Wouldn’t a preventative strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities be easier? Cleaner? Less deadly?
All we need to do is deploy 2 or 3 THAAD batteries to the middle east. Maybe 2 in Saudi and one in Qatar or even Northern Iraq. We also have, I believe, nearly round-the-clock coverage in the Persian Gulf of Aegis equipped DDGs and CGs. Upgrade them to the ballistic missile defense role, load a couple dozen SM-3s on them...problem solved. Throw in a few Patriot PAC-3 batteries around population centers for point defense. All those ballistic missiles and warheads are now functionally useless, a drain of resources for no gain.
Think of it, if (when) the nut-job in Iran finally flips over the edge, either attacks his Islamic brethren directly, or attacks Israel it'll be the same net effect. Israel will not sit lightly and let even radioactive debris fall on its territory. It will strike back at Islam, Mecca and Medina.
The Saudis know this. So the last thing they want is the whack-job in Iran trying to take over Islam, become a "leader" by "showing Israel who's boss" when it is really Saudi cities that are at risk. (in addition to Iranian) Saudi, and most of the other Gulf States, just want to do business and be left alone. They are serious about not wanting to pollute/dilute their culture, fine by me. I may not agree with their cultural norms, but I wouldn't presume to tell them how to live, just as I don't want them telling me how to live.
The biggest threat to the more moderate Gulf States isn't the west and our culture, it is radical Islam. Radical Islam threatens not just their lives and foreign policy (as it does ours), it is also a threat to their governments, their culture, their religion - basically everything it means to be Saudi, Jordanian, Qatari, etc. The misguided fools on the fringes of Islam threaten the middle east far more than they threaten us. If I was the Saudis, I'd be very, very wary of my neighbor across the Gulf...
Of course, you'd never hear Hillary advocate this approach. The liberal line is that ballistic missile defense doesn't work, that it is simply an expensive boondoggle of the Bush administration. BS. It works just fine, and is getting better all the time. As long as no-one pulls the funding rug out from underneath it, it will continue to stay ahead of the threats posed by the unstable regimes in North Korea, Iran, and others.