Is Saudi Arabia mad at us? Do we care?

Well... we've never really discussed why 15 of the 17 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, have we?  And bin Laden was Saudi as well.... But Saudi Arabia has oil, so we must be friends...

Is America's relationship with Saudi Arabia broken beyond repair?

Barack Obama arrives in Riyadh seeking rapprochement with an aggrieved Arab ally whose interests are increasingly at odds with its key western backer. 

The president's flying visit – no more than an evening in the Saudi king's palace – is his first since the ousting of Hosni Mubarak, which drove an initial wedge between both capitals. 

Ever since, relations have tangibly soured, with US outreach to Iran and ambivalence on Syria particularly irking Saudi leaders, who believe their arch-foe, Tehran, has been empowered at their expense. 

So bothered has Riyadh become by what it sees as naive appeasement of Iran that it now seems ready to project itself regionally without US cover. 

"The US has underwritten the regional security order for the past 70 years and it sees now as a good time to disengage," one senior figure told the Guardian recently. "We will have to do it all ourselves." 

Saudi anger is rooted in the US response to the Arab awakenings that rumbled through North Africa and the Middle East in the three years since Mubarak, a staunch regional ally, stood down.

Another top heavy bloated monarchy perched on top of an increasingly angry neglected population wondering when the Arab Spring uprising will start in their country and whether the US will ride in on its white horse?