Obama has no Middle East policy, so the vacuum will be filled by someone else.
Also. This is what happens when you go around the world groveling and apologizing for the American people, you are removed from the realm of seriousness, and taken as a sap.
There was a time, not so long ago, when any missiles directed at Iran from Saudi Arabian soil would most likely have carried the insignia of the United States. But that was before al-Qaeda’s murderous campaign against American influence in the kingdom resulted in Washington relocating its military operations in the Gulf.
So we should not be surprised that the latest images of Saudi ballistic missiles directed at Iran and Israel bear the Saudis’ distinctive green emblem of two swords beneath a palm tree. These days, rather than looking to Uncle Sam to protect their interests, the Saudis realise they are very much on their own. As the Obama administration’s inept handling of last week’s removal of Egypt’s first democratically elected government has demonstrated, not even a military coup in one of its most important regional allies will evoke much of a response from the White House.
Indeed, with President Barack Obama determined not to allow the US to be drawn into any of the region’s poisonous disputes, whether Syria’s brutal civil war or the continuing controversy over Iran’s nuclear programme, former staunch American allies such as the Saudis have come to the reluctant conclusion that, so far as their own security is concerned, they must be more self-sufficient in protecting their interests.
