I'm not sure about that.
While I can see that Gov'ts are not condemning the Suadi's as they should be, because the Saudi's buy lots of expensive toys and own lots of expensive proerties in London and NY and so on and pay taxes and all of that, I don't think "we are fighting to keep [Defence contractors] humming...the most cynical military pursuit in history.".
In fact, many would and have argued that we should be fighting but aren't.
The current enemy is ISIS, but ISIS is a direct result of a destabilized Iraq, which is a direct result of US led military adventurism. We are fighting in ISIS in every way but with infantry, but as soon as Baghdad falls, there will be infantry deployed there. Obama has no election to win, and the incoming president will not want to look weak. But the politics and the particulars don't really matter in the long run if what you really care about are the quarterly reports from defense contractors. What matters long term to these people is keeping the region unstable. Obama/Clinton/Whoever will send in the newest jet fighter and drone and state of the art weapons system to keep the marketplace of weaponry buzzing. ISIS is a goldmine, and when they are "defeated", a new mortal enemy will require the newest latest shiny new killing machine.