Monday: Want to bring back US forces engaged in endless wars: Trump

“We want to bring our troops back home. It”s been many many years. It”s been decades, in many cases. We want to bring our troops back home. I got elected on that. If you go back and look at our speeches, I would say we want to bring our troops back home from these endless wars,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.

Friday:

Pentagon: Since May, U.S. forces have increased in Middle East by ~14,000: statement. There are currently more than 60,000 U.S. troops deployed to various countries and aboard warships

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) October 11, 2019

Pentagon just announced the deployment of two more fighter squadrons, one air expeditionary wing, two Patriot batteries and one THAAD unit to Saudi Arabia just now, moments before briefing with senior officials.

Meanwhile, the Turkish operation in Syria continues.

— Dan Lamothe (@DanLamothe) October 11, 2019

None of which is able to defend Saudi Arabia against another drone or cruise-missile attack.

The troop should be reminded that deployments in Saudi Arabia can end in unfriendly ways.

Source: Moon of Alabama

Following news that an Iranian oil tanker was attacked with missiles off the coast of Saudi Arabia, the US has announced that they will send 3,000 ground troops and two squadrons of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to “confront” Iran.

Though the timing of this seems fairly obviously linked to the missile incident, Pentagon officials made no mention that it even happened, instead citing last month’s drone attack on Saudi oil refineries, which Yemen’s Houthis claimed credit for but the US blamed on Iran.

The US had already sent troops and defensive missiles to the Saudi kingdom over the refineries. Defense Secretary Mark Esper claimed the move was based on a “heightened threat” from Iran.

Tensions are certainly higher, even if the Iranian threat is almost always overstated. Having an oil tanker hit with missiles would certainly have this effect on tensions. The rapid announcement of this deployment by the Pentagon suggests they weren’t exactly taken by surprise at this incident with the oil tanker.

Having US troops in Saudi Arabia at all is historically controversial. Indeed, it was one of the main grievances of al-Qaeda before 9/11, believing it was inappropriate to have US troops in their holy land. Adding thousands more is only going to make this a bigger deal.

Source: Antiwar.com