General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The US is wrecking the Middle East again - in ways you don't even realise [View all]EX500rider
(10,842 posts)Carter was out of office over 7 years before al-Qaeda was formed. And since the the Afghan resistance movement was assisted by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Egypt, the People's Republic of China and others it's unlikely lack of US involvement would have changed anything.
Here's the Afghan Mujahideen who fought the Soviets...notice none of them are called Al Qaeda:
Jamiat-e Islami
Shura-e Nazar
Gulbuddin faction
Maktab al-Khadamat
Khalis faction
Ittehad i-Islami
IRM
NLF
NIFA
Harakat i-Islami
Afghan Hezbollah
Nasr Party (IVOA)
COIRGA
Shura Party
IRM
UOIF
Raad Party
And Saudi's major trading partners are: China 13.3%, Japan 13%, US 12.9%, South Korea 10%, India 8.9%, Singapore 4%
If we didn't buy 12% of their oil someone else would.
And they get no "subsidised weapons sales and sweetheart deals" They pay full price:
Since 1990, the U.S. government, through the Pentagons arms export program, has arranged for the delivery of more than $39.6 billion in foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia, and an additional $394 million worth of arms were delivered to the Saudi regime through the State Departments direct commercial sales program during that same period.
Oil rich Saudi Arabia is a cash-paying customer. It receives no U.S. military assistance to finance these purchases.
http://fas.org/asmp/profiles/saudi_arabia.htm
You say in your Op: The US has also repeatedly blockaded the main port of Yemen.
Yet your excerpt from the Guardian says:
Washington and London have quietly tried to persuade the Saudis, who are leading the coalition, to moderate its tactics, and in particular to ease the naval embargo.