RICH LOWRY SAYS the Saudis are bluffing. That’s right. Prince Abdullah warned that we might send the region “over a cliff.” He failed to consider that we might think that’s where it belongs.

UPDATE: Den Beste agrees:

He’s looking at the end of the Saud dynasty no matter which way things go and he’s hoping for some way out.

I don’t think he’s going to find one, though; I think that the House of Saud will soon be a stateless monarchy, living in wealthy exile.

I actually think this is on the optimistic side, from the Saudis’ point of view. But I don’t think the Saudis have reconciled themselves, yet, to the fact that they’re in an endgame where the only question is whether they will lose comfortably, or lose very uncomfortably.