'America's is still a considerable military footprint & firepower in the Persian Gulf'

"... it's clear that the Obama administration is concerned about courting the impression that a U.S. pullout from Iraq would leave a critical opening for Iran to fill in the region--or that the United States would look to be retreating from Iraq under Iranian pressure. With that in mind, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta have stressed America's still considerable military footprint and firepower in the Persian Gulf ...
Panetta notes that the United States has some 40,000 U.S. troops stationed in and around the Persian Gulf--"23,000 American troops in Kuwait, 7,500 in Qatar, 5,000 in Bahrain and nearly 3,000 in the United Arab Emirates," Pincus wrote, citing the Defense Secretary's figures. And of course, there are still some 100,000 troops stationed  on the other side of Iran in Afghanistan.
"We will always have a force that will be present and that will deal with any threats from Iran, so no one, most particularly Iran, should miscalculate about our continuing commitment to and with the Iraqis going forward," Clinton said ... "We have bases in neighboring countries, we have our NATO ally in Turkey, we have a lot of presence in that region."..."