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Iran War Exposes Saudi Arabia's Bad Bet on Trumpism

Foreign Policy, on how Trump has done lasting damage to the House of Saud (Archive.is link)

It has been known for about 50 years that Donald Trump is a sucker bet. 

Saudi Arabia is in serious trouble. Its global influence primarily comes from its leading position as an oil producer and the money resulting from that role, but now the Middle East is on fire. Today, Saudi tankers are blocked in the Persian Gulf and under threat in the Red Sea, and the country’s biggest oil pipeline had to shut down after a drone attack. Yet Saudi Arabia’s biggest long-term problem may be that its longtime security guarantor, the United States, is unable to put out the fire and doesn’t seem especially interested in trying. 

Since World War II and especially since the end of the Cold War, the Middle East has rested on a deal: U.S. military dominance provides relative stability, deterring and countering aggression, ensuring freedom of navigation, containing Iran, organizing air defense, and helping friendly governments to stay in power. In exchange, Saudi Arabia and the smaller Gulf Arab states—Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates—host U.S. bases, cooperate on counterterrorism, and maintain the smooth flow of oil. The clearest example of this working was in 1990-91, when a U.S.-led coalition prevented Iraq from taking any Saudi oil fields and pushed Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. 

U.S. President Donald Trump’s attack on Iran broke that arrangement beyond repair, and Saudi Arabia doesn’t have a replacement.

 To quote the movie Animal House, "You f%$#ed up, you trusted us."