The "alliance" that we have with Saudi Arabia is shabby and fair-weather by most standards. But given the nature of petro-politics and the state of the middle east, its about the best that we can expect to achieve from any Arab nation in the region for the forseeable future.

When countries have only one primary export, are not democratic, and share little to no cultural ties with us, there's only one way to effectively get what we want from them - buying them off. This is never a good long-term policy, and I think the growing national awareness that we can't remain dependent on this region and these nations for energy resources highlights this fact. We need a major push to restructure our energy economy.

But that won't happen for a long time. And in the interim, we're stuck cutting deals. At least we still have some leverage in the region. Nothings is going to go well until the world kicks its oil habit and we can engage the middle east as a region of peoples and nations, not oil-rich dynasties. But for now, they still aren't Iran.