It’s nothing new. When I was in basic at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, there were a large amount of Arab military training there also.
At Keesler AFB, Mississippi, we had a couple of squadrons of Iranian and Ethiopian Air Force students there. This was in 1976.
The Iranians were mostly jerks. The Ethiopians were very nice, mild and Christian (the whole country practices and ancient orthodox Christianity). One guy was my friend. Sadly, there was a communist revolution in 1977 and most of these guys were executed. Of course, we know how Jimmy Carter helped oust the Shah in 1979, leading to the Islamacist revolution. Many of the Iranian Air Force and Army that trained with us were either executed or used as cannon fodder in the Iran-Iraq war in 1980.
And that's exactly why Trump needs to change some of these lunatic suicidal policies...
I don’t think Jimmy Carter gave the Shah the cancer that killed him, or caused the Shah to leave Iran in search of treatment. What caused our people to be captured as hostages was the fact that we let him into this country for medical treatment.