Have to disagree here, President Disaster didn't have a clear plan at all and this is blowback. He's destroyed Iraq, destabilized Pakistan, may well draw KSA into Iraq, and handed the whip to Iran. The gulf is already dependent on the US military, and I doubt al Qaeda are preoccupied fighting the Shia. They're focused on secular Sunni, we did a nice job for them taking out Iraq, and Pervez Musharraf is walking a knife edge. This may all blow up into Shia vs Sunni, but I'm very skeptical that that was Bush's plan -- if only because widespread sectarian war would make the cost of doing oil business in the ME and the price of gas back home prohibitive.