Saudi Arabia, Oil, and Militarism: Two articles about our collective quagmire linking death, weapons, and oil in the Middle East

More on our arming of Saudi Arabia and its relationship to the campaign against the Houthi insurgency in Yemen (Most of the victims so far are civilians).  Now, the US is not only complicit, but directly involved.

"Two days of discussions in the West Wing followed, but there was little real debate. Among other reasons, the White House needed to placate the Saudis as the administration completed a nuclear deal with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s archenemy. That fact alone eclipsed concerns among many of the president’s advisers that the Saudi-led offensive would be long, bloody and indecisive.

Mr. Obama soon gave his approval for the Pentagon to support the impending military campaign.

A year later, the war has been a humanitarian disaster for Yemen and a study in the perils of the Obama administration’s push to get Middle Eastern countries to take on bigger military roles in their neighborhood. Thousands of Yemeni civilians have been killed, many by [American made] Saudi jets flying too high to accurately deliver the bombs to their targets. Peace talks have been stalled for months. American spy agencies have concluded that Yemen’s branch of Al Qaeda has only grown more powerful in the chaos."

More here: Quiet Support for Saudis Entangles U.S. in Yemen

And, students could have written this essay, a nice summary of oil dependence, political and economic disintegration in oil dependent states, and the place of Saudi Arabia therein:

More here: How Saudi Arabia Turned its Greatest Weapon [Oil] Upon Itself (by Andrew Cooper)

Outside an Aramco oil field complex in Saudi Arabia in 2003. CreditReza/Getty Images