‘US is determined to stay in Gulf’

American troops may be pulling out of Iraq, but they're staying in the Gulf region. Kuwait is top of the list of countries likely to take US troops in. News editor Jason Ditz says that the US is after control of the Middle East.

The Pentagon says stability in the Middle East is a priority. Jason Ditz, editor at Antiwar.com, told RT that the real priority for the US is to keep its forces in the region so as to be poised to launch attacks into Iraq – whether the Iraqi government agrees to them or not.Ditz believes that as long as US media continues to report that they are out of the combat zone most people will probably believe that the war is really over.“Last year the US ‘ended’ combat operations by redefining all combat troops in the country as non-combat troops. It was touted on [US TV] channels as the end of the Iraq war. It hasn’t been broadly covered ever since. A lot of people aren’t even really aware that the war is still going on,” he said.Ditz says that putting pressure on Iran is also a goal of the US government. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said this move is proof of an ongoing commitment to the future of the region. Ditz argues that “in reality it’s an ongoing commitment to try to interfere in a region in which the US track record is far from stellar.”However, according to Ditz, the invasion of Iran seems highly unlikely: “As far as this being a threat to invade Iran, it would be a very impractical way to launch such an invasion. If you look at a map Kuwait doesn’t border Iran. It’s not that far away from Iran but you’ve got Basra right in between, which is a major Shiite city in Iraq.”