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A comment on Tether Discussion featuring Bennett Tomlin and George Noble. Parent comment

Re:Tether Discussion featuring Bennett Tomlin and George Noble by rmah on Saturday October 16, 2021 @10:40AM (#28888179)
Saudi Arabia has the fifth largest military budget in the world. They spend more than Germany, France or the UK. Their training and readiness probably isn't nearly as good, but to say they have no military is ... odd.

More to the point, many nations sell oil for non-USD. It's quite common. Further, the oil trade is a small fraction of international USD movement. The idea that the "petrodollar" is a major factor in international politics is... unlikely to be true.

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Re:Tether Discussion featuring Bennett Tomlin and George Noble by javert on Saturday October 16, 2021 @11:18AM (#28888452)
Wikipedia says the Saudis have the 9th largest defense budget in the world. They also have a decent sized army, navy and air force. TIL.

I was under the impression that the Saudis literally didn't have a military, because the ruling family was afraid of coups.

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Re:Tether Discussion featuring Bennett Tomlin and George Noble by nradov on Saturday October 16, 2021 @04:08PM (#28891018)
Saudi Arabia has a large military to deal with external threats. And they also have a large and separate National Guard to protect the royal family from coups and terrorists.
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Re:Tether Discussion featuring Bennett Tomlin and George Noble by atatatat on Saturday October 16, 2021 @11:01AM (#28888320)
They have exactly as much military as they purchase from US and Israeli contractors/loan from militaries.
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Re:Tether Discussion featuring Bennett Tomlin and George Noble by atatatat on Saturday October 16, 2021 @11:00AM (#28888313)
> many nations sell oil for non-USD

Name the largest, why obfuscate?

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