We Can’t Help Saudi Arabia | Ask the Professor



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Channel member @sambaker7691 asks: how do you explain the shortcomings in U.S. efforts to give Saudi Arabia the air defenses it needs against Houthi missile and drone attacks, despite the close strategic partnership between the two countries? My answer is that this isn’t about the relationship. The Saudis are rich, and we’ve sold them almost all the weaponry they want. The problem is that today, offense beats defense. Even with heavy American help, Israel couldn’t stop Iranian missiles and drones in the 12-Day War or in the 40-day bombing campaign that started the current war. Ukraine has run out of Patriots. Offensive missiles are cheaper than interceptors and can overwhelm them. The United States can’t protect Saudi Arabia, and it won’t be able to defend any bases it might rebuild in the Persian Gulf either.

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Intro
0:04 Sam’s question
0:43 A close U.S.–Saudi relationship
1:40 Iran and the Houthis strike Saudi Arabia
2:29 It’s not the relationship or the money
2:43 The real problem: defense can’t keep up
3:11 Israel in the 12-Day War
4:38 Israel in the 40-day bombing campaign
5:55 Ukraine runs out of Patriots
6:33 Offense overwhelms defense
6:58 The cost exchange ratio
7:46 Can the U.S. defend Gulf bases?
8:52 Bottom line

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MUSIC

“The Ice Giants” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

Music modified (edited/remixed) from the original.

source

47 Comments

  1. America cant help itself let alone someone else. Topic is pontless. Saudis have all the american "miracle" weapons, issues with saudis they don't have trained personnel to use it( not that would help even if they did). Most of the system they buy from america just sits in werhouses and tarmacs without being used from day 1.

  2. Professor:Make a video in the arragment between the Bush Family and the House of Saud in 1933. If Trump and Republicans are so against Islam and Sharia Law which Saudi Arabia practices,why are Americans boots dying for MSG? We know is all about oil and the profits of the oil corporations.

  3. But why didn't USA attack the Houthis when SA asked for help? Sure, couldn't spare the weapons, but shouldn't this have been mentioned too? Then again, the professor has already said this many times, but why not here?

  4. They do not need your help, they need help of the creator of the worlds they need the help of our creator Eloh/Alah/Allah.
    He will help kingdom of Saudi Arabia because they worship him without assotiating any one with him in any form of worship, and they do not worship the tomb of hunans like others as Allah told his masangers from nowah to king david to king solmon to moses to Jesus to Mohammad in Arabia.
    Learn arabic and Read the Quran with a techer in saudi Masjid and you life will change for the best i promise.
    MAA1448

  5. Mr Baker should realize that the reason the Saudis are being attacked by the Houthis, who are almost certainly working for the US, is that they were selling oil in Yuan. The US is attacking them by proxy, as well as anyone else who wasn't selling petrol in US dollars. If you don't watch the entire game board, you might be confused as to what the hell is going on. What's going on is that if the US can't force you to sell oil in dollars, they will see to it that you are destroyed, you are kidnapped, whatever it is they have to do.

    The problem the US has is that the world has had enough and is in open rebellion. The US Navy has one strait blockaded, and they have the Houthis blockading the other. No oil gets out unless they can confirm it is being sold in dollars. The US has decided to burn down the house. Iran and Venezuela were attacked because they were either selling or about to sell oil in Yuan. This is an all-out war against BRICS, which the US has no hope in hell of winning, so they are kicking over the table because they hold the most oil in the world. They are willing to blow up their own economy because if they don't get control of oil, there is no US economy. Eventually, they will come face to face with China, and that's not going to be pretty.

  6. The Saudis better get with the program or they will be toast. The Saudis allowed the U.S. to place military bases on their soil in return for protection and it seems like that agreement is worthless now.

  7. The candor with which this gentleman admits that the US has lied to all its allies for decades about its ability to protect them in exchange for exorbitant amounts of money and strategic privileges is disconcerting. He seems to be talking about hot dogs spoiled by a blackout, while he's talking about a momentous deception that endangers entire states, including their entire populations. But is he serious? Is this an authoritative source? It sounds like the ravings of an elderly man, or someone speaking under threat from an American soldier behind a wall, pointing a machine gun at him and holding his entire family hostage.

  8. There is a missing part here. If Iran can produce effective offensive weapons so does the US , Saudi Arabia and Israel. Then it becomes who give up first. If you add the US, Saudi and Israeli fatal airforces then Iran infrastructure civilian and military will be destroyed in few days. Remember they have no working airforces and their skies are totally unprotected. They might be able to continue sending missiles and drones but the livelihood of their people will be totally destroyed leading to revolt and chaos

  9. Before talking about today you need to talk about yesterday,
    Israel and Saudi Arabia both are British colonies, made to control the Middle East trade roots,
    All events in Middle East are planned by all parties,

    But now things may change because of new technologies.

  10. Kinda hard to stop all of a drone swarm. In the 1930's the theory was that the bomder would always get through to the target. With the advent of effective AA and interceptors, that was decisively proven wrong. Perhaps the development of defensive, AI guided, interceptor swarms the game will change again.

  11. Delaying the rescue of a drowning person or refusing to help them in order to blackmail them and impose harsh conditions turns them into a person stripped of their free will."

  12. The best strategy is to not to oppress the lowly. Now everyone in the word knows that the USA, Russia, China, and any empire's expensive technology can be defeated with off-the-shelf junk.

