US to Withdraw All Combat Units From Saudi Arabia

[Preon1]

Didn't see this on the board...  figured I'd post it.

New York Times
April 30, 2003
Pg. 1

U.S. To Withdraw All Combat Units From Saudi Arabia

By Eric Schmitt

PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE, Saudi Arabia, April 29 — The United States said today that it would withdraw all combat forces in Saudi Arabia by this summer, ending more than a decade of military operations in this strategic Middle East nation that is America's largest oil supplier.

The American presence here began as a joint operation to contain Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, but increasingly became dangerous for the American troops involved because Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists resented their presence in the land of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina. Twenty-four American soldiers died in two separate terrorist strikes here in 1995 and 1996.

American anger at Saudi Arabia swelled after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were identified as Saudi citizens.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, said at a news conference in Riyadh that the end of the Iraq war and the fall of Saddam Hussein's government meant that America's military mission here was over. Only a small, longstanding training program involving some 400 to 500 troops will remain.

"It is now a safer region because of the change of regime in Iraq," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "The aircraft and those involved will now be able to leave."

Even before today's announcement, American forces in Saudi Arabia, which doubled to 10,000 during the Iraq war, had started pulling out of this sprawling desert air base used by United States warplanes since 1992 to patrol what used to be the no-flight zone in southern Iraq.

On Monday, the military moved its major air operations center for the Middle East from here to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. By this summer, all 200 airplanes based here during the war will be gone, said the deputy air commander, Rear Adm. Dave Nichols. Some 1,600 Army soldiers operating Patriot antimissile batteries are expected to leave soon.

Prince Sultan today denied that Saudi Arabia had asked the United States to withdraw its forces. "This does not mean we requested them to leave Saudi Arabia, but as long as their operation is over, they will leave," he said.

But today's news conference was broadcast on Saudi national television, announcing a pullout of troops that the Saudis have always been reluctant to acknowledge were even here. In the Iraq war, Saudi Arabia refused to allow American journalists to join military units based here, as happened with troops elsewhere in the war.

Earlier this year, Saudi officials told The New York Times that the departure of American soldiers would set the stage for a series of democratic reforms, including an announcement that Saudi men — but not women, at least initially — would begin electing representatives to provincial assemblies and then to a national assembly. The ruling royal family, these officials suggested, could more easily sell potentially unsettling reform if it appears to be less dependent on the Americans.

Both parties in Congress urged reform upon the conservative kingdom after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Indeed, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee and a critic of Saudi Arabia, today praised the Pentagon's decision to move the air operations center to Al Udeid because "the Qatari government welcomes U.S. presence."

Altogether, Mr. Rumsfeld spent only about six hours on the ground here in Saudi Arabia today, visiting troops and meeting with Prince Sultan and Crown Prince Abdullah, the de facto daily ruler of the country who is said to be a leading proponent of internal political reform.

The withdrawal from Saudi Arabia comes at a time when the Pentagon is reassessing troop levels and basing agreements around the globe, but especially in Europe, the Persian Gulf and the Korean Peninsula. Mr. Rumsfeld said today that he is looking to "rearrange" United States forces to position them best for future conflicts.

Still, the departure of all American military forces from Saudi Arabia except for about 500 troops near Riyadh, who will continue a longstanding training mission, marks one of the most important milestones in the history of a relationship that dates to World War II.

Since the end of the 1991 gulf war, when the United States sent 550,000 forces to the Saudi desert, the two nations had agreed to confront and contain Mr. Hussein. American engineers built supply depots and the sophisticated, multibillion-dollar air operations center here, 50 miles south of Riyadh.

But by the mid-1990's, the security of American troops in the kingdom had become a major concern for the Pentagon. Five Americans were killed in a terrorist attack in Riyadh in 1995, and 19 servicemen were killed and 500 others wounded in a bombing at the Al Khobar barracks in Dhahran a year later.

After that, most American military personnel were moved to this high-security base near the village of Al Kharj, far from populated areas.

Tensions flared between the two allies shortly after the air command post opened in 2001, just before the Sept. 11 attacks. In the first day of the Afghan air campaign, Saudi Arabia did not let American warplanes fly in Saudi air space. The issue was quickly resolved but the delay rankled American commanders.

The Saudi government barred the United States from launching airstrikes against Afghanistan or Iraq from this base, and it sought to stifle news that United States Special Operations forces were using other remote desert bases, like the one in Arar near the Iraqi border.

For the 5,000 American troops that have been permanently stationed here, as well as the thousands more who lived in tent cities during the Iraq war, P.S.A.B., as everyone here calls the base, was like a slice of American suburbia plunked down in the middle of the Saudi desert.

