[Cronos]

When the smoke clears, the Crown Prince will be in control of a Sunni Caliphate that spreads from the southern borders of the former USSR, to the western borders of India, to the Horn of Africa, to the underbelly of Europe. Thus, and Islamist superpower will be born. And it will pose the greatest threat to world peace since the Axis powers. Now, the Crown Prince is not the only one with this nightmarish vision. Erdogan and the Ayatollahs do, too. But the Deep State supports only two of them. The neocon wing supports the Saudis for one reason only: MONEY. The CIA wing supports the Turks for one reason only: “Russia must be destroyed.” MbS is supported by the neocon wing; Kashoggi was supported by the CIA wing. Both wings are evil and must be destroyed. Too bad Trump has decided to fight only one of them while getting in bed with the other!

Correct. And by putting US troops in danger we abet the Saudis

The problem with MBS' vision is that his army is a flop - as witnessed in Yemen. The real military powers in that region are the Egyptians, Turks, Pakistanis and Iranians. And all 4 are different ethnicities and different opinions on who should dominate. We should encourage a punch-up instead of dying for the Sauds

[G-Pol]

You have a very good point regarding Saudi Arabia’s military.

Although Saudi Arabia’s military budget is 2.5 times as large as those of Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey COMBINED, its military capability is severely hampered by the sheer amount of radicalism and militancy which exists among the populace. The royals are forced to play politics when it comes to organizing the military, because one bad move could result in (a) a coup that replaces the monarchy with an even worse regime; (b) a revolt among the Shiite population; or (c) civil war, probably prompted by events (a), (b), or even both.

For this reason, as long as it’s confined to its current territory Saudi Arabia has no choice but to rely on the blood and treasure of other countries whenever it goes to war. Any attempt to go to war on its own would be suicide.

Meanwhile, now that you’ve mentioned other military powers in the region (Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey), out of those four the one I would pay attention to the most is Turkey.

Not only is Turkey in the best position to be come a major power (see George Friedman’s ‘The Next 100 Years’ for more info), its regime is unique because it combines Islamism with ethnic nationalism, specifically Turanism. Islamism and Turanism make an extremely dangerous combination because the latter ideology has the potential to cause countries like Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, and South Korea to form alliances with a Turkish caliphate... WITHOUT being taken over by Islamists! Such alliances would be based on racial solidarity instead of religious solidarity.