Last American Combat Troops Quit Saudi Arabia

NewYorkTImes ^ | 9.22-03 | DON VAN NATTA Jr.

[swarthyguy]

Hip HIp Hooray!

[redrock]

Excellent news!!!

redrock

[swarthyguy]

Now what? Speculation welcome.....

[Newbomb Turk]

Did we level the place before we left. No building or airfield should be left standing unless purchased by the Saudi's and the price should be extreme.

[joesnuffy]

Now send their messenger boys from CAIR packin'

[ConservativeLawyer]

Now we should build a huge Air Force base somewhere in Iraq. That will put us in a good position to reach out and touch someone on short notice.

[swarthyguy]

Refurbish the old Iraki bases in the West and the South.

[chadwimc]

I would bet that maybe as long as a generation from now, an American president says "We don't need you or your oil anymore. Go sell it any where you can. We have Russian, Iraqi, and Alaskan oil. They're doing well down in South America, also. Whats that? Who will protect you? The French might be available..."

[An American in Turkiye]

I was there twice. 1998 and 2002. It was the worst TDY's I've ever been on. Sand storms all the time, finding camel spiders in your bed, knocking scorpions out of your boots. Thanks God I'll never go there again.

The first time I arrived there, I couldn't believe what I saw. We had to go through SA customs. The guy in front of me had an illustrated bible, and the customs agent sat and ripped pages out that had images of Christ on them. Nothing we could do about it, though.

[halfdome]

I have read that the Saudi government paid for the base construction and maintenance.

[An American in Turkiye]

What was ironic was the contractors that built most of the facilities on the base was BIN LADEN construction. Any other Freepers serve time in the sand box?

[swarthyguy]

I've heard salty secondhand accounts of what Saudis really thought of Americans during Desert Storm when they believed there were no Americans closeby.

I also like recent USMil Tshirts that depict the Eagle landing on Saudi, talons out.

[halfdome]

That is ironic. I guess KB&R doesn't build army bases.

[bjcintennessee]

Did we level the place before we left. No building or airfield should be left standing unless purchased by the Saudi's and the price should be extreme.

We might need to return to that base in a few years and use it as a staging point to "democratize" Saudi Arabia.

I seriously doubt that Bush was ever fooled by the Saudi's duplicitous actions and their possible support of 9-11.

Now that we have no troops there, that leaves only the oil to force us to play nice -- unless we prove that the Saudi's are supporting terrorists. Diplomacy can be a bitch when the other guy has something you need!

[11B3]

Didn't do mine in Saudi - did it in Egypt. I know exactly what you mean about the camel spiders and the scorpions. (What was your hottest day? Ours was 157 F - spent filling sandbags.)

[risk]

Whatever will happen, it apparently needs to be profitable to the right people, or else it'll be off the table for consideration. Too bad defending America's borders, torching Iran's nuclear program, and eradicating the funding sources of Hamas, Lashkar-e-Omar, and al Qaeda may still be considered "too expensive." And too bad we keep worrying about muslim rage instead of making sure that it doesn't have any teeth.

[Hoverbug]

We'll count up the number of 9/11 terrorists that were Saudi, and act accordingly.

Hard to bomb a place when your own troops are there.

HB

[11B3]

Yeah, we need to turn any 'Muslim rage' into extreme Muslim fear. The 'Arab street' is an oxymoron anyway - they have very few streets.

The first thing I thought getting off the plane over there and surveying the landscape was "why the hell does anyone fight for this crap?"

[An American in Turkiye]

Hottest day was well over 125. We were in tents at the time, and we lost power (of course). No one could stand to be in the tents with it so hot. We'd all head over to the pool. The french and brits were there as well, and it was sickening seeing a bunch of french in speedos.

[Democratshavenobrains]

This just means that the Blame America Firsters have one less thing on their list to whine about.