Re: POTUS 45.10 - Stage Two in Perpetuity
The US is not the only arms supplier in the world. The Saudis have mountains of cash and a need for weapons.
The current economy depends on us selling imperial storm trooper gear and services (weapons, surveillance systems, operators, training, logs and O&M support) back to the Saudis. It's the third leg of the petrodollar economy and the only thing keeping the US economy afloat.
The US buys oil from the Saudis. Since 1971, there is nothing behind those dollars -- the US has to print those dollars out of thin air and sell them on the debt market. Meanwhile, the Saudis "buy" weapons from the US to defray some of the cost. That part of the oil transactions is really denominated in large part in airplanes, missiles, secret prisons, US military installations protecting the Saudi state, and torture kits.
But there are consequences, foreseen or not. The US defense companies and the financial interests that oversee the deals are paid by USG contracts, so the taxpayer is subsidizing deals where the profit goes to private interests while the debt is socialized. Plus, the Saudi dictatorship can use those toys on
any enemy -- including domestic forces trying to unseat the dictatorship. To go with the oppression, local religious fanatics are upset by US troops stationed on their soil. So the Saudi government and their US enablers become the enemy of the Saudi people and radical Muslims, and as-sholes fly airplanes into buildings to get back at all the main players in the game.
This, of course, starts a new global cycle where imperial storm trooper gear and services now spread literally all over the world, with trillions of global dollars from
all countries now pouring into private pockets. The opportunity cost of those dollars in lost education, investment, and social services pushes rich countries into austerity and borderline countries into failed statehood, destabilizing the globe and leading to more unrest hence more Draconian crackdowns and more authoritarian response and greater enrichment of those who control finance, energy and weapons.
And that's the history of the last fifty years.