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| Arabia |
| US pulls out of Saudi Arabia |
| 2003-04-29 |
| EFL The United States has said that virtually all its troops, except some training personnel, are to be pulled out of Saudi Arabia. The decision was announced as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived in the Gulf kingdom for talks with senior Saudi officials. A top US military official said the decision was taken by a "very mutual agreement" with the Saudi Government and that the withdrawal would be completed by the end of the summer. Earlier on Tuesday, the US military confirmed that it was moving its air command centre from Saudi Arabia to the al-Udeid air base in neighbouring Qatar. US Rear Admiral David Nichols said the Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) at the Prince Sultan base in Saudi Arabia would be closed by the end of the summer. "We already have switched, as of yesterday (Monday)," Admiral Nichols told reporters travelling with Mr Rumsfeld. But, he added, the base would remain wired and could be used again if the US and Saudi Arabia decided it was necessary. The admiral said the decision had been agreed with the Saudi authorities, adding that all US aircraft using the Prince Sultan base would be removed by the middle of the year. "When you no longer have Southern Watch, then it's self-evident that you no longer need bodies here," he said. So long, thanks for nothing. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #10 Do you realize what HUGE news this is for the military - particularly the Air Force?... SOUTHERN WATCH rotations were a fact of life for those guys for MANY years - any person joining the military after the first Gulf War does not remember an Air Force that did NOT deploy to Saudi on a continuous basis... This Saudi rotation act was directly the cause for untold numbers of fed-up, mid-level NCO's and first term enlistees leaving the service! and now its over... Quite frankly, with unemployment up, and operations SOUTHERN and NORTHERN WATCH ended, I don't think we're going to see the degree of retention problems that we have been living with in the military for the past decade or so... I'm actually tremendously excited for the friends that I have that are still in the Air Force - we had all assumed that Prince Sultan would eventually become a permanent duty station -- guess the government meant it when they said it was temporary - it only SEEMED like forever... |
| Posted by: Steve W. 2003-04-29 21:54:15 |
| #9 So what's Old Scratch's Absolutely Murderous Archvillain going to complain about now? Oh, just the overthrow of the Tally Banned and Saddamn; he'll use an inflated # of civilian casualties, |
| Posted by: KP 2003-04-29 16:41:18 |
| #8 The sweetest part about it is. When we have to invade Soddy from Iraq, we'll have a kick ass forward air base, that's just waiting for our arrival. I'm beginning to really like those military planners of ours. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2003-04-29 13:07:07 |
| #7 I'm more worried about catching something... |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-04-29 12:50:14 |
| #6 Do we care? |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-04-29 12:47:18 |
| #5 Will they still respect us? |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-04-29 12:39:04 |
| #4 Did we leave cab fare on the dresser? |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-04-29 10:54:18 |
| #3 U.S. Pulls Out Of Saudi Arabia "a dissatisfied Saudi Arabia expressed frustration afterward, whining: 'it's all about them and once they get what they want, it's over'" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-04-29 09:37:31 |
| #2 So what's Binny gonna bitch about now? That's if he's not a compost heap, which is entirely possible. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-04-29 09:03:28 |
| #1 excellent - finally - If we want to make nice with Saudi this makes it easier - no US troops on "holy soil" stirring things up. If we want to put pressure on the Saudis this makes it easier. And it presumably improves conditions for our troops, especially the females. More fruits of the 3 week war. |
| Posted by: liberalhawk 2003-04-29 08:24:13 |