Originally Posted by superdude17*

there are no US troops anymore in saudi arabia, i believe. we have moved all of our troops over to the united arab emirates and kuwait as our key area for bases.

saudi arabia is crucial because it is just like india...it is an offset to iran just as india is to china...it stops iran from expanding and taking over everything except for israel and maybe egypt.

the saudi government has become a lot less restrictive in civil liberties in recent years, and while still extremely, they are slowly allowing more rights to its citizens.

saudi arabia, egypt and jordan are the most stable arab middle eastern countries who have shown that they are willing to confront terrorism.

when iraq becomes a world power again that is friendly to the united states and the west, with our troops stationed there, saudi arabia won't be as important...

but, we must continue to ally ourselves with moderate sunnis...their history shows that they are more prone to accept outsiders and embrace outsider beliefs. shi'ite's believe in the hard line muslim tradition. they believe in their imams and the sheiks and that crap.