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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Robert Tait in Washington

The US has deployed troops in the Middle East. Can it avoid a ‘commitment trap’?

A US air force airman offloads a Thaad launcher from a C-17 Globe Master III at Nevatim Air Base, Israel, in 2019.
A US air force airman offloads a Thaad launcher from a C-17 Globe Master III at Nevatim Air Base, Israel, in 2019. Photograph: Robert Durr/DVIDS/AFP/Getty Images

News of the surprise attack and the loss of life had a shattering effect when it reached the Pentagon.

“It was the worst day of my life. It was almost like Pearl Harbor,” recalled Larry Korb, then the US assistant defense secretary and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington thinktank.

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