[Ditto]

True enough. They simply DO NOT have the population to produce enough engineers and such to EVER be on their own.

That's as long as the thoroughly corrupt and self-serving Saudi royal family runs the show. If ISIS/ISIL or a similar group made a concerted push there, the House of Said would collapse as fast as the Romonavs, Hapsburgs, or Hollerzollens did 100 years ago.

Guess what happens to those high paid western engineers then, not to mention the non-muslim 3rd world grunt laborers they rely on.

These guys don't give a damn about oil revenues, infant mortality or anything other than doing "Allah's will" as defined by the Whabbi philosophy which ironically rose to the fore because the corrupt Saudi family used it as a means to gain and maintain power over rival tribes. Now, the Saudis are being outbid in radicalism using their own philosophy.

[cloudmountain]

Well, since that country was blessed with ALL THE PETROLEUM in the world (and natural gas, which comes up WITH the petroleum) and WE NEED that petroleum, my guess is that those petroleum producing countries will have enough money to take care of themselves and educate their young for several generations.

God apparently put those once-poverty-stricken Bedouins there in the middle of the planet's largest petroleum and natural gas fields...and thereby gave them what the West needs. Odd, isn't it?
I'm not one to second-guess our good Lord. He had His reasons.