![United States President Donald Trump (L), US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (C) and US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine (R) speak outside the Oval Office of the White House before boarding Marine One en route to Dover, Delaware, on March 18, 2026, in Washington DC, United States. [Celal Güneş - Anadolu Agency]](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AA-20260318-40864573-40864552-UNITED_STATES_PRESIDENT_DONALD_TRUMP.jpg)
In recent days, major US and international media outlets, including The Washington Post, Sky News and The Wall Street Journal, have focused on Washington’s reassessment of its military footprint in the Middle East after the Iran war, while Turkey’s Anadolu Agency has closely followed these reports. Reports by these outlets have discussed reviews being conducted by the US Department of War concerning the redeployment of forces in the Middle East, reductions in the US military presence there, and the absence of plans to rebuild bases that were damaged. These reports attribute this undertaking to the extensive damage sustained by US bases during the war and argue that their presence exposed the vulnerability of the model of large fixed bases located […]
