| The inherent underlying problem is that the political entity "Saudi Arabia" is only an artificial construct arising from post WWI politics, just like most of the current Middle Eastern states, Yugoslavia, and Czecholovakia. Once the external forces that held Yugoslavia and Czecholovakia together were gone, look what happened. Turned out there was no such thing as a "Yugoslavian" or "Czecholovakian" - people thought of themselves as Czech, or Slovak, or Serb, or Bosnian, etc. If the different groups in Iraq - Kurds, Shiites, etc - can find a framework to work together as a government or country, great. If not, a lot of energy will be expended on a lost cause and we will eventually see the Republic of Kurdistan, etc. In Saudi Arabia, there are only 2 things of value: the oil fields, and Mecca and Medina. I doubt if the current political organization can survive its current stresses and the result will be its collapse and battles between the local groups and the Western powers over the only things that matter. |
