Saudi Arabia’s Military: the Social Aspects of the Kingdom’s Armed Forces

“For the Common Defense, a military history of the United States from 1607-2012” is a military historic book written by Allan R. Millet, Peter Maslowski, and William B. Feis. Millet is a historian and a retired colonel of the Marine Corps. Maslowski is a professor at the University of Nebraska. Feis is a professor at Buena Vista University. This book was published in September 2012. It focuses on chronologically describing the changes of the United States military for over 400 years. Even though that is the main purpose, it does include political information. Although this book does not have an exact thesis, its purpose is to inform readers of the creation and enhancements of the US military. At almost 700 pages, this book educates about

Europe erupted into a global war in 1914 following the assassination of the Austrian-Hungarian archduke and the buildup of militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. The United States entered the war in 1917, despite their original foreign policy of neutrality when the war broke out. Woodrow Wilson and Congress decided to declare war on Germany and join the war due to unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmerman note. Many Americans believed the United States should have stayed neutral as to not impact trade with European countries and to not divide the nation of immigrants into two sides. While unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Note posed a threat to America’s foreign policy and overall caused their entry to

For this assignment the cultural manifestations I selected to discuss as being important to our Unit’s success are Wasta, Deference to authority, and Tendency to seek compromise. Of course understanding all of the cultural manifestations are important to our unit’s success, but each region within the Middle East-North African (MENA) region will have their own variations based upon which branch of Islam is dominant in the region, what that region’s experience has been with the U.S. or a Western presence in general and numerous other factors such as the prevailing socio-economic factors of the region.

Riot by Walter Dean Myers is a book that takes place in New york city in 1863 when many uncontrolled riots were going on. These riots were about races and many African Americans were being beaten, robbed, and killed. The many police that were trying to stop the riots had no luck as they kept occurring and people kept being killed. The protagonist of the story is Claire who is a fifteen year old girl. Her dad is African American and her mom is Irish. Claire doesn’t know what to do or where she fits in the riot because she is half black and half Irish. A big part of the story is Claire trying to figure out who she really is inside because she is torn by two warring sides.

The United States relationship with Saudi Arabia is one that begun on February 14, 1945 when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met King Al-Saud at the Great Bitter Lake in the Suez Canal. After World War II the United States became the most influential foreign power in Saudi Arabia. US’s main interest was focused in the direction of the oil industry. Then in 1960 Saudi Arabia was one of the main driving forces in the creation of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). During the Cold War, Saudis favored the United States while the two also continued to but heads over the issue concerning the ever present Israeli-Arab conflict. Americas constant support for Israel has, and will continue to be an issue that brings about confrontation between the Saudis and the United States. Foreign relation ties never were as intense as they were during the Persian Gulf War. Iraq's invasion of Kuwait posed a potential threat to the Saudis provoking the United States to intervene. The Saudis allowed the United States to have access to their bases during this time. Since that time, our troops have remained there which is something that has led to much controversy because many Islamist believe that we our occupying their holy land. This has sparked many extremist to take action, most notably Osama Bin Laden who used this reasoning to justify the horrors of 9/11. Post 9/11 opened a new chapter to US-Saudi

The gulf war began in the early 1990. It began when Saddam Hussein invaded his neighbors who were rich in oil.George W. Bush was in power as the U.S president he successfully spearheaded the war. President Bush’s foreign policy team forged an international coalition that was very unpredictable. This coalition consisted of the NATO allies and countries like Saudi Arabia,Egypt and Syria (The Middle East countries). Russia also joined the United States in condemning Iraq, who was its long-term client’s state. For this reason, Russia were not able to commit its troops.In 1991, air campaign was led by the department of state. This was followed by “operation desert storm” a war that managed to expel Iraqi forces from

On August 8 Hussain said that Kuwait was Iraq’s “19th province”, at the same time, the US Air Force fighter planes began to land in Saudi Arabia as a part of the buildup known as Operation Desert Shield. NATO allies and other Arab nations accompanied the US troops; the deployment was to prevent a possible invasion of Saudi Arabia.

The Desert Storm, which is also known as the Persian Gulf War and known as Operation Desert Storm, started at the end of the Cold War in 1990. The Desert Storm happened because Saddam Hussein, who was the leader of Iraq ordered invasion and occupation of the neighboring country of Kuwait, in August of 1990. Hussein was told by the United Nations Security Council to withdraw from Kuwait by the middle of January 1991, and Hussein disregarded their demands. Because he refused to withdraw the Persian Gulf War was triggered (Feinstein, 39). The Iraqi takeover posed a threat to Saudi Arabia, which was another oil supplying country for the United States. If Saudi Arabia took over by Hussein than he would have controlled one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. The Middle East had their eyes on the White House, waiting for a response from President George H. W. Bush. When he found out his response was, “This will not stand,” meaning that Hussein taking over the Middle East’s oil would not be tolerable (Operation Desert Storm).

