If, way back in 2001, the Bush administration had been serious, as it said it was, about going after “state sponsors of terrorism,” the first front should have opened against Saudi Arabia. Most of the 9/11 jihadists and suspected mastermind Osama bin Laden were from Saudi Arabia, and there is strong suspicion that 28 pages of the Senate report on its investigation of 9/11 that has still not been publicly released (notwithstanding an Obama promise to do so) contain damning evidence of wealthy Saudis’ and the Saudi government’s involvement.

The Saudis and the US had supported the Afghan Mujahideen—led by bin Laden—who bedeviled the Soviets in the 1970s and 1980s (see “A Perfect Time to Leave the Middle East”). The 9/11 attacks were neither the first nor the last time that the US government’s designs to “use” Islamic extremist group have blown up in its face. As Putin noted: “Gentlemen, the people you are dealing with are cruel but they are not dumb. They are as smart as you are. So, it’s a big question: who’s playing who here?”

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