(1) While the Saudis support terror organizations, Saudi Arabia as a nation generally does not. It would be nice to see the Saudi government stop looking the other way about this though. Hopefully part of this deal is "hey thanks for the guns, now we'll get to work cracking down on the nutjobs like you asked."
(2) Depending upon how we leave Iraq, at peace or in pieces, it may be necessary for the moderate Arab states to contain Iraqi unrest themselves instead of depending on us to do it for them. Otherwise said unrest will spread to the entire region. They'll need weapons and equipment for that.
(3) The Iranians don't like it which is great. Iran wants to run the show in the Middle East, but by arming the moderate Sunnis their ability to project power militarily is limited.
I'm not so sure that Saudi Arabia and neighbors would step in if we withdrawl from Iraq and it all falls apart. I would think they'd be interested in maintaining their border and keeping the chaos of Iraq out of their own nation.
With friends like these.....
I think the Saudi government supports some of the extremists to keep attention from their own lifestyles and actions, but that doesn't help us much.
Commenting by HaloScan
