The Saudi royal family is downplaying the insurgency as much as possible, which is understandable: If the jihadists were to overthrow them, the consequences would make the Iraq war look like a minor regional skirmish: Western Europe and Asia depend on Saudi oil as much as the United States does.

Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, recently called for a ruthless campaign -- "a war," he wrote, "that does not mean delicacy, but brutality." However, it's not clear that Saudi forces are capable of waging such a war.