The arms trap: Oil, dependence, and the cost of reliance
In his 1999 novel "A Drawing Etched in the Sand", Syrian writer Hani al-Raheb creates an imagined American character who suggests that the real concern for the United States is the possibility of Persian Gulf rulers reconciling with their own societies—thereby ending their need for external protection and for channeling oil revenues into Western financial systems.
This literary moment offers a key to understanding the real-world militarization of the Persian Gulf states, which have spent vast oil wealth on advanced Western arms in exchange for security.
However, the 2026 American-Israeli war on Iran revealed the failure of this approach: most Persian Gulf states allowed their territories to be used for aggression and suffered Iranian retaliation, while Oman—which refused to participate and maintained an understanding with Tehran—remained largely protected.
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