The Houthis have stepped up drone and missile attacks on cities in neighbouring Saudi Arabia in recent months [File: Stephen Kalin/Reuters]
By Patrick Cockburn
The devastating attack on Saudi oil facilities by drones and missiles not only transforms the balance of military power in the Middle East, but marks a change in the nature of warfare globally.
On the morning of 14 September, 18 drones and seven cruise missiles – all cheap and unsophisticated compared to modern military aircraft – disabled half of Saudi Arabia’s crude oil production and raised the world price of oil by 20 per cent.
Putin, Trolling Trump, Says Saudi Arabia Should Buy Russian Air Defense System
This happened despite the Saudis spending $67.6bn (£54bn) on their defense budget last year, much of it on vastly expensive -US made- aircraft and air defense systems, which notably failed to stop the attack. The US defense budget stands at $750bn (£600.2bn), and its intelligence budget at $85bn (£68bn), but the US forces in
Featured image: The Houthis have stepped up drone and missile attacks on cities in neighboring Saudi Arabia in recent months [File: Stephen Kalin/Reuters]
Patrick Cockburn
Patrick Oliver Cockburn is an Irish journalist who has been a Middle East correspondent for the Financial Times since 1979 and, from 1990, The Independent. He has also worked as a correspondent in Moscow and Washington and is a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books
