Word: saudi
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...SAUDI ARABIA. After decades of relying on caution and massive infusions of money to soothe restive neighbors, Riyadh's room for maneuvering has severely shrunk. King Fahd, who characterized Iraq's adventuring as the "most horrible aggression the Arab nation has known in its modern history," faced a Hobson's choice: he could go it alone, leaving his small and scattered army to answer Iraq's battle-hardened troops, or he could call in the U.S. and lay bare his ties. Courageous as Westerners find him, Fahd can hardly dispute Saddam's < charge: "The joint policy with the foreigner...
...Arab gulf leaders, Fahd is now most vulnerable to charges he is a Western puppet. Shi'ite Muslims have been disputing Saudi custodianship of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina as illegitimate. The presence of foreign forces risks sowing the seeds of long-term agitation to unseat the house of Saud, though the presence of a pan-Arab force will take much of the onus off Fahd...
...first assignment for arriving U.S. units, said Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, is "to deter any further Iraqi aggression" and, if deterrence fails, "to defend Saudi Arabia against attack." Some in Washington are worried that the dispatch of U.S. troops might provoke Saddam Hussein to launch a pre- emptive blitz. "He sees us coming," says Les Aspin, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "He could try to seize the oil fields and hold them hostage before we have enough men there to stop...
...deterrence is ultimately psychological. From Saddam's point of view, it had to appear that the American deterrent went into effect as soon as the ^ first group of 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers and F-15 interceptors touched down in Saudi Arabia. To make the point, one F-15 squadron flew nonstop, with midair refueling, from its base in Virginia. From the moment the planes landed at Dhahran, the Iraqis were on warning that if they launched their tanks into Saudi Arabia, they would find themselves in a war with...
...Australia are adding destroyers and frigates to their naval patrols, though only the British moved quickly to send men and planes. Whitehall ordered Tornado fighter-bombers and a squadron of Jaguar ground-attack jets to the gulf, along with Rapier ground-to-air missiles. If Saddam intends to invade Saudi Arabia, he will probably have to do it before those forces are in place. The military planner's rule of thumb is that to be successful, attackers must outnumber defenders by 3 to 1. When the U.S. deployment is added to the Saudi armed forces of 65,000, defenders will...