Saudi public anger forced a nominal U.S. withdrawal, but bases stayed warm and secret.

Evidence

Even in Saudi Arabia, where widespread anger at the U.S. military presence led to a public withdrawal in 2003, a small U.S. military contingent has remained to train Saudi personnel and keep bases “warm” as potential backups for future conflicts. In recent years, the U.S. military also established a secret drone base in the country. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 101

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to documented patterns where nominal base withdrawals conceal continued secret presence; echoes of the ‘warm base’ retention logic the reader tracks across chapters.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 101