December 13-2013
. . . not leaving Gulf
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told an audience in the Persian Gulf Saturday that the United States plans to keep its current force of 35,000 troops in the Persian Gulf region despite its recent nuclear agreement with Iran.
Hagel spoke to a gathering at Manama in Bahrain in which he gave what was probably the most detailed exposition ever on US military policy in the region. His theme was that the nuclear talks with Iran would not in any way change the US commitment of conventional forces in the region.
In fact, he actually proposed expanding the military arrangement and clearly leaned on the Arab states of the Persian Gulf to forge a closer military relationship. The Arab states have always talked about that but have done little about it. Hagel said the United States doesn’t want to continue selling arms just to each individual state but wants to sell them to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as an entity, essentially leaning on the six countries to make a joint military a reality.
The GCC is comprised of Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia—all six Arab states across the Persian Gulf from Iran.
Hagel’s speech was clearly meant to assuage common fears in the region that the United States will abandon it after reaching a nuclear deal with Iran—or, worse, will make Iran its ally as in the 1970s, ignoring the interests if the Arabs.
Hagel said, “We have not diminished our focus on the challenges imposed by Iran. For decades, Iran has exported instability and violence across the region and beyond, as it continued to develop its nuclear program. Iran has been a profoundly destabilizing influence, and a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an unacceptable threat to regional and global stability.”
But Hagel said it isn’t just Iran’s nuclear program that makes it a regional threat. “Iran’s nuclear program is only one dimension of the threats Iran poses in the region. I’m briefed virtually every day about these threats. That’s why we remain committed to ballistic missile defense for our partners here in the region and for Europe.”
He warned his audience not to confuse the US effort to rely on diplomacy for dealing with Iran as the abandonment of any willingness to use US armed force in the region. “Our emphasis on diplomatic tools should not be misinterpreted. We know diplomacy cannot operate in a vacuum. Our success will continue to hinge on America’s military power, the credibility of our assurances to our allies and partners in the Middle East that we will use it. They have bound the United States together with nations of this region for decades through administrations, all administrations, the administrations of both political parties, from Eisenhower to Obama. These commitments are not open for negotiation.”
Then he got down to specifics: “The Department of Defense will continue to maintain a strong military posture in the [Persian] Gulf region, one that can respond swiftly to crisis, deter aggression, and assure our allies. DOD [Department of Defense] will not make any adjustments to its forces in the region or to its military planning as a result of the interim agreement with Iran.”
Some noted that he specified the “interim” agreement with Iran, and said nothing about the US posture after a permanent agreement is reached.
“As we have withdrawn US forces from Iraq, are drawing down our forces in Afghanistan, and rebalancing toward the Asia Pacific, we have honored our commitment to [Persian] Gulf security by enhancing our military capabilities in the region. We have a ground, air and naval presence of more than 35,000 military personnel in and immediately around the Gulf. Two years after our drawdown from Iraq, the US Army continues to maintain more than 10,000 forward-deployed soldiers in the region, along with heavy armor, artillery, and attack helicopters to serve as a theater reserve and a bulwark against aggression.
“We’ve deployed our most advanced fighter aircraft throughout the region, including F-22s [the US Air Force’s most modern fighter aircraft], to ensure that we can quickly respond to contingencies. Coupled with our unique munitions, no target is beyond our reach. We’ve deployed our most advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to provide a continuous picture of activities in and around the Gulf. And we have fielded an array of missile defense capabilities, including ballistic missile defense ships, Patriot [anti-aircraft] batteries, and sophisticated radar.
“As part of our efforts to ensure freedom of navigation throughout the Gulf, we routinely maintain a naval presence of over 40 ships in the broader region, including a carrier strike group, and conduct a range of freedom of navigation operations. These operations include approximately 50 transits of the Strait of Hormuz over the past six months,” or about two every week despite regular Iranian complaints and ignoring Iran’s insistence to the Iranian public that the US Navy cannot move ships into the Persian Gulf without Iranian approval.
Hagel continued with his exposition on US military forces in the region. “Earlier this year, we ramped up our minesweeping capabilities and added five coastal patrol ships to our fleet in this region. We are currently working on a $580 million construction program to support the expansion of Fifth Fleet capabilities. Yesterday, I visited the Navy’s new afloat forward staging base, the USS Ponce, a unique platform for special operations, as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in areas where we do not have a permanent fixed presence.”
He said, “Going forward, the Department of Defense will place even more emphasis on building the capacity of our partners in order to complement our strong military presence in the region. Our goal is for our allies and partners in this region to be stronger and more capable in dealing with common threats.
“A key vehicle for increasing partner capabilities is foreign military sales and financing. Over the last 20 years, the sale of advanced weapons has helped to shift the military balance in the region away from Iran and in favor of our [Persian] Gulf partners, and this shift is accelerating. DOD has approved more than $75 billion in US arms sales to GCC states since 2007. These sales during the past six years are worth nearly as much as those made in the previous 15 years.”
Then he proposed an initiative designed to try to force the GCC states into a functioning military alliance, something the United States has urged for three decades without much success.
“The United States continues to believe that a multilateral framework is the best way to … deter and, if necessary, defeat coercion and aggression.… We would like to expand our security cooperation with partners in the region by working in a coordinated way with the GCC, including through the sales of US defense articles through the GCC as an organization. This is a natural next step in improving … US-GCC collaboration, and it will enable the GCC to acquire critical military capabilities, including items for ballistic missile defense, maritime security and counter-terrorism.”
This would require the GCC to form a joint force to operate the equipment sold to it.