It would make more sense for Nato to attack Saudi/UAE/Bahrain etc. They buy western hardware so if we destroy a few hundred Tornadoes/Eurofighters/F16s then there are big replacement contracts to create jobs in Europe and America.

This must be sarcasm, but I don't understand what point you're trying to make.

We spend $8Bn on some new stealth fighters. We only ever use them against countries with no air defences. So the fighters never get 'used up' so there are massive job losses at BAe.

The traditional option was to fight a competent enemy - but then your own people get shot down which doesn't play well with the electorate.

A modern solution is to sell your weapons to an ally, then destroy them and then sell more of the same replacement items to the replacement government. The big advantage of that is that the replacement government is normally pretty well disposed to you - if they know whats good for them.