I believe the point he was making was that they were/are the US's proxy wrt. foreign policy. Not being able to fly there is congruent with "does not carry even

I believe the point he was making was that they were/are the US's proxy wrt. foreign policy. Not being able to fly there is congruent with "does not carry even one American soldier." The thing about proxies is that you're not always in complete control of them but the benefits often far outweigh the costs. You can confirm both of those conditions by looking at a lot of parts of the Syrian Civil War.