Now we have analysts as diverse as Karen Elliott House and Angelo Codevilla proposing that the Saudis should use their considerable air force to degrade ISIS. Unless the U.S. commits its own forces in depth, the Saudis never will do so (unless they are defending their own territory, which ISIS is not stupid enough to attack).Huh? If ISIS were operating in the south of Iraq instead of the north, they'd have already raided across the Saudi border, killing thousands, destroying pipelines, and setting oil fields on fire. As usual, 'Spengler' has no idea what he's writing about.
He writes well, but his predictions have been off base more often than not. People who rag on the royals don't understand that they are the moderates, that they keep a lid on tens of millions of fanatically-zealous subjects who will depose them if they step out of line. The Israelis and neocons keep going on and on about the royals spreading Islamist propaganda. It's BS. They finance missionary work because it's their concession towards religiosity for the Saudi masses - it's boob bait for Ali. These subjects don't need imams to tell them what to do. They're not illiterates - they can read the world of Allah for themselves. No imam has the authority to countermand the decrees of Allah as set out in the Koran, and any imam who does so literally has a target on his back. Imams have been killed for deviating from the Koran.