Just to tack onto Bill's point regarding the Saudis and interests. Those are the interests of a few men, a ruling family; not the interests of the populace or nation of Saudi Arabia. The larger interests are subjugated to the self-serving ones.

Rex, yes the White House receives briefs; and then colors that information in the context of the group-think within the bubble they live in (Just as we all do here on SWJ, btw, ) . I suspect it is the same intel people who briefed Bush have been briefing Obama. You can see where that pulled the President off some aspects of the ideological platform he ran on (perhaps we should give all the candidates the "real brief" at a certain point in the process earlier than we currently do only after one has won). But the Obama White House has a reputation for being particularly singular in ideological focus and perspective. I couldn't confirm that, but the nature of decisions, messages, and approaches to all manner of problems tend to validate that perspective.