Gulf Security and the U.S. Military: Regime Survival and the Politics of Basing by Geoffrey Gresh

Author:Geoffrey Gresh [Gresh, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Middle East, History, Security (National & International), General
ISBN: 9780804795067
Google: kLO7CAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 35191911
Publisher: Stanford Security Studies
Published: 2015-06-10T00:00:00+00:00

6

A Saudi Sandstorm: Revolution, Rivalry, and Terrorism

While Oman and Bahrain were negotiating their respective basing agreements with the U.S. military in 1980, Saudi officials were working diligently to disassociate the Saud monarchy from any basing relationship with the United States. When Iran’s Islamic Revolution erupted in 1979, the Saud monarchy feared what might happen in Saudi Arabia, itself vulnerable to domestic instability and even overthrow. It did not want to be the next victim of social upheaval. So when the U.S. military tried to achieve a military basing presence in Saudi Arabia after the shah’s overthrow, the Saud monarchy vigorously and publicly rejected the request. Anti-American sentiment across the kingdom was palpable, and the Saud monarchy feared that a U.S. military basing presence would tip the scale against its rule.1 The monarchy also understood that a U.S. military basing presence would likely be used by pan-Arab leaders (such as Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi) to foment antimonarchical sentiments among the Saudi population. Maintaining strong opposition to U.S. military basing would help the monarchy appear strong and resolute before its people, as well as its neighbors.

The Saud monarchy did not permit a U.S. military base in the 1980s, but it did allow U.S. military advisors and trainers to assist in military operations and in support of the Saudi’s newly acquired weapon systems. This light footprint allowed the monarchy to benefit from America’s valuable technical expertise while warding off any significant domestic backlash. During the 1980s, for example, the U.S. Air Force deployed personnel in Operation Elf One to assist the Saudis with radar detection and other kinds of monitoring during the Iran-Iraq War.2 The U.S. military basing question, however, would reemerge in August 1990, just two years after the Iran-Iraq War, when Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. After conquering Kuwait, Saddam Hussein envisioned Saudi Arabia as his next conquest.3 Saudi Arabia had not hosted a U.S. military base since the early 1960s, but with Iraqi tanks gathering on their border, the monarchy was forced to look to the U.S. military for support, thus allowing a U.S. military basing presence in the run-up to the First Gulf War. By 1990 the external threat had become far too great to avoid.

After the establishment of bases in Saudi Arabia in 1990, the United States maintained its basing presence for thirteen years, until Saddam Hussein was removed during the Second Gulf War in 2003. During this time, the Saud monarchy encountered many troubling domestic events, including the 1996 Khobar Tower bombings carried about by radicals linked to Al-Qaeda and the 2002 arson attack on a U.S. fast food restaurant in Al-Kharj. The Saudi-born leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, also announced in 1996 “A Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places” aimed at the Saudi government for maintaining security ties with the United States.4 It was not until 2003 and the final overthrow of Saddam Hussein, however, that the Saud monarchy terminated its basing agreements with the United States.

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