Just because troops and diplomats are out does not mean, all the military contractors are out.

In the secret war of Laos, "sheep dipping" was when U.S. military personnel would officially leave the military to join a defense contractor. This allows them to do covert military operations while officially being considered civilians. This also means that if they are caught, the United States government is not to blame as they are now not directly tied to the U.S. military. This is most definitely still being used today. https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/52/messages/362.html

United States is probably trying to make less direct approaches, probably having military contractors and some CIA to have a unit that stays in the different Middle Eastern countries.

They do not need to nuke countries. Look at the evolution from colonialism to neocolonialism, the West has get smarter after centuries of colonization and wants to look like it has removed its presence on the surface, but in reality it has learned it can manipulated others more under the surface.

This doesn't make sense. There's so much movement heading towards the Middle East that it can only be explained as them trying to reach a specific major objective.

Is this the moment when the possibility of a nuclear attack arises?..

How do you guys interpret this?

Some people are saying that this is in preparation for an upcoming military operation but Trump escalating the Iran war this close to the midterms seems like such a disastrous course of action to commit to for the Republicans.

My first instinct is because they've lost and are hemorrhaging money on all this stuff so they're abandoning it. But on the other hand, the middle east is a critical lever of world power. I don't see U.S. imperialists so easily abandoning the most energy rich region on earth.