I have hosted Saud royals in my home a number of times, gave some night rides in gimbaled Boeing seats suspended inside a big solar dish mirror.

We discussed tribes, energy policy, and enemies.  I remember their words like pictures, and read the Qu'ran to better understand their messages and methods.  Believers can not lie.

Saudi Arabia is the most sunny place on Earth.  They want solar technology before the oil runs dry.  Much the same logic Iran uses for nuclear power.

Saudi Arabia is mostly Sunni and they most fear Iran Shiites.  They planned to end the 1973-1985 oil embargo for a number reasons, most prominent was to reduce the threat from Iran.  This had the side effect of the USSR collapse because the Soviet military-industrial complex was financed with hard currency from oil exports.

The collapse of oil prices in 1986 ended investor support for renewable energy.  

A new Islamic war financed by oil will flood the world with cheap oil and the atmosphere with carbon.

This smoldering civil war dates back to the life and times of the Prophet Mohammad, a struggle between his descendants and his lieutenants.

sunflower...

Won't the first step for each side be the disabling of the other's oil infrastructure?

Iran has also tested an underwater missle that could easily take out oil tankers.

I would expect the price of oil to soar as the rest of the world competes for oil from other regions -- which will allow each side to finance the war by selling what they have left at a higher price.

The U.S. must create an independent Arab Sunni state in Iraq and Saudi Arabia must become its protector. One for the Kurds and one for the Shiites as well.

It would also be nice if everyone in the new independent states (Sunnis, Kurds, and Shiites) could receive a share of the oil revenue from former Iraqi territory... like the folks in Alaska get. It would give people something to live for.

Iraq was created by the British. It must be dissolved by their heirs.

My limited imagination sees no other course for avoiding an ethnic/economic/ecological disaster in the Middle East.

The Iran-Iraq war did not stop the flow of oil.  The flow of Iran's oil is not a target of Cheney.  Even Osama bin Laden does not target Saudi oil.  And most amazing, the oil of Iraq is still being exported.

The Islamic civil war will be fought in Iraq.  Oil prices are the international weapons of choice.

Market instabilities will occur, but there will be plenty of oil.  These combatants will not want to encourage market alternatives to oil.