Its cities are dominated by the roar of bulldozers and the rattle of jackhammers. The hard hat of the construction worker rivals the checkered ghutra as the national headdress. In the bustling commercial and financial port city of Jidda, on the Red Sea, bulldozers tear into the graceful old houses of the Ottoman era with their latticework balconies and harem windows. In the capital city of Riyadh, rows of mud houses topped with crenelated roofs are smashed to dust to make way for superhighways or high-rise buildings of chrome, glass and soaring reinforced concrete. Passenger jets land and depart from some of the Middle East's busiest airports, shattering the silence of the desert.
Last week, as he explained once again why it is in the best interests of the U.S. to sell the Saudis 60 F-15 jet fighters, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance described Saudi Arabia as "a very important country from many, many aspects." With its seemingly limitless oil wealth, it is already an economic superpower. It is the key supplier of energy to the industrialized West and, as bankroller to nearly every other moderate Arab state (as well as two or three immoderate ones), a behind-the-scenes broker in Middle East politics.
For all the flash and dazzle of its remarkable development projects, Saudi Arabia remains a feudal monarchy. Slavery was not outlawed until 1962. Murderers are still beheaded and adulterers stoned to death under Islamic law. Yet thanks to a gift of Allah—proven reserves of 150 billion bbl. of petroleum bubbling underneath the hot desert sands—this extraordinary nation is hurtling in a blink of history's eye from a medieval past toward the 21st century.
Saudi Arabian planning makes Texan big think seem like small talk. The Saudis are currently spending $15 billion on the largest desalination program in the world—and seriously pondering a plan for towing icebergs from the Antarctic to provide fresh water for a country that has not a single permanent river. The estimated cost of that: $80 million per berg. They are putting up $14 billion for a project that will bring natural gas to the newly planned industrial cities of Yanbo on the Red Sea and Jubail on the Persian Gulf, which are costing $30 billion to build. In the past three years, the Saudis have built nearly 300,000 housing units—enough for a quarter of the Saudi population. In a land where education a generation ago was essentially in the hands of the ulema, a powerful group of conservative Islamic religious leaders. 960,000 young Saudis are now in high schools and colleges.