Lessons from what has recently happened to Qatar

• America is nobody's ally. No one can or should trust America. It only thinks of itself and works for itself. America isn't coming to the rescue of its so-called "ally" Qatar in any way. America only needed/needs Qatar for the Al Udeid Air Base, for covert supply of "support" to select militant/terrorist groups, for its gas reserves, and to sell expensive fighters, weapons, etc., to Qatar. America is a poisonous snake and the Qataris better realize this now.
• Actually, more than the Qataris, it is Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman, etc., which need to realize - fast - that America is an opportunist, filthy snake. America can and will sting anyone as it sees fit.
• Qatar should've made itself much more stronger than it currently is. Why such a staggeringly low number of fighter jets? This is so weird, that it almost creates a Saudi-US conspiracy theory in my mind! What's the use of such massive wealth if you won't buy the means to defend yourself! Ask Singapore. No neighbor can dare thinking of invading Singapore. Ask Taiwan. China is so much bigger than Taiwan but Taiwan still looks quite well-equipped, relatively.
• And did Qatar forget that it's sitting just next to a giant dragon, Saudi?
• It's important to cultivate relationships - especially military - with multiple powerful nations simultaneously. Qatar should've developed military relationships with China, Russia, Italy, and Sweden too. It should've had equipment from several nations.
• You need your own industrial capability for manufacturing weapons. You can't trust so-called allies - least of all the United States - to be really there for you in your time of need. You need self-made weaponry, free from covert spying devices and other nonsense [see below]. This is the direction in which Turkey, Brazil and India are going, and it's the direction in which America's other so-called allies must go.
• SECRET KILL SWITCHES: Not merely possible / likely, but rather certain that there are secret kill switches embedded into the fancy military toys that US sells to Saudi, UAE, South Korea, etc. These will be used to quietly and instantly disable these toys at the required time. The use of software means that the Arabs/Koreans can never know if/where these are present.
• Global Hawk in South Korea, Apr'20: All but certain that these unmanned planes will: 1) Silently transmit lots of sensitive data back to USA, 2) Contain secret switches enabling USA to control/divert/hijack/kill these machines when needed.
• Update [8-Jul-18]: America has cleverly trapped all its F-35 "partners" with the plane's ALIS system and other spyware. It has forced everyone to accept that all software related to the aircraft will reside in the US and will be loaded/updated from there. Also, your classified/sensitive data will automatically be fed to Lockheed Martin on a regular basis [Norway's concerns here, here, here, here, here, and here], and you can do nothing about it, except quietly grumble. Further, you've enslaved yourself to America because America can now remotely degrade or disable your F-35s as and when it wants. It can introduce corrupted or maliciously-crafted firmware into your toys, and it can alter and control your behavior and your geopolitical decisions by threatening to withhold critical software updates from *your* jets. Welcome to slavery dear Europeans. You will now be far more obedient to your master.
• Update [20-Jan-19]: Any self-respecting country also needs its own software and it's own hardware. All that fancy Cisco networking gear and those colorful Microsoft Windows systems will be weaponized by America in the event of a war [or maybe America already utilizes backdoors in American-made IT products, albeit quietly - analogous to flying under the radar so as to stay undetected]. These systems will go down, these will leak/upload data, and these systems might even spontaneously take destructive actions. [link 1]
• Whatever anyone might say, a nuclear weapon remains the ultimate insurance against nefarious neighbors. Should be acquired, and shouldn't be given up.
• Size matters. If you're tiny, like Qatar is, you need to spend disproportionately to defend yourself. Especially so when you have so much wealth, so much gas/oil, a sprawling news media network, so many well-developed companies.
• You should have something/some things that make those who can control/misuse/manipulate you dependent on you [to discourage them from controlling you]. For example, Qatar Airways, via its significant orders for Airbus and Boeing planes holds meaningful control over Europe and US, and can use this card to push these nations to push Saudi to drop its blockade.