Democratic presidential hopefuls started Tuesday’s debate by slamming President Donald Trump’s Iran policy and articulating their own vision for the future US force posture in the Middle East.

Former Vice President Joe Biden vowed to “leave troops in the Middle East in terms of patrolling the Gulf,” characterizing the roughly 40,000 US troops currently stationed in the Arab Gulf states as “a small number of troops.” He also called it “a mistake to pull out the small number of troops that are there now to deal with [the Islamic State],” vowing to leave US special forces in place to deal with the terrorist group.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., did not directly address troop levels at the debate, but told Al-Monitor last week that “I will do my best as president to bring our troops home as soon as possible, but I will not do it through a tweet. I will not do it by creating a situation where we get kicked out of the country [Iraq].” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., took a similar line at the debate, stating, “We need to get our combat troops out.”

Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., both criticized Trump for adding thousands of troops to the region in recent months. Buttigieg argued, “We can continue to remain engaged without having an endless commitment of ground troops.” And Klobuchar vowed to “leave some troops there, but not in the level that Donald Trump is taking us right now.”