I don't think you can sit there and pretend that we're somehow a better race of people because we've sold less than the Amercians. It's certainly not been for want of trying; the reality is that since the 70s, they've had better kit to sell. OK, so we did good business selling the Tornado ADV/IDS and Hawk to the Saudis, but more recently they've bought the F-15C/D and F-15S. Guess which ones they think are 'best'?
Law of averages says that if you sell more kit to more nations, you'll get a proportionally higher number of problems like this in the decades that follow.