"What I do not understand is why the US is the military for wealthy countries like Saudi Arabia."
Could it be as simple as we are basically protecting OPEC in exchange so they can sell oil to us? I can't find any other reason.
Could it be as simple as we are basically protecting OPEC in exchange so they can sell oil to us? I can't find any other reason.
We like to maintain countries that are hostile towards countries that are hostile towards Israel for obvious reasons (enemy of my enemy, etc), especially if they are good trade partners.
The Saudis sell oil to us, we sell weapons to the Saudis, everybody benefits.
Well, except for the poor sods who have to live in an abusive theocracy, but we don't care about brown people, especially if they live far away from us.
You can read this article, or google around for better ones:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-yousaf-butt-/saudi-wahhabis...
It's a very complicated relationship, I think the best long term outcome for the region and the world is a massive reduction in the importance of oil and the Middle East ceases to be important strategically.