If you’re interested in some better reading on the stuff we’ve been discussing, you might take a look at this reviewer’s list on Amazon. Dr. Robinson is one of the few reviewers I’ve seen who have critiqued books intelligently and without partisan subjectivity. A shame you can’t see his extended reviews on the “listmania” page–they’re very well reasoned (and don’t contain the egregious grammar mistakes I see in other reviewer posts–what a turnoff).
I think I’m going to get (or take out of the library) House of Bush, House of Saud next.