We removed our bases from Saudi Arabia because the Saudi's requested that we remove them.
What was their reason for asking? I suspect that our presence there was an irritant to most Muslims....not just Osama, and yet the Saudis & Kuwaitis wanted & needed help in containing Saddam.
How could we protect the Southern no-fly zone without the Sultan base?
Do you really think we would have left without protecting the people in the no fly zones?
Actually, it's the idiots in SA who demanded we leave that created the need to take out Saddam. Millions of Iraqis would have been slaughtered if we left them unprotected, and millions of Kuwaitis would have followed after that. The Saudis would have come next.