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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/17/israel-gaza-us-military-middle-east/
As Gaza War Rages, U.S. Military Footprint Expands across Middle East
(Washington Post) Steve Hendrix - U.S. Air Force C-130s are dropping pallets of emergency food aid into northern Gaza. A U.S. Army crew is on its way to Gaza to build a floating pier. Thousands of miles away, U.S. fighter jets and attack helicopters roared off the flight deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to combat Houthi fighters attacking ships in the Red Sea. All are part of the U.S. military's expanding footprint in the Middle East - a region President Biden had hoped to de-emphasize. After the wind-down of the "forever wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration had wanted to pivot and direct its foreign policy power toward countering Russian aggression and Chinese expansionism. However, the war in Gaza has taught Biden a lesson many presidents have learned before: It's not so easy to quit the Middle East.