Nothing is Forever: When the US Military Eventually Leaves the Middle East, It’s Going to Need a Plan
Mike Sweeney | July 15, 2019
Fifty-one years ago, British Foreign Secretary George Brown informed his American counterpart that the United Kingdom was leaving the Persian Gulf in the next few years, expediting an existing withdrawal plan. Britain was decamping because it had to: it no longer could afford the costs of its imperial commitments throughout Asia.
The United States today is different from 1960s Great Britain in two important ways. On the one hand, it has not (yet) overextended itself to the point where it is forced into an ignominious retreat from the Middle East stage. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t have a coherent plan for how to address the future of its regional posture before such overreach becomes fact—or in the event internal conditions in the Middle East render US presence untenable.
https://mwi.usma.edu/nothing-forever-us-military-eventually-leaves-middle-east-going-need-plan/
