Posted on 04/30/2003 2:35:08 AM PDT by Bobby777
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.
time to pound some sand boys ... see ya ...
It would be like having bases in the Ukraine during the Cold War if we stayed in Saudi Arabia.
The royal family aids and abets Islamic terrorist groups by turning a blind eye to their doings and subsidizing them financially. In return, the Islamists keep the peace and allow the royal family to maintain their trappings of power.
One of the main reasons we stayed in SA was to defend it against an invasion by Iraq. If Iraq had taken over SA's oil wells, it would have been disastrous for the world economy. Now we have access to Iraq's oil, so SA oil is of much less importance to us. The squeeze play is on.
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