American Heritage magazine has an interview with Ralph Peters: historian, novelist, and former Army intelligence officer.

I personally feel that we’ve made a grotesque mistake aligning ourselves with the most oppressive of the Arabs, with the Arab world’s Beverly Hillbillies. Other Arabs built Damascus, Córdoba, Baghdad, Cairo. The Saudis never built anything. The fact that they came into their oil wealth was a disaster, not for us but for the Arab world, because it gave these malevolent hicks raw economic power over the populations of poor Islamic states, such as Egypt.

Personally, I think he's being a little rough on the Clampetts; Ellie Mae never had to wear a burqa. (And thank goodness for that.)

But the "malevolent hicks" phrase is a keeper. The Saudi's idea of good taste does sometimes seem as tacky and over-the top as any American theme park, a sort of Mordor to Disney World's Gondor. (Which would make North Korea Isengard; on the other hand, it's probably best I drop this analogy altogether.)

He's absolutely right, of course; all the moreso because the Saudis not only possess all the oil wealth, they also have political control of Mecca and Medina. They are literally the gatekeepers of Islam.

The War Against Terror will be won when the House of Saud falls, and is replaced by a more humane, more civilized regime. Nothing less will do.