Sounds like a perfect time to pull out immediately from Iraq. That would give other countries the opportunity to fight each other through a proxy war in Iraq- i.e. Iran backing Shiites, Saudi Arabia- Sunnis. An immediate pull out would also cause more bloodshed and give extreme Islam it's own country to flourish, a key goal of the democratic proposal to withdrawal. We'll be left with a failed state and thousands of people who died in vain for this war. I guess pulling out of Iraq is the silver bullet. Sounds like the best option.

This could actually be good news too. Abdullah is 100% correct here, and he may well have the power and influence to pull off some leadership on the issue. If the Arab world is actually able to settle their difference and stabilize their states, then it's a good outcome (provided of course that they don't use this as an excuse to destroy Israel).

I read that story but didn't think it was a big deal. Saudi Arabia can't be seen to be snuggling up to the U.S. too closely, else their credibility among other Arab states is completely undermined. As long as the Saudis are our allies covertly, what they say out loud doesn't hurt us and probably will end up helping us. Watch what they do, not what they say.

Good observation, linden, but let's still hope that we extricate ourselves from the mess we've made promptly. Considering that radicals are ultimately who will take power in Iraq, because they are driven insanely, there will be native victims of their violence whether our troops are there to absorb the mortar or not. I strongly doubt that we can make any positive progress now; experts agree that we cannot and in fact we've just assured that fresh generations of Muslims will hate America.