After the U.S. fight against Islamic State wound down, the Pentagon came up with a recipe for keeping watch over the Middle East while using the bulk of its forces to deal with the greater threats it saw from China and Russia.

       The U.S. would cut back its military presence in the region to a handful of ships, a couple of Air Force squadrons and a few thousand troops in Iraq and Syria. Carrier battle groups wouldn’t be stationed regularly in the region.

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