ABSTRACT
Fortunately, the US has made major progress in evolving new relationships with a number of its Gulf allies which improve its regional presence, power projection capabilities, sustainability, and interoperability with allied forces—although it still faces major limitations in terms of the rapid deployment of heavy land forces. The key problem that the US faces in improving its cooperative arrangements with its Gulf allies is to complete the prepositioning of US Army, Marine Corps, and air equipment to the Gulf. The US feels this prepositioning is essential to improve the speed of US deployment capability, and to provide the ability to deter or halt any sudden Iraqi move against Kuwait. Iran and Iraq can never entirely ignore the capabilities of Israel—particularly as advances in the peace process steadily cut the political liabilities that are likely to be triggered by Israeli intervention in a large-scale Gulf conflict.
