Senator Biden made some interesting comments about this. The Saudis are essentially a dictatorship/oligarchy that keeps itself in power through massive "philanthropy" to its citizens. They have no democratic institutions or social services and merely give money to various groups and factions to keep everyone happy and stay in power. As it turns out a number of recipients of this gift money are not friends of ours or even of the Saudi rulers. Until there is real democratic reform in Saudi Arabia there will continue to be this problem. Unfortunately, the Saudi leaders are extremely resistant to democratic reforms no matter how small.

This is why I believe any attack on Iraq must be followed by creation of a true democratic government there. A democratic Iraq could hopefully show the arab world that dictatorships and monarchies have no place in the modern era. If we take out Saddam but merely replace him with another form of non-democratic tyranny we will have missed a golden opportunity.