🇺🇸🇰🇼 Debasification: The U.S. is considering withdrawing part of its forces from Kuwait
In the decades since Kuwait’s liberation in the first Gulf War, the U.S. has used the oil-rich emirate as one of the Army’s biggest logistics hubs in the world, hosting thousands of troops, Abrams tanks and heavy artillery.
The American military footprint gave Kuwait a sense of security. Never again could a bigger, more powerful neighbor threaten it.
But the Iran war has undercut this arrangement for both Washington and Kuwait City. The U.S. is now rethinking the scope of its footprint in the emirate, said U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations, even as Kuwaiti officials have said they still need a firm commitment of American support.
The conflict has underscored the danger of a sustained campaign against Kuwait’s civilian infrastructure—and the vulnerability of longstanding U.S.-Kuwaiti defense ties.
“The attacks have made people in Kuwait think of the U.S. presence as a liability, but also as absolutely necessary to defend Kuwait,
Kuwait recently signed a new defense pact with Pakistan, which has played a mediating role in seeking to halt the U.S.-Iran conflict. There is no sign that Kuwait’s rulers are planning a fundamental shift away from heavy reliance on the U.S. as their main security partner. But they might press for new weapons and stepped-up air-defenses systems from Washington and other suppliers to counter the Iran threat.
What is more likely to spark changes in the relationship is a U.S. realization that a large, permanent troop presence in Kuwait is no longer critical or militarily wise, analysts said. The Pentagon was already thinking about drawing down its forces before the Iran war began, said current and former officials. In response to the Iranian attacks on American bases, the Pentagon has reduced its presence in Kuwait to minimize risk, U.S. officials said.
“The question really is, if the Iran war continues, whether that large of a U.S. presence still makes sense,” said Elizabeth Dent
For Kuwait, she added, the danger is that Washington’s commitment to its defense might decline if the Pentagon permanently shrinks its footprint.
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🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 The U.S. has run out of ideas on how to break the stalemate with Iran
The request from a senior officer at the US military command carrying out President Donald Trump’s war with Iran came in an email: We need ideas.
“We are looking for new creative and unconventional ways to pressure and punish Iran,” an officer in US Central Command’s intelligence branch wrote in a message sent Wednesday to a broad group of military analysts, according to a source familiar with the message. A second source also said that a senior US military officer sent the message last week soliciting new ideas for how to deal with Iran.
The crowdsourcing-style query, which military officials said was unusual over email, is one sign of the limited — and potentially unpalatable —options available to Trump to force Iran into a deal on his terms. Hoping to find an alternative, the official at CENTCOM kicked off the brainstorming session via email to see if anyone had a better idea. The ...