this latest saudi state was declared in 1932 by abdullah al saud. and when he died in 1953, the crown has passed from one of his, first to his eldest son and then from brother to half-brother to half-brother. so king abdullah is the fifth of those boys, and the old man had 44 sons by 22 wives, and 36 of them lived to adulthood, but they are all now rather elderly. the king is 90, and he has already outlived, and only seven years, two of his brothers as crown prince. he is on his third crown prince. so it's very reminiscent of the old soviet union in the '80s, when brezhnev, have to brezhnev died and was replaced by elderly and drop off who died quickly and was replaced quickly by -- who died quickly and was finally replaced by gorbachev, but by then it was too late to save the system. so as ronald reagan said at that time when they were basically three soviet leaders in a little over three years time, they keep dying on me. [laughter] and that's what i think president obama and future american presidents are going to be dealing with. certainly here i