Since the Army’s professionalization, there have been ebbs and flows in the degree to which the Army has manifested the nature and motivations of a profession rather than its other organizational character of government occupation – highly professional in periods of expansion and later phases of war and less so in periods of contraction after wars, e.g. post-WWII into Korea and post-Vietnam. Even after the establishment of an all-volunteer force in 1971 and the rebuilding of the Army NCO Corps post-Vietnam, these ebbs and flow have continued. The Army in Desert Shield- Desert Storm was highly professional; the Army after the next decade of build-down and the exodus of captains and other leaders and talent in the late 1990s was arguably much less so. A recent report suggests that the operating forces of the Army, after nine years of war in the Middle East, exhibit more clearly the traits and character of a profession, comparatively, to force-generating side of the Army.

The Persian Gulf War started August 2, 1990, when Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait. The main reason Hussein invaded Kuwait was to acquire their oil reserves. This would also cancel the debt that Iraq owes Kuwait. Hussein was also always looking to expand his power (“Persian Gulf War” Britannica). The Kuwaiti army was only around 20,000 soldiers, and Kuwait was captured within hours (Pieart). Iraq built up its troops in Kuwait to about 300,000 soldiers (“Persian Gulf War” Britannica). Together Iraq and Kuwait would account for 40% of the world’s oil

The other suspected motive that al-Qaeda had for the September 11th attacks was the United States’ continuing presence in Saudi Arabia. In 1991, when the Gulf War ended, the United State’s Department of Defense reserved approximately 5,000 troops to be stationed in territories located in Saudi Arabia. Part of their responsibility was to carry out the military operation, “Operation Southern Watch” ("Operation Southern Watch"). The goal of this military operation was to ensure that the no-fly zones over southern Iraq were enforced. In addition, they made certain that the oil exportation shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf were protected ("Operation Southern Watch").

In August 1990, a great threat was before the United States as Saddam Hussein was rallying his army to storm Kuwait. The threat was a major problem since “Kuwait was a major supplier of oil.” (ushistory.org) Hussein was not only hostile towards Kuwait, but he was also threatening Saudi Arabia. (ushistory.org) Just like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia is also a major oil supplier to the United States. If Iraq took control of both Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Iraq would control one fifth of the world’s oil supply. (ushistory.org) “This will not stand,” said former President George Bush, speaking on the orders of Saddam Hussein, dictator of Iraq, to send his army into Kuwait. Without the effects of operation desert shield, desert storm air, and desert storm land attacks, the Persian Gulf War would have been very different.

The Persian Gulf War all started because of one country’s greed for oil. Iraq accused Kuwait of pumping oil and not sharing the benfits, and Kuwait was pumping more oil than allowed under quotas set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, it decreased the price of oil, Iraq's main export. Iraq's complaints against Kuwait grew more and more harsh, but they were mostly about money. When Iraqi forces began to assemble near the Kuwaiti border in the summer of 1990, several Arab states tried to intervene the dispute. Kuwait didn’t want to look weak so they didn’t ask for any help from the United States or other non-Arab powers for support. Arab mediators convinced Iraq and Kuwait to negotiate their differences in Saudi Arabia, on

“One of the good things about the way the Gulf War ended in 1991 is, you 'd see the Vietnam veterans marching with the Gulf War veterans” (George H. W. Bush). President Bush stated that the Persian Gulf War was not fully supported by the soldiers who fought in the war. Gulf War veterans marched like Vietnam veterans because they also viewed the war as unjustified. Persian Gulf War veterans would say, “American soldiers lost their lives’ for oil.” The first Persian Gulf War started from August 2, 1990 and ended on February 28, 1991. This war began by the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. During this invasion some of the oil fields of Kuwait were set on fire and some of the oil spilled to the Persian Gulf. The Persian Gulf was the oil supplier for western countries. So anything happened to the Persian Gulf, the western countries will naturally react. The factors that led to The United States’ involvement in the first Persian Gulf War included Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, his control over a sizable share of the world’s oil reserves and his power over the economies of the world. Many Americans believe that the first Persian Gulf War was not necessary for the United States.

In the governorate of As Sulayyil, located south of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was born Ashwan in 1968, and was named to his grandfather the knight Ashwan AlDossary which named after a camel, in order to keep the habits of his ancestors who were to set on fire at night to grab travelers and invite them for dinner.