I call BS. Consider the source. There is no world wherein the US does not respond to Russian use of nukes, no matter how limited.

This is standard procedure for Russia (Putin) to counter with the "will be forced to use nukes" statement. Typical Russian saber rattling. However the Saudis seem a bit ticked at the current US foreign policies in place and have little faith that the bombing alone will fix the ISIS problem. With Iran's funding of Shia militias (Yemen and Syria), Assad still in power and Russia's ever growing influence in the region the Saudis want to take ISIS head on in a ground campaign and then move on to the militias and Assad regime. With the Saudis moving war planes to Turkey this is not a good sign of the Saudis plan on backing down. They have as well just conducted the largest ever joint training exercise the Middle East has ever seen with Northern Thunder. I see the Saudi led coalition making a sweeping motion from east to west through Iraq and then Turkey and Jordan pressing in from the North and South making it a three war front for Assad. What makes the Saudi led coalition interesting is the inclusion of Pakistani. The Saudis have long supported Pakistan's nuclear program so if this was to go nuclear it could out of hand in a hurry.

Saudis are not happy with the US. Things to take into consideration revolve around Kerry's plan to try to squeeze the Russian's out of Syria via bottoming out the price of oil was a huge failure - Saudis had a 20% deficit and had to borrow - Russia became BFF's with China - and has put US fracking market on the verge of collapse - more or less another banking crisis that we won't be able to bail out of this time. As well Kerry and the Iran nuke problem with the US lifting sanctions we are in a round about manner funding the Shia militias in question and as well Kerry has been trying to get other countries to play nice with Iran - a country more or less at war with Saudi Arabia. I'm sure at this point the Saudis are wondering in amazement at just how inept our policies are. We have been wrong at just about everything to the point of regression. Now Iraq, Iran, Syria our allowing the Russian's a foot in the door at the same time China and Russia are becoming strong allies. While much of our failures have been long in the making this is why you don't draw a line in the sand and then do nothing when its crossed - it will be exploited. If this goes nuclear we will at least know who the Anti-Christ is.

Sorry for the rant - but one hell of a mess to be handing off to the next President.

http://ecowatch.com/2016/01/18/fracking-industry-bankrupt/

Thanks for the post. It's getting very, very crazy!