Missiles and Honeymoons

Aunty Dhimmitude forwards a link US, Israel reach smart bomb deal and poses the question:

Why are we proposing to sell state-of-the-art weaponry to Saudi Arabia?

Good one, Aunty. I wish I knew. You'd think we'd have learned enough about the law of unintended consequences by now. (But then again, silly me, I'm still trying to figure out why the British arms firm BAE Systems secretly paid nearly £250,000 for Prince Bandar's daughter's honeymoon. Who says big business is cold hearted?)

We got in bed with the House of Saud a long time ago. That 'petrodiplomacy" thing, I guess. I'm sure there are those more well versed in the game of Stratego that would say that by providing the Saudis with the missiles the US is just covering some of its middle Eastern flank.

Nowadays, The Princes of the Kingdom are trying to be good Arabs but also want nothing to do with that Mahdi chit the Iranians are peddling.

Or so they say.

The Iranians, with all their grand ME superpower aspirations, why they'd like nothing better than making a move on the Kingdom.

(Right after they wipe Israel off the face of the map, of course. Oh, and don't forget bringing the great Satan to its knees.)

Do you have a theory?

Update: Now it begins. Picking a fight with the Saudis. Shia style.

"If I were a Shi'ite from Saudi Arabia, I would flood Saudi Arabia and the world with the facts about the overall atmosphere that is pressuring the Shi'ites in Saudi Arabia today. The ugliest of these facts is what occurred in the 1979intifada of the Shi'ite regions, in which dozens were killed, hundreds were imprisoned, and their regions were blockaded for more than four consecutive months.