Does anybody know if the Saudis actually pay the United States for defending their oil? If they do not pay us then why don’t we demand something for our efforts? If the Saudis started paying us, that would help balance off the trade deficit and they would have billions of dollars less to spread Wahabbism throughout the world.
Don’t know if “pay” is exactly the correct way to express what I think is happening. I suspect the USA has a lot of pre-positioned assets in country. I also suspect there’s some disguized installations deep in the “empty quarter” as well.
Back when I was there, ( the mid-Seventies ) there was a large USACOE presence and a lot of MATs traffic as well as a lot of military contractors around all the time.
Two of the holiest sites of all Islam are inside their borders and the Saudis take their “Defender of the Faith” title seriously, I know. They also have to let their enemies into their nation every year on Hadj.
Small wonder they’re always angling for secret alliances with the U.S.d and some other Western nations. >PS
You need to understand that the Saudi's are SO well armed its beyong comprehension. They just don't have all that many qualified soldiers to use what they have.
The breadth of Saudi military hardware is extremely vast and ready at a moments notice for somebody to climb into the cockpit that knows what they're doing and go to town.
The Saudi's spend billions just maintaing the hardware in a state of perpetual readyness according to engineering design specs. That means the M1A2's are fired up at minimal time intervals and brought to minimal operating temps per design specs Likewise w/the fighter jets: engines spooled up and run for X engineer specified amount of time to prolong storage life and absolute instantaneous readiness.
Just think of the Saudi military showcase to be akin to Jay Leno's car vault. They have everything but nobody to use it.
IF the Saudi's squeal, guess who comes running (and guess what they'll have at disposal)?
The amount they've spent on archival of their hardware is staggering to the knees.