DEFENSE/IRAN/MILITARY/OIL/SAUDI ARABIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump is sending a modest deployment of American troops to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, along with air and missile defense systems, in response to the attacks on Saudi oil facilities, which the administration blames on Iran. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper called the decision, which came on Friday [9-20-19] during a White House meeting with top national security officials, ‘defensive in nature.’ Defense Department officials said the Pentagon would deploy additional antimissile batteries to Saudi Arabia and might also deploy additional warplanes. The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln may extend its stay in the region as well, the officials said. Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the precise number of American troops headed to the region had not been determined, but that it would be a ‘moderate deployment’ in the hundreds, not thousands.”
–Helene Cooper and Michael Crowley, “Trump Focuses on Defending Saudis, Not Striking Iran, for Now,” The New York Times online, September 20, 2019