US Mulls Shrinking Military Footprint in Gulf As a Result of War on Iran: Report

The Trump administration is examining whether to pull troops out of the Gulf as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran, with the Pentagon weighing the risks facing large US bases in the region that have come under Iranian drone and missile attack.

…

Another former head of Centcom, General Frank McKenzie, said in July that the US needs to relocate its bases in the Gulf to Israel and neighbouring countries to better protect its assets from Iran’s missiles and drones.

“No one in their right mind would ever put the Centcom forward headquarters, you know, 100 miles away from Iran, [in Qatar], yet that’s where it is,” he told the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, referring to al-Udeid military base.

McKenzie said that the current US basing system in the Middle East has become an “artefact”, describing it as a legacy of the Cold War, when the US was concerned about a potential Soviet invasion of the oil-rich Arab Gulf states and later, the counter-insurgencies the US waged in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“[The US] strategy does not match the reality on the ground,” he added.

…