What happens if Saudi Arabia goes the way of Iraq? Looks like it might

So good to see the wogs falling into line.

Or will they too be hiring mercenaries? Now that the U.S. has pulled of Saudi, are they vulnerable? And by whom?

...in power. I think they are vulnerable from the inside. Their own people may want some freedom? Here is the latest.

Don

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L13278117.htm

Militants kill four Saudi policemen - source

RIYADH, April 13 (Reuters) - Suspected Muslim militants killed four Saudi policemen on Tuesday at checkpoints along a road north of Riyadh, a Saudi security source said.

The source also told Reuters that police had managed to defuse explosives packed into two cars in northern Riyadh. Militants fought a gunbattle with police in Riyadh on Monday.

more

still defending the Saudi's?

people in the usa will be walking and alot more will be hungry and without a home.

I mean unless you are talking about global climate change, which, neither will have much power over.

Anyway we still do a fair amount of American Oil to go through.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

Grand strategy for the Middle East

• Iraq is the tactical pivot

• Saudi Arabia the strategic pivot

• Egypt the prize

http://slate.msn.com/id/2069119/#powerpoint

I suppose these propaganda thingies must always have three components, but you don't think the "prize" idea was tongue-in-cheek ?

Mostly.

The ruling family are all living the life of Riley while the average Saudi is living in poverty. Kind of like over here in this country.

Don

or they wouldn't be attacking their democratically elected government.

That the instability in Iraq will lead to instability in other Arab nations.

And for some odd reason, those who constantly complain about how Kerry is an imperialist like Bush* never seem to notice that the PNAC's plan is jumping into Stage 2

Sophisticated arms sales to Saudi Arabia spurring regional arms races

With billions of petro-dollars, Saudi Arabia has been buying very modern, deadly weapons from America.

Many of the systems on order, such as the M-1A2 Abrams main battle tank, M-2A2 Bradley armored vehicles, F-15E Strike Eagle attack aircraft and Patriot surface-to-air missile, are the top-of-the-line systems deployed with U.S. forces.

A flurry of expensive arms sales followed the 1990-91 Gulf War. However, long before Iraq invaded Kuwait, Saudi Arabia sought to obtain America’s most sophisticated weaponry in order to counterbalance its much more populous regional rivals-Iran and Iraq. From 1986-93, these three countries accounted for nearly 40 percent of all arms exports to developing world countries. Saudi Arabia imported $55.6 billion in arms, Iraq imported $22.7 billion, and Iran imported $13.9 billion. (Richard F. Grimmett, Congressional Research Service, Conventional Arms Transfers to the Third World, 1986-93," 29 July 1994)

Recent U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia have dramatically raised the level of military technology in the region, spurring arms races with other Persian Gulf states and with Israel.  Having denied Egypt’s request for the sale of Apache helicopters equipped with Longbow radar, the U.S. government has approved the possible sale of this technology to Saudi Arabia.  This move opens the way for a further shift in the balance of power and technology in this region.

The sale of F-15E bombers provides a good case study of how others respond to sales of high-tech U.S. arms. Saudi Arabia had sought to buy the jet in the mid-1980s, but Congress opposed the sale on the grounds that it would threaten Israel. (While relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia improved following the Gulf War, the two are technically still in a state of war.) In September 1992, the Bush Administration and Congress approved the export of 48 of the aircraft to Saudi Arabia, largely on the basis of an aggressive "jobs now" campaign waged by McDonnell Douglas (MD), the manufacturer of the aircraft. The Air Force was finished procuring the jet, and so MD devised a national campaign to promote the controversial sale explicitly on the number of jobs that it would sustain (see Arms Sales Monitor No. 16 and No. 17). The sale got caught up in presidential politics, with then-candidate Bill Clinton endorsing the deal while on a campaign stop in St. Louis, where the jet is manufactured. Shortly thereafter President Bush announced his support for the sale while at a campaign-style rally at the McDonnell Douglas factory.

This was the first time the jet--which can deliver twelve tons of bombs 1,000 miles--had been exported to any nation. Only two years previously, the plane was rushed into service with the U.S.Air Force for the Gulf War, where it was used on hundreds of deep-strike bombing raids. The Saudi planes will be less capable than U.S. F-15E jets: they will carry less ordnance and are not currently slated to carry AMRAAM or HARM missiles, and the radar will have a lower resolution. Nevertheless, this was the most sophisticated combat aircraft the United States had ever exported...until a year and a half later, when the Clinton Administration and Congress agreed to give Israel 21 F-15E bombers with greater capabilities, in order to maintain Israel's qualitative military edge over Saudi Arabia. --- http://fas.org/asmp/profiles/saudi_arabia.htm