In March 2015, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called a meeting of the kingdom's top military generals at the Saudi Defense Ministry. The rotund, 29-year-old prince had just been named the new defense minister by his father, King Salman, despite having no prior military training.
At the top of the agenda was neighboring Yemen, where Iranian-backed Houthi rebels were rapidly seizing ground. The seasoned generals gathered around the table believed Mohammed bin Salman would stick to a decades-old playbook and wait for the U.S. to come to its aid. Instead, the crown prince astonished the military brass, launching an order to "send in the F-15s."
The audacious, high-stakes gamble by the young royal backfired. Despite possessing superior high-tech weaponry, the Saudi armed forces are not known for their military prowess. Targeting in Yemen was wildly off the mark. When ground radios failed to work, Saudi pilots had to fly low enough to use their cellphones to communicate with mission control. Mohammed bin Salman had assured his father and U.S. officials the Yemen operation would be over in a couple of months. Five years on, the Saudi-led air campaign continues. Airstrikes have killed thousands of civilians, and Yemen is now considered the largest humanitarian disaster in the world.
The crown prince's dangerous miscalculation in Yemen appears early in Blood and Oil, an engrossing new book about the meteoric rise of Mohammed bin Salman and his ruthless pursuit of money and power. The authors — Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck, both reporters with The Wall Street Journal — deliver a vivid portrait of treachery and power grabs in the Saudi royal court, and attempt to uncover what drives some of the young royal's often reckless decision-making.
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