I posted this a few days ago on a different FR thread:
Saudi Arabia has led the world’s nations in buying weapons in the last two years. Surely they can do a decent job of defending their own oil supply without having us jump in.
A bunch of sources on the internet...some for/against. But really interesting information about Saudi buying up huge amounts of weapons from us.
What happens when Radicals overthrow the House of Saud and get their hands on those weapons?
Saudi Arabia is happy to pay us for our protection. And, in fact they are. It's hidden in the weapons purchases which are probably marked up an extra x %. Probably they need us to operate the dang things, but they prepaid us and we're on retainer. Maybe that's why Trump so obnoxiously (personally i don't find it obnoxious) rattled off all the equipment they bought, and at what price, at that State dinner.
Now that does not excuse any use of our men as farmed out contractor mercenaries, but again I'm going to suspect it's ultimately in our security interest, and I'm not going to say I know that for sure. I get the argument that we should stay completely out of that sand pit but when the people who live in your city, and today the world is itself a city, are a bunch of violent mentally ill rabid fisher cats it's not empire building to have some police and pay for mental hospitals i.e. keep them in a somewhat controlled environment.
In the meantime, they House of Sows can tell their people "we are not paying the Americans for their defense, we are merely buying their weapons."
I suspect Trump is not giving them anything for free. He's a wikid cheap bastihd.
Feel free to rip me apart for that. On this subject I am relatively ig'nant and I admit to totally pulling that out of my intuitive butt so I put it forth as a 'maybe this' and not a 'hey all you against this you are stupid because I'm right and know exactly what's going on cuz I know everything and you suck.'