My guess on why we opted on a 3,000 mile round trip is not due to the lack of forward base options but because we are so over-stretched and under-resourced that we don't anymore have the AT (air transport/logistic) "tail" to forward deploy any offensive air assets.
OK as a one-off mission I suppose, but hardly sustainable long term. Another example of military options being sacrificed as a result of SDR.
MB