American military and intelligence officials have begun holding quiet internal discussions about reducing the number of personnel and facilities the United States keeps permanently stationed in the Middle East, according to a CNN report published Monday by Katie Bo Lillis and Zachary Cohen, citing six sources.
The discussions are conditional. They assume the Trump administration succeeds in ending the war with Iran, and by CNN's account Washington is no closer to a settlement. Iran struck American installations in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates last week, the first exchange of fire between the two sides in roughly a month.
Around 50,000 American troops remain deployed across the region, along with two aircraft carriers and more than a dozen guided-missile destroyers.
The damage from the war has been heavy. One US official and a former intelligence officer told CNN that the CIA's outpost in Riyadh was effectively destroyed in an Iranian strike. American military installations in Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have all been hit by Iranian drones and missiles, and sources described the damage as significant, though Pentagon officials have publicly played it down.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said last week that American personnel would not be returning to Bahrain, the longtime home of the Fifth Fleet, anytime soon, adding that he wanted to be completely honest about it.
Officials at the CIA and at US Special Operations Command have discussed whether sensitive missions could be carried out without permanent regional bases at all, keeping people and equipment in the United States and flying them in for specific operations before returning home.
The Pentagon expects to keep some of its large permanent bases. But whether damaged installations are rebuilt may depend on host countries agreeing to help pay, at a cost likely running into billions of dollars. One source noted that many of these facilities were built and paid for by the countries they sit in. Some heavily damaged sites may not be rebuilt at all.
If the cuts happen, they would mark another turn away from a region where successive American presidents have tried to reduce their commitments, and where the US built up its presence dramatically after September 11, 2001.
