Kristin Hoganson's article, including the excerpt posted here, makes that clear.
>If you have wealthy Saudis using their economic resources to spread
>their extremely partriarchal version of Islam to places like
>Afghanistan, is that not also a form of sexual imperalism?
How long would the house of Saud be standing minus the US military protection?
***** The value of US-Saudi trade is enormous. In 1999 Saudi exports to the US were estimated at $7.9 billion and imports from the US at $7.6 billion. These figures reflect a two-way traffic dominated by oil flows to the US and arms shipments back to Saudi Arabia. The total value of US arms agreements with Saudi Arabia from 1950 through March 1997 was some $94 billion, while arms agreements in the period 1991-97 alone amounted to nearly $23 billion. A brief from the Congressional Research Service places the number of US personnel in Saudi Arabia (military forces and contractors working with the local armed forces) at between 35,000 and 40,000.
US arms and military assistance have gone largely to protect the corrupt royal family (7,000 members strong, who receive as much as 40 percent of the country's oil revenues) from internal and external enemies.
<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/oct2001/saud-o29.shtml> ***** -- Yoshie
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