[JasonC]

If we ever need the oil but can't have Saudi oil, here is all we have to do. Step one - take royal family and put them in helicopters. Step two - fly helicopters over Persian gulf. Step three - drop royals in the drink. Step four - keep the oil, which is then no longer "Saudi" oil. Ta da! So complicated, isn't it?

[JasonC]

In case the moral of that wasn't clear, they need us about a hundred times more than we need them. That the Saudi royal family is sovereign and in control of its territory is a polite diplomatic fiction. It remains that way exactly as long as it serves our interests, our sense of justice, and our respect for principles of property, to have it that way. When it doesn't, with a snap of the figures it won't be that way anymore.