[robowombat]

It is suggested that the true purpose of this security deployment is to pacify the Saudis and deter the Iranians the goal being minimizing the likelihood of a conflict between those two states in what is still one of the really strategic and economically vital places on the globe. The thought is the Iranians are very unlikely to make any direct attacks on the deployed US forces.

[allendale]

Initially all these entanglements seem to have some noble purpose. American involvement just delays and prevents the locals from reaching their own consensus. BTW in case you hadn’t noticed oil producers are desperate and will remain desperate to sell their oil to anyone with hard currency or they starve.

Deployed, brave Americans die far from home and make the ultimate sacrifice for no good purpose. Sadly they are forgotten by most. Who remembers the dead from the USS Liberty, the USS Cole or the dead in Iraq and Afghanistan?