“Dump the Saudis,” Rich Lowry counsels in today’s NRO. But first, topple Iraq and obviate the very need for the relationship of convenience we maintain with the House of Saud:

[…]a successful U.S. effort to topple Saddam and install a friendly regime in Baghdad would make the U.S.-Saudi alliance far less important. In many ways, Iraq seems a more natural candidate for friendship with the U.S. than does Saudi Arabia, despite the Saddam interlude.

Iraqis have traditionally been a sophisticated and commercial-oriented people, with few of the traditions of Islamic radicalism of the Saudis. Also, the Iraqis could withdraw from OPEC and begin fully pumping oil into the world market, thus reducing Saudi market power and one of the incentives for the U.S. to appease the regime.

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