How many troops do we have in Saudi Arabia?

[Gabi Hayes]

that prick John Fund says we've had troops in Turkey for sixty years, AND have them in Saudi Arabia

how many are in Saudi Arabia now?

Is it more than a small handful?

that's what I thought. aren't we in Iraq because we had to get out of Arabia?

and, didn't we pretty much clear out of Turkey as part of the secret agreement with the Soviets following the Cuban Missile Crisis?

[JCMach1]

1. Saudi bases were mothballed

We still maintain a major airforce base in Turkey @ Incirlik... Only missiles were removed because of the Missile Crisis...

We have major US bases in Iraq, Kuwait, and Central Command (HUGE BASE) in Qatar. We have naval refitting/servicing/docking facililites in Bahrein and the UAE. There is a large (secret) British Base in Oman (US troops prob use as well).

French and UAE troops regularly train Iraqi troops at a base less than a km from me... Yes, I said French... you can't believe everything you hear.

[Gabi Hayes]

4. thanks! what are you doing over there, btw?

like that website on your profile, too

[JCMach1]

7. would tell you, but I would have to kill you...

just kidding...

I am a University Professor

[cliss]

2. You are right.

Paul Wolfowitz admitted as much. He said "our troops in Saudi Arabia were a huge Al Qaida reruiting tool. We had to get them out of that country". What happened to the troops?

They're slightly south, a little to the East, around Tikrik (to paraphrase Don Rumsfailed).

[sinkingfeeling]

3. None in Saudi Arabia...Bush caved into bin Laden's demand we remove them.

[Gabi Hayes]

5. you two are SURE about that, right?

which would make Fund a HUGE liar, once again, and Tweety and Margaret Carlson feckless, ignorant wimps, who let it slide, as usual

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Yes, I'll try to find the translated actual words of bin Laden, but this

should do for a while:
1990
The Saudi government allows U.S. troops to be stationed in Saudi Arabia following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which leads to the Persian Gulf War. Bin Laden is outraged by the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, considered the cradle of Islam, and begins to write treatises against the Saudi regime. -
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/shows/binladen/timeline.html

In a CNN interview with bin Laden in 1997, he said the ongoing U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia is an "occupation of the land of the holy places."

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/12/binladen.profile/

He did not take responsibility for the attacks, but said that “not long ago, I gave advice to the Americans to withdraw their troops from Saudi Arabia.” On August 23, 1996, bin Laden issued Al Qaeda’s first “declaration of war” against America, his “Message from Osama bin Laden to his Muslim brothers in the whole world and especially in the Arabian Peninsula: declaration of jihad against the Americans occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques (Saudi Arabia); expel the heretics from the Arabian Peninsula.”- http://www.adl.org/terrorism_america/bin_l.asp


US pulls out of Saudi Arabia


The US was not allowed to carry out air strikes from Saudi Arabia
The United States has said that virtually all its troops, except some training personnel, are to be pulled out of Saudi Arabia. - 4/29/2003 -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2984547.stm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4559.htm
The last American military unit in Saudi Arabia has left the desert kingdom. - 08/28/03 -

[applegrove]

8. It was the only smart thing Bush did after 9/11. The Koran specifically

states that infidels are not allowed near Mecca. So the move the Qatar.

I'm sure there is the odd expert in Saudi Arabia. But bases.. I don't think anymore.