>>214507400
one problem is the saudi military
a good video was made about this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dUv7bVSAN8
yemen isnt a good test cause neither the united states nor israel nor egypt nor saudi have been successful in yemen
now if saudi arabia fully militarized and got serious about it then it's likely they could oust the houthis with a bit of help
but the houthis basically just bombed a couple oil fields and saudi kinda retreated
the reason they dont have a big military is cause one it actually serves them better defensively to not have one and two it protects the royal family from mutiny
they spend like 80 billion dollars a year but most of it goes towards buying weapons and being willing to pay a premium for it
but it serves several purposes they know their oil is too valuable to the world so if they were ever seriously attacked the united states would likely come to their aid
that's part of their weapon strategy as well they mostly buy american arms and one of the reason why theyre willing to do it is if they mostly buy western then they rely on american/western supply chains which enables western governments to trust em more to sell them more advanced weapons because they know if it was necessary then they could put those weapons out of operation because aircraft and such require upkeep and spare parts
their strategy is effectively defensive in nature and relies on a geopolitical game that is actually probably way more effective at protecting the regime than all of iran's weapons and soldiers
and from the outset they split the military in half and half is just dedicated to quelling domestic threats
part of the project 2030 is creating a domestic supply chain but theyve been kinda half hearted about it
you could possibly argue it's maybe too slavish to the us but with their population they cant raise great armies like a turkey or egypt and you cant argue with the results of their foreign policy cause it's created tremendous stability
