Pick up the phone? Who's he gonna call? Al-Queda?
It makes strategic sense if you think about it from a foreigners point of view.
As soon as American boots hit the ground, it's an occupation. That gives the whackos in caves ammo to feed their followers to recruit people to try to kill us. As long as its American bombs and not boots, nobody can call it an "occupation."
I'm not picking on you. You aren't the only one skimming the surface and assuming a safety posture on this thread. But did the media provide you this theory recently? It seeems to be the Washington concensus of late. I would think by now that when people see a difference of opinion between the military and our civilian handlers (who are always so very safe from harm) that people would step back and question the theories...
First of all, without any occupation anywhere in the Middle East, Saayid Qutb branded the US as the "enemy of God." His extremely famous writings in the 1950s are root instructions and legitimization for every single radical nut job between Cairo and Islamabad. Every "good" Muslims holds them dear as a guarantee of God's favor. These writings are Muslim Brotherhood celebrated and virtually every single Sunni terrorist has been a member. Therefore, hating us doesn't take "occupation."
All they need now is an excuse to fight for God. With Mullahs declaring Pikachu as a Japanese attempt to divert the attention of the children of the world away from God, there is nothing that we can do to convince the faithful that we are not their enemy. With globalization spreading Western culture, especially American, across the world since the 1950s, there is nothing we can do to prevent the "assault on Islam." We do not occupy Jordan, yet thousands of Sunni gave their lives in Iraq to defend the tribe (not God). We do not occupy Iran, yet Iranian leaders have spent 32 years using our past presence to gain support at election polls. We were not occupying Iraq, yet being blamed for the "starving children" by Osama Bin Laden and his ilk (rightfully so I might add). We were not occupying Afghanistan before 9/11 and we gave their monsters their "freedom" to oppress and abuse. We were not occupying Libya, yet Guddafi used our position within Islam as his rallying cry to fight the radical fight (before Reagan bombed out his family). We have been the only nation on Earth that has been trying so hard to being peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. We have done so without occupation. Yet because we won't allow the Arab masses to commit Israeli genocide from decade to decade we give them excuse. In other words, merely conducting business with governments allows any Muslim in the region a way to blame the "foriegn devil" so that they don't have to blame their own rotten culture, thereby questioning God. Every bad mistake or malicious social abuse committed by a Muslims seems to easily get to be pinned on America. And the Western masses have eaten this garbage up. Why? Because it means that they don't have to think about it. Self-flaggelation is always so self-righteous. But the truth is that, even those who are rather fond of tearing down their own Western governments for every imperfection in the colonial and Cold War past, find themselves refusing responisbility for the present and future. We have saved the lives of Muslims in Bosnia and Kuwait. We rid Afghanis of the Taliban. We gave Iraqis the power to ignite democracy and social justice in the region. Before this, we spared the entire region the pain of being influenced by the Soviets (ask any Muslim in the Caucusus or Afghanistan how that feels). Yet, we are the "Great Satan" and all that is wrong in the region? One might assume that their are no mirrors in the Middle East.
YET...people have been fooled into thinking the simple and assuming that if we just only didn't put a base in Saudi than all would be right in the world. Well, too bad. If the Middle East wants to have a place in this world, then their radical base has to accept what that means. It means an influx of global culture. It means (and as can be seen by the latest Arab League's desparate plea to America) that begging for outside help in ordeer to deal with their own cultural creations means a presence of some kind. It means that as far back as Saddam's invasion into Kuwait that their Arab leaders have done nothing to guarantee the Muslim people that they are being taken care of. Try as they may, they can not turn back the clock to the so called "Golden Age of Islam." Muslims can't bring back Muhammad anymore than Christians can bring back Jesus.
Afghanistan - Iraq - Tunisia - Egypt - Libya - Yemen (actually a dangerous one) - Saudi Arabia - Jordan - Pakistan - and every other place where the theme of religion is the same, the theme of social justice is the same, the theme of radicalization is the same, the theme of poverty and absent education is the same, and the demand for prosperity and a future is the same, has always been about the same damn effort your military men and women have been struggling with since 9/11. Pretending that they are separate because your map shows a bad border on it is foolish. Most of the Middle East don't recognize these lines.
A beareded old man in a cave was always for the simple folk. He and every other mouthpiece or explosion have always been mere symptoms of a larger disease. They all come from somewhere. And since somewhere is a region then we must start adressing the woes of this region. It was always going to happen. Hundreds of millions of people don't go through European colonialism and Cold War prescription to maintain those prior greedy and selfish mistakes without a consequence. Yugoslavia cracking apart was a mere concidence to the end of the Cold War? Hussein's invasion into Kuwait was mere coincidence? Genocide in Rwanda and Sudan was mere coincidence? The freedom of the Middle Eastern radical base to unify into a boom of organizational growth was a coincidence? The people are finally screaming for something better than the dictator on their own now. Simple people, who were without analysis and proper practicalism criticized "democracy in Iraq" and assumed to be able to point out that our bombs can't force it. I argued then that that was not the future for this region. Well, here we are with the Middle East rising up against their leaders without our bombs and we sit back and pretend that we are clueless or that we don't know who to support. We have an obligation to assist those people not only for them, but for us. The Cold War is long over. It's past time to start acting like it.
Who gives a **** if they call it an occupation? The most powerful nation in history is actually afraid of a bunch of religious fanatics that make up an extreme minority in the region. We aren't deserving of our historical status of late. Especially when a bunch of Qu'ran wielding ignorant murderers get to call the shots of our activity. If only they were wielding Bibles or defending the Ten Commandments on a court house wall. Then we would know the danger and demand "right," huh?