Six sources told CNN that military and intelligence officials have held quiet talks about shrinking the usual U.S. presence of people and facilities in the Middle East if the Trump administration brings the Iran conflict to an end. Such a reduction would represent another change in how the American national security system handles a region that presidents from both parties have repeatedly tried to step away from. After the September 11, 2001, attacks, the United States sharply expanded a lasting network of military and intelligence sites used to fight wars and carry out strikes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Yemen, and Libya. Sources said the recent fighting with Iran has exposed serious weak spots in those American facilities. Many of the sites have come under repeated Iranian attack during a war that has left 18 American service members dead. The remains of Army 1st Lt. Tyler Feehan and Army Staff Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton arrived at Dover Air Force Base on July 22 as part of a dignified transfer for military casualties from the war with Iran. Officials discuss a smaller footprint and stronger defenses as attacks continue The conversations are happening while roughly 50,000 troops and a large set of military assets remain in the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers and more than a dozen guided-missile destroyers. One of the sources said CIA officers who were pulled out during the peak of the fighting earlier this year are now being sent back to the region. Sources said the U.S. military is also reviewing ways to better protect the troops expected to stay in the region after the war ends. That review includes placing some installations underground so they can better withstand missile and drone strikes like those Iran used during the months-long conflict, according to two sources familiar with the talks. The Pentagon had discussed burying some regional bases before, but the idea took on fresh urgency after the opening weeks of the war showed how exposed the sites were to Iranian drones and missiles. “The vulnerabilities were always known, but the US never acted on it with urgency,” said one of the sources, a U.S. official. Two of the sources said the military has prepared several possible plans for changing the U.S. force layout in the Middle East as early as next year. They added that it would not make sense to give up those key launch locations while fighting is still underway. The Office of the Secretary of Defense referred questions to U.S. Central Command. The U.S. military began building a larger Middle East presence in the years before 9/11 and kept about 27,000 active-duty troops in the region starting in 1998. After the September 11 attacks, that footprint grew to support the war in Afghanistan, then Iraq, and then a widening set of counterterrorism campaigns. Two years after the attacks, an estimated 250,000 U.S. troops were in the Middle East during the Iraq invasion. Publicly available estimates show the number of Americans in the region never fell below about 100,000 between 2007 and 2011. In 2011, then-President Barack Obama said “the tide of war is receding” in Afghanistan and announced plans to start drawing down tens of thousands of troops. Full withdrawal from Afghanistan did not come for another decade. That same year, Obama removed combat troops from Iraq, only to send forces back later after ISIS rose in the vacuum. Even after 2011, the U.S. troop total in the Middle East stayed between 30,000 and 60,000. U.S. policymakers continued to treat the potential threat from Iran as a major concern, especially proxy groups that carried out fatal attacks on American service members in Iraq. Sources said planners are discussing possible cuts even though the United States appears no closer to a settlement that would end the conflict with Iran. These strikes have been part of a broader pattern of Iranian retaliation, such as when Iran launched drone and missile attacks on U.S. military bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan. Iran has kept targeting U.S. bases and forces, striking American installations in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates last week after the two sides had gone about a month without exchanging fire. U.S. officials said the damage has been substantial. One U.S. official and a former intelligence officer said an Iranian attack effectively destroyed the CIA’s outpost in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Sources said Iranian drones and missiles have also hit American military installations in Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, and the damage has been significant. Two U.S. officials said some officials at the CIA and the military’s elite special operations command have considered whether the same sensitive work can be done without permanent bases. Under that approach, personnel and equipment would stay in the United States, deploy to the Middle East for individual missions, and then return home. One official and two other sources familiar with the talks said the U.S. government may simply decide not to rebuild some assets that Iranian attacks badly damaged or destroyed, partly because of cost. Pentagon officials have publicly declined to say what they might rebuild. In April, Pentagon comptroller Jules “Jay” Hurst III told reporters it was not clear how much it would cost to repair bases and facilities damaged in the war with Iran, “and part of it is we would assess what our posture should be in the Middle East.” Hurst later added that the Pentagon does not “have a final number for what the damage is to our installations overseas,” and it depends “on how we decide to rebuild those, or if we do.” Three sources familiar with the talks said senior Pentagon officials have privately made clear they want to reduce the U.S. military’s troop presence in several Gulf countries and shift more of the defense burden onto regional partners. Sources said there has been no official process or direct order for a formal force posture review. Officials across the military and the CIA are instead watching the fact that the military is still escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz, striking Iranian infrastructure, and threatening further attacks even as President Donald Trump is known to change course quickly. “Is there an implicit task? Is there something coming down the pike where we need to be prepared to go, or are we sitting [forward] just in case?” said another U.S. official, describing the tone of the discussions. Former officers and historians said the CIA was searching for a mission when the 9/11 attacks occurred. After those attacks, the agency hired heavily and built a much larger cadre of paramilitary officers who carried weapons and worked closely with the U.S. military to hunt terrorists. Both the CIA and the military then lived through the rises and falls of a two-decade involvement in a region presidents of both parties sometimes wanted to leave. Obama tried to move American military and intelligence resources toward Asia. Trump’s first national security strategy named China as America’s top threat. The word “pivot” became a running joke in national security circles because later events, including the rise of ISIS and Trump’s first-term decision to kill top Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, kept drawing the United States back into the Middle East. CNN has reported that top U.S. military leaders have recently warned Trump that combat options for escalating the conflict with Iran are unlikely to achieve his stated objectives. Internal Pentagon debates over Iran strategy have sometimes spilled into public view, as when military leaders reportedly warned Hegseth against extending operations. The president has instead focused on increasing economic pressure in hopes of weakening the regime. There is no clear timeline for how long that approach might take, and many analysts believe Iran’s current leadership may be willing to absorb months of economic pain and is unlikely to give in soon. One of the sources told CNN that Pentagon officials broadly expect to keep some of the large permanent military bases in the region, but rebuilding them may depend on whether the host nation helps cover a cost that would likely run into the billions of dollars. The source added that many of those bases were first built and paid for by the countries where they sit. U.S. troops and bases in neighboring countries will almost certainly face more Iranian attacks in the near term. The Navy’s top admiral said last week that personnel would not be returning to Bahrain, the traditional home of the 5th Fleet, “anytime soon.” “We’re not getting back in there anytime soon,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle said. “I just want to be completely honest with that.”