Did Nicholas Kristof hang himself with a noose of his own pacifist design?

After the first gulf war, the United States retained bases in Saudi Arabia on the assumption that they would enhance American security. Instead, they appear to have provoked fundamentalists like Osama bin Laden into attacking the U.S. In other words, hugely expensive bases undermined American security (and we later closed them anyway). Wouldn’t our money have been better spent helping American kids get a college education?

In point of fact, we had those bases to contain Saddam. I’m glad someone is willing to acknowledge that the cost of containment was high.