Troops live comfortably in what they call the Coalition Compound, which has a base exchange, a Burger King, a Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor, a Chinese restaurant and various other shops and stores.

Several sand-colored pavilions provide shade from a searing sun that can drive temperatures above 120 degrees in the summer. The compound has a gym, tennis court, basketball court, swimming pool and recreation office where troops can rent bicycles to ride around the compound.

The base also has a one-room library and a movie tent that shows films throughout the day. Alcoholic beverages are prohibited, but a British-style pub offers nonalcoholic beer.

Tough security restrictions prevent troops from going into Riyadh except on official business. Few military personnel ever meet a Saudi civilian off base.

Now all that is coming to an end.

The flights over southern Iraq, called Operation Southern Watch, ended with a total of 286,000 missions flown. The air war is all but over. Allied planes have dropped one bomb in the past two weeks, Admiral Nichols said — on Iraqis stealing weapons from a cache near the Haditha Dam in central Iraq.

Saudi and American officials said today that security cooperation would still continue, and some noted that the troops and warplanes could return someday if a future Saudi ruler faced a new threat.

In a huge, air-conditioned hangar here, Mr. Rumsfeld thanked hundreds of American, British and Australian forces for their war effort. Meanwhile, Admiral Nichols and other defense officials said the Pentagon had not yet decided whether to keep a skeleton crew here so the base could be restarted in an emergency.

[Arfann]

The bad thing is Al Jareeda will proclaim that we have given in to Bin Laden's demands. We just might have to "accidentally" bomb their offices (again) to make a point.

[funkedup]

I'm all for US forces withdrawing from everywhere.

[Preon1]

Originally posted by Arfann
The bad thing is Al Jareeda will proclaim that we have given in to Bin Laden's demands. We just might have to "accidentally" bomb their offices (again) to make a point.

Yeah, and Pravda will claim that it was a victory by Russian special forces.

[Preon1]

Come to think of it, France will probably weigh in and say that it was their political and economic pressure, and Germany will claim that it's efforts to promote peace allowed this to happen...

I'm not saying that pulling out of Saudi is a bad idea...  I just hope the rest of the world doesn't get the wrong idea.

[rc51]

Originally posted by funkedup
I'm all for US forces withdrawing from everywhere.

I heard that!!

Pull out of every where and take our money with us.
No more money to these piss ant countries.
Lets spend some of OUR American dollars in AMERICA fer gawds sake!
They (all these little dip**** countries) can all curl up and die for all I care.
lets take care of our own for a change.

[Mini D]

So... by the end of this summer all those troops currently in Saudi Arabia will be somewhere in Iraq?

[AKIron]

Let's bring 'em ALL home, including Iraq and Afghanistan, soon as the job is done there.

[Dnil]

weeee no more crap deployments to al's garage.

[Dowding]

I'm all for US forces withdrawing from everywhere.

Wait a minute, where has all the fervour for 'kicking ass' gone all of a sudden?

Leave Iraq in chaos and expect the rest of the world to provide the peace-keepers. That doesn't sound particularly big or clever.

[Curval]

Dunno Dowding...I'd say that the US "did" its part...the HARD part.  Now the blue helmets can do their work.  What is wrong with that idea?

The US isn't the police-force of the world...they are the firemen.  They go in, smash things up, pour water on things and leave a big mess.  They leave the clean-up to the janitors...I'll leave you to guess who they are....and deservedly so.

[-tronski-]

Originally posted by Curval
Dunno Dowding...I'd say that the US "did" its part...the HARD part.  Now the blue helmets can do their work.  What is wrong with that idea?

The US isn't the police-force of the world...they are the firemen.  They go in, smash things up, pour water on things and leave a big mess.  They leave the clean-up to the janitors...I'll leave you to guess who they are....and deservedly so.

I'd say winning the peace is the hard part.
Quite frankly I wouldn't put in a UN peacekeeping force, last I heard it had nothing to do with them. let the victors clean it up.



 Tronsky

[Curval]

Well okay Tronski...that would be the US, UK, AUSTRAILIA and a few other countries that helped kick Sadaam's butt..

[AKIron]

Originally posted by -tronski-
I'd say winning the peace is the hard part.
Quite frankly I wouldn't put in a UN peacekeeping force, last I heard it had nothing to do with them. let the victors clean it up.

 Tronsky

No doubt here that that is exactly what we'll do.

And Dowding, even if we bring 'em all home, we still reserve the right to do a little bellybutton kickin' whenever and wherever needed.

[GRUNHERZ]

The UN cant help much in Iraq...  Not enough credibility.