The Saudis

[PLATO]

Iraq is fairly secular. The ability to set up a new government there is far, far easier than it would be in Saudi. The desent in Saudi is very fundamentalist. The monarchy there is willing to make concessions to terrorist in order to avoid a civil war and their own fall from power. Regime change in Saudi has no viable replacement. Not that the replacement in Iraq is easy or obvious, it just brings more opportunity for establishing democracy than Saudi does.

The plan is to try and set up a model democracy that thrives. If this happens, then the hope is that the Saudi people will see the benefits of a free state as opposed to a fundamentalist state. Since the monarchy in Saudi is very in tune with what the Saudi street is thinking, the hope is that one day a constitutional monarchy can be formed peacefully.

To force regime change in the muslim holy land would lead to tremendous violence. Even the oil barons see that this is no good for the bottom line.

[problem_child]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
it was more about power than anything.

saddam isn't well liked, and weaker.
the saudis are sorta well liked, and stronger.

thus, we go after the weaker one, withdraw our troops from saudi arabia and move them to iraq, so the saudis are more well liked and happier; and we get a friendly base to project power into the middle east.

Well, Suadi is the UKs number one customer for arms and munitions... even the US would have to think twice before facing an army equiped with up to date Made in Britain

[PLATO]

The Saudi armed forces would easily fall to American might. This has little to do with the situation

[Defiant]

Now don't, you are making me blush.

[CivPatriot]

I agree that the primary reasons that we put up with the Saudi's is oil and second that any attempt at removing the current government(I hate the current phrase regime) would be very problimatic considering that the Country hosts two of the most important cites in Islam(Mecca and Medina). Further on the oil question, the United States is less dependant on foreign oil than most of the other Western countries, so I believe its not just us proctecting the Saudi's for own economic security but that of the Western World. I would love to see the current Saudi government gone(and some of those terrorist supporting ***holes in jail or dead) but the current sitution makes that unlikely.

[ahasverus]

And not to forget how do you make regimechange in a country where the official royal family numbers 1400(Or something like that)

[Q Classic]

Are you sure they´re liked? When I was in Jordan and Egypt, most people there said the Saudis are arrogant rich bastards. Of course I can´t say how widely these views are shared within the Arab world...

compared to saddam, yes.