  13. For a so-called professor, he is remarkably poor at logical reasoning. Everyone knows that defense is seldom 100% effective, which means that if Iran supplies enough ballistic missiles to the barbarian Houthi forces, they can make some hits. Historically, this problem has been handled through massive retaliation, targeting all targets regardless of civilian impacts. Israel could take out the oil system of Iran along with the electrical grid and bridges. Without oil, grid, and transportation, most of Iran would starve to death. We are too nice; we want Iran to be a successful society when they stop attacking everyone outside their silly belief system. We may need to shift to doing to Iran what we did to Germany and Japan. So far, trying not to absolutely destroy the society isn't working, and mortality has been low.

    Meanwhile, China is making Iran's oil and the Strait of Hormuz irrelevant with 90+% increases in EV and solar power sales to the world (not the USA).

  14. Dear Sirs,

    Modernizing pedagogy and religious studies for the 21st century is of paramount importance to combat terrorism and extremism.

    I have published a total of 180+ research papers and 15+ books. Part of my globalization of science movement (ISGOS)

    and Scholars and Intellectuals of Mankind (SCHIMA). The existing approaches to the study of religion are obsolete and

    one-sided (They are Marxist ideology-driven and obsolete; effectively pointless and internally incoherent). Education

    systems are also obsolete. I have written extensively on the need to update both pedagogy and religious studies. One of them

    was personally known to me. This is also partly because we had seen very innocent people being radicalized. We had proposed

    ten canons for sociopolitical reform and these would be as follows. All nations including Islamic ones should implement the

    following. This is not a pipedream, but a dire necessity:

    1. A complete and a total and separation of religion and state

    2. Developing secular constitutions that grant all human rights to citizens 3. Universal education for all groups and

    both genders, and being UpToDate with latest pedagogical techniques so that educational systems can be brought UpToDate

    from time to time 4. Granting complete religions freedom including freedom to practice, freedom to convert, and freedom

    to non-religion 5.Saying no to religious inspired laws, and instituting and promulgating secular laws 6. Taking steps to

    promoting a scientific temper and a spirit of enquiry in society, by allowing meaningful and productive debate, and improving

    education systems 7. Phasing out religious education and teaching universal human values instead 8. Allowing free media

    – There must be absolutely no censorship of internet and media 9. Allowing complete freedom of speech and free and open

    discussion of religion, and permitting constructive criticism of religion in various platforms such as the media, and

    in universities.10, Moving all nations towards democracy and democratically elected governments in due course. ..

    Unless these reforms are undertaken, all other reforms in Islamic countries will remain shallow tokenism. Even those being

    attempted in some Islamic countries. .

    Religion serves personal, social, cultural, economic, and political functions, and will at best decline slowly. It is also

    associated with identity. We need a paradigm shift in the social sciences, and in pedagogy and religious studies as well.

    At the same time, practical and pragmatic research on universal human values is extremely important so that it can be

    incorporated in school syllabi. ……………

    .- Sujay Rao Mandavilli

  15. What the good professor has described is a plausible explanation why the u s cannot help saudi arabia
    Another perspective .ay be that the u s wants to destroy the family rulers of saudi arabia whi are corupt rulers and are impedingvthe progressive evolutupn of the mid east in some sort of democracy
    So they want the houthis if possible to take over saudi and then destroy the houthies with the help of israel
    After all sfter 9 /11 shame the u s was hell bent to destroy all if not most of the arab states so that once again gain control of the oil in the mid east and then continue the unipolar u s diktat

  16. Saudi births declined from 465,000 in 2017 to 417,000 in 2022 — a drop exceeding 10 percent in six years. The sharpest decline occurred among the 20-to 24-year-old group, down more than 40 percent, while women aged 35 to 44 saw a slight increase, reflecting delayed childbearing.

    Zuhri stressed that continued fertility decline alongside rising life expectancy sets Saudi society on an aging trajectory, challenging pensions, healthcare, and workforce sustainability, emphasizing investment in education, workforce skills, and national labor productivity.

  17. real quote is not they 'cant ' its they ' won't' and that is because the current situation was all planned planned long time ago by USA and Israel as part of the new middle east they intend to shape …… saudis were naive to trust USA and fell short of shaping their independent path

  18. it’s not that we can’t, it’s just not what US decided to do … really pathetic that IRGC is still assign its proxies and US with allies haven’t removed these as well as the Houthis, and other problems in the region

  19. First, with full respect it called Arabic Gulf
    Secondly, people often forget—or choose to overlook—the fact that the land area of ​​Saudi Arabia exceeds that of 14 European countries combined. Some assume that Saudi Arabia’s approach to warfare mirrors that of Russia—employing a "scorched earth" policy—or that of the United States, which has historically contracted private military companies to carry out heinous acts, all while evading responsibility, destroying civilian infrastructure, and killing innocent people—documented instances, all.

    Saudi Arabia is no angel, but since 2016, it has refrained from killing civilians and has not deployed its most powerful weaponry, despite having the capability to do so—just ask the Yemenis living abroad.

    I say this based on the perspectives of my own Yemeni colleagues at work.

    Saudi Arabia is fighting a militia that has seized control of a state—a militia backed by Iran, which, in turn, receives support from Russia and China through indirect and convoluted channels.

  20. There's a difference between "can't protect," which is the phrase M. uses, and "can't protect against all incoming missiles and drones," which, it becomes clear, is what he means. Whether 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent or whatever the percentage is, get through makes a difference to those on the receiving end.

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