The US pulled resources out of the Middle East. Now it is rethinking that decision.

In the hours following Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel, American officials rushed to determine if terrorist groups planned to attack troops and diplomats abroad. They immediately struggled.

The U.S. had spent years pulling back intelligence and military resources from the Middle East and shifting focus elsewhere, believing Russia and China posed greater threats. That shift was now being felt more acutely than ever.

Analysts whose work had been focused on other regions were forced to quickly switch to Hamas and the Middle East. As they did, they strained to sift through and make sense of hundreds of reports of potential threats posed by a wide variety of groups, including those backed by Iran.

That effort, and the uncertainty that followed, has forced a reckoning in the highest ranks of the Biden administration’s national security establishment about its Middle East strategy.

Now, amid intense bombardment from Iran-backed groups, more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials, lawmakers and congressional aides say Washington’s deprioritization of the Middle East, and specifically its approach on Iran, has left the U.S. vulnerable. Many were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters.