(Image source: The New York Times)

BY ZACH TOOMBS

Call it the post-exit-strategy strategy. The New York Times reports Sunday that the Obama administration plans to bolster U.S. military presence in the Middle East after pulling remaining troops out of Iraq at the end of the year.

“(The) repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran... Ending the eight-year war was a central pledge of (Obama’s) presidential campaign, but American military officers and diplomats, as well as officials of several countries in the region, worry that the withdrawal could leave instability or worse in its wake.”

FOX News reports the new plan includes a reshuffling, not just for U.S. troops in the region, but also for U.S. warships.

“Well, troops in Iraq are expected to be home by year’s end, but now we’re learning the Obama administration will reportedly beef up our military presence in the Persian Gulf after the Iraq troop withdrawal... This new plan also calls for sending naval warships to international waters within that region.”

The plan also signals U.S. efforts to work in cooperation with other Middle Eastern nations, building ties with a support group of allies in the region. MSNBC has more.

“Now we’re talking about an over-the-horizon force. As reported in The New York Times, more troops in neighboring Kuwait, of course, just to the south of Iraq and working with the Gulf Cooperation Council, this is a consortium, sort of a group within the Persian Gulf -- it includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates -- to try to come together to position forces around Iraq but not in Iraq to try to keep that country together.”

According to The New York Times, the plan looks something like the U.S. troop presence in the Middle East throughout the 1990s, after the Persian Gulf war in 1991. The Central Command’s chief of staff  told the Times he’s calling the plan “Back to the Future.”

“We are kind of thinking of going back to the way it was before we had a big ‘boots on the ground’ presence … I think it is healthy. I think it is efficient. I think it is practical.”

Still no word on just how many troops the U.S. would station in the region. And no confirmation from the White House on the report just yet.

Transcript by Newsy.