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Why Saudi Arabia can’t get a nuclear weapon
Washington Post ^ | 6-11-15 | Fareed Zakaria

Posted on 06/11/2015 7:23:33 PM PDT by Second Amendment First

Of the many unnerving aspects of the future of the Middle East, a nuclear arms race would top the list. And to feed that unease, Saudi Arabia has been periodically dropping hints that, should Iran’s nuclear ambitions go unchecked, it might just have to get nuclear weapons itself. This week, the Saudi ambassador to London made yet another explicit threat, warning that “all options will be on the table.”

Oh, please! Saudi Arabia isn’t going to build a nuclear weapon. Saudi Arabia can’t build a nuclear weapon. Saudi Arabia hasn’t even built a car.

Where would Saudi Arabia train the scientists to work on its secret program? The country’s education system is backward and dysfunctional, having been largely handed over to its puritanical and reactionary religious establishment. The country ranks 73rd in the quality of its math and science education, according to the World Economic Forum — abysmally low for a rich country. Iran, despite 36 years of sanctions and a much lower per capita GDP, fares far better at 44.

And who would work in Saudi Arabia’s imagined nuclear industry? In a penetrating book, Karen Elliott House, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, describes the Saudi labor market: “One of every three people in Saudi Arabia is a foreigner. Two out of every three people with a job of any sort are foreign. And in Saudi Arabia’s anemic private sector, fully nine out of ten people holding jobs are non-Saudi. . . . Saudi Arabia, in short, is a society in which all too many men do not want to work at jobs for which they are qualified; in which women by and large aren’t allowed to work; and in which, as a result, most of the work is done by foreigners.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: fareedzakaria
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1 posted on 06/11/2015 7:23:33 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First

They don’t need to build one. Israel will sell them one.


2 posted on 06/11/2015 7:25:00 PM PDT by chopperman
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To: Second Amendment First

They would buy them...


3 posted on 06/11/2015 7:25:30 PM PDT by glasseye
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To: Second Amendment First
Tom Lehrer: "Who's Next?"
4 posted on 06/11/2015 7:29:00 PM PDT by Publius ("Who is John Galt?" by Billthedrill and Publius now available at Amazon.)
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To: chopperman
They probably already paid for most of the stockpile in Pakistan.

The is no length to which a liberal will not go to maintain his delusional worldview.

5 posted on 06/11/2015 7:29:02 PM PDT by FredZarguna (It looks just like a Telefunken U-47 -- with leather.)
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To: Second Amendment First

Pakistan has already agreed to sell them weapons.


6 posted on 06/11/2015 7:29:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You can help: https://donate.tedcruz.org/c/FBTX0095/)
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To: Second Amendment First

I have read Saudi will get them from Pakistan. They have the money to pay whatever Pakistan wants.


7 posted on 06/11/2015 7:29:50 PM PDT by Marcella (TED CRUZ Prepping can save your life today. Going Galt is freedom.)
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To: Second Amendment First
I would think Pok-e-ston can come up with something for a nominal fee.

But that ruins the pro-Obunga narrative, doesn't it?

8 posted on 06/11/2015 7:29:55 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: glasseye

They’re going to have to pay someone to live there and install and maintain them. The locals are not into forced labor like North Korea. Good luck on that.


9 posted on 06/11/2015 7:30:17 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Publius

Tom Lehrer
That takes me back to a long time ago.
Loved the “Vatican Rag”.


10 posted on 06/11/2015 7:33:08 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First

Saudis had the bucks, Pakis had the brains.

The Saudis FINANCED Pakistan’s nuke research.

That’s a handy chit and it’s getting CALLED IN.

OF COURSE they’re going to get a bomb, just not right away.


11 posted on 06/11/2015 7:33:16 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: chopperman

Pakistan supposedly has them ready to go, all boxed up, payment already made.


12 posted on 06/11/2015 7:33:43 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day".)
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To: The Antiyuppie

Poke-ee-stahn is close enough to Iran to easily provide the final delivery on behalf of SA.


13 posted on 06/11/2015 7:37:10 PM PDT by Paladin2 (Ive given up on aphostrophys and spell chek on my current device...)
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To: gaijin

Pakis being the only ones who can stand to live there.


14 posted on 06/11/2015 7:38:01 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First

” nine out of ten people holding jobs are non-Saudi”
So that’s where the idea of H1b was conceived!

SA can buy all the nukes and personnel they want. They are not crushed by debt, they have wealth.


15 posted on 06/11/2015 7:39:34 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: Second Amendment First

Is the writer not very bright, or is he propagandizing for someone. They can afford to buy one if they want one. Although nukes themselves aren’t that hard to put together these days - it’s getting the material that’s hard and expensive.


16 posted on 06/11/2015 7:40:35 PM PDT by PAR35
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To: FredZarguna

“The(re) is no length to which a liberal will not go to maintain his delusional worldview. “

Needs repeating.

Would be a good tagline.


17 posted on 06/11/2015 7:43:00 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day".)
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To: mrsmith

I don’t know...but If I were the Saudi’s...I would have had access to atomic bombs...before now.

I believe they have the weapons and the North Korean or Pakistani means of delivery to...that well where the

12th Imam is dwelling...In Qom . ( ; )


18 posted on 06/11/2015 7:48:28 PM PDT by DavidLSpud ("Go and sin no more"-Rejoice always, pray continually...)
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To: The Antiyuppie

That’s what I’ve heard. Saudi helped finance the Pakistani program. In exchange some number of weapons belong to Saudi, to be delivered on request.


19 posted on 06/11/2015 7:55:46 PM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
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To: Second Amendment First

I thought it was known that Saudi funded the Khan network that built the Pakistan bombs. And though missiles were sold to Saudi by the west on condition they could not be adapted to having a nuclear payload, Saudi probably acquired such missiles from other sources, again, likely Pakistan.

But this raises another possibility. That if Saudi did all this so it could have nukes, why not go further, with a mutual defense pact with Pakistan?

This would mean nukes at Iran from the west, and the east, and possibly from the ocean, courtesy of the Israelis.


20 posted on 06/11/2015 7:59:14 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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