Supposedly, after 9/11, the Saudi government was coerced and threatened in stark terms in order to gain their cooperation. The Iraq War further shocked Saudi society in the way that the US vanquished both Saddam and the insurgency, while taking a substantial toll of young Saudi men who went into Iraq to fight against the US. While Saudi cooperation remains useful for the US, there is a part of me that regrets that we did not crush them out after 9/11. I have a settled suspicion that 9/11 was known in advance of and supported by key elements in the Saudi and Pakistani intelligence services and governments.
The alternative to the Saudi monarchy was and is Wahhabist fundamentalism: far worse than the status quo. Did you envision a permanent U.S. military occupation?
I don’t want to crush the Sauds - don’t care about ‘em enough to bother... I just want them to stay out of my county - and I want our people to stay out of theirs... These two cultures - ours and theirs - have NOTHING to offer each other. If they want to sell us oil, fine. If they want to buy something we make, fine. But I don’t want them or their ideas over here... or ours over there.