[muawiyah]

The "secret" is probably more like the population ballooning from the 1.5 million they actually had (not the 5.0 million they claimed they had ~ even 7.0 million in some Saudi sources 35 years ago) to maybe as many as 6.0 million at the present time.

Saudi is immensely wealthy but without a serious population. Syria could knock them off over the weekend except for the fact that Israel would move on them!

[Kenny Bunk]

Yeah, good point. There has been the population explosion, but putting numbers on it is very tough. KSA gov says "20Million," let's negotiate that down. I might buy 12Million, but more than your number.