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Originally Posted by blankall
The US is purposely taking a more isolationist approach. That plus but being oil dependent will automatically result in them being less influential in the middle east. The Saudis also informed the US of this deal the whole way through.
This is also just as much about the Saudis losing influence. They've lost control of many of their proxy armies. They no longer have the US by the cahones. They've been powerless to resolve the many ongoing civil wars surrounding them and spilling into their borders. They are trying to get out of their rut by starting a bunch of mega projects, that look totally doomed
At the end of the day China will never replace the USA, because their weapons are vastly inferior. You can make deals with China will your want, where does that get you if there's no answer to the nations being supplied by the USA. Plus China has fundamental structural problems that are likely going to cripple it's ability to maintain economic growth.
I also disagree about the USD being replaced as the world reserve currency. There aren't any other good options. You'd have to be crazy to use the CCP controlled Yuan. The Euro is just not stable enough, and the EU has lots of its own issues.
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Why do you say those Saudi projects are doomed? I think people forget just how much money Saudi has. That can't fix every problem, but it does fix a lot of problems and garners a lot of power in the region.
One issue Saudi has done very poor is in building any kind of armed forces that are competent. Like the Canadians, they kind horse traded that with the US so if the US continued to push isolationist watch for the Saudi's to really start to build up their defences and armed forces.
People like to #### all over the Saudis for bombing the Houthis in retaliation for the Houthis rocket launcher-ing Saudi civilian and infrastructure targets in south Saudi Arabia but I wonder how tolerant western countries would be in the same spot. If Mexico just decided to bomb downtown LA something tells me the States would respond but hey- I'm no expert.