hap, that's the point. That area is dominated by clans, and the Saudi king, the king of Jordan, the former king of Iraq, the Assads, and Saddam all were or became clan leaders. None of them are or were saints. Once we had Saddam boxed in with the No-Fly zones, all we needed to do was continue playing realpolitik with Iraq, especially after 9/11. If there had been no rush to prepare the Iraq invasion, the Bushies would have permitted more Rangers in Tora Bora instead of using bribable Afghani surrogates, and we would have caught Bin Laden and al-Zawahri instead of letting them get through to continue their existence.
