Saudi Arabia entering or potentially entering Bahrain is
actually very small news……..as they’ve done this before (I believe in 1997 by invite) & these would be the circumstances today as well.
All Arab military expenditures & especially Saudi ones have to be viewed within the context of the massive inefficiencies that are built into their military structure. For example, due to questionable loyalties most Arab countries maintain armies within armies & Saudi Arabia is a shining example of this.

Furthermore, the abysmal Arab maintenance record of weaponry is legendary. Put that habit together with high tech weaponry in a desert & weapon systems bought deployed last week isn’t worth much today. Political patronage, tribal loyalties etc are a cancer to the average Arab army, so they throw money at high tech weapons in an attempt to even things out. It doesn’t & it won’t.

Of course most Arab armies do have one thing going for them & that is that there’s a good chance that they’ll never have to face a non-Arab army in conflict. Because if they do, they’ll get their ass handed to them. And I’m not talking about the Israelis. For a comedy filled day research expeditionary conflicts involving the Libyan army as an example. Some of it is downright hilarious. Or I can tell you stories involving the Saudi navy that’ll remind you of slapstick routines.

I remember a few history lessons along these lines, such as The Six Days War, when Arab countries went up against top tier armies and were subsequently handled. My primary concern is the distinction between past wars and the current conflicts because this could become a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and little Bahrain could become a U.S. equivalent of Korea or Vietnam.

It gets even more interesting when the U.S. Fifth fleet is stationed there. Of course, all the brouhaha is under the auspices of grass roots revolt, but as we all know, when nation states with opposing ideologies allow things like this to escalate, the result is… well… less than productive (unless you’re in the guns & ammo business).

Like I said, I’m not talking about Arab armies vs. top armies………….I’m talking about Arab armies against anyone else.

Saudi Arabian leader may be loyal to the West but to suggest their military is incompetent is unwise. They, along with other GCC states, have quite a competent military, useful inventory of weapons and slowly burgeoning indigenous defense industry. Although the criticisms of alignment with the West, tribal loyalties within the system, low indigenous weapons production capability because of the rulers pro-Western outlook are well deserved, this does not in any way lessen the achievements of the Saudi air force when they forced ‘Israeli” air force to land at Tabuk a decade or so ago, for example.