Trita Parsi

We're not in the 1950s or 60s, et cetera, in which the geopolitical circumstances were different.

So the US has grown tired of it.

We have four or so presidents in a row promising the American people to bring troops home from the Middle East.

There were even a moment in which the Biden administration was considering, as you remember, there was that forced posture review in the first year or so.

They were considering closing down 17 out of 19 bases.

They ended up not doing so.

And the main argument against it was, well, if we close these bases, the Chinese are going to come in and replace us.

The Chinese would never be so stupid to take on that role.

There's no benefit in it.

They have completely benefited from the fact that we have taken on that stupid role and they have been free riders on this and they will never do anything like that.

But nevertheless, that was part of the reason why the Biden administration didn't do what they at least at one point were seriously considering.

Is that fair to say?

I find it extremely unlikely that 10 years from now, we're going to have that many bases there.

because you have to also ask yourself, first of all, what was the use of these bases?

Every time the United States attacked Iran, it emptied those bases because they knew that the Iranians have the capacity of striking all of those bases.

And in order to minimize any casualties, bases were empty.

The material was even, the equipment was taken out.

So if you can't use the bases in a war, what's the basis there for?

And from the GCC standpoint, they thought that these bases were going to be a deterrent against Iran.

It turned out that they were a magnet, the reason why they were being attacked.