Will immaturity lead to fireworks?

"I never thought I'd live long enough to write this sentence: The most significant reform process underway anywhere in the Middle East today is in Saudi Arabia," wrote Thomas L Friedman. Crown Prince, 32 year old Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, is behind these 'reforms'. Women have been allowed much greater freedom. They will be allowed to enter sports stadiums and will be allowed to drive from  next year, for the very first time,  But, it is the arrest of princes and high ranking officials on charges of corruption that has made the headlines in the last few weeks. MBS told Friedman that it is "ludicrous" to suggest that his anti-corruption crusade is a power grab. "Our country has suffered a lot from corruption from the 1980s until today. The calculation of our experts is that roughly 10 percent of all government spending was siphoned off by corruption each year, from top levels to the bottom. Over the years the government launched more than one 'war on corruption' and they all failed. Why? Because they all started form the bottom up," he said. Indeed. In Saudi Arabia, succession to the throne is from brother to brother, but MBS broke that by ruthlessly forcing seniors to renounce their claims. Buying a yacht for $550 million, when the country is running hefty budget deficits, while lecturing about corruption, is a bit rich. Prof K Basu wrote that strong leaders love widespread corruption. "It is not hard to see that for such leaders, nothing is as advantageous as pervasive corruption." "This gives the leader the capacity to arrest those who publicly oppose him, not for the criticism, or at least not openly so, but on the grounds of corruption." The arrest of the elite in the opulent Ritz Carlton Hotel maybe eyewash if the rumors of torture by experts from the US are to be believed. But MBS may not be as clever as he thinks. The war in Yemen is turning into a collective punishment for the people, with victory against the Houthis nowhere in sight. The war in Syria has been won by Assad, with Iranian and Russian support. The Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri reversed his decision to resign, giving rise to speculation that he had been forced into it by the Saudi government. MBS called Iran's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, "the new Hitler". MBS is "immature", was Iran's riposte. Meanwhile, an Israeli cabinet minister revealed that Israel is in covert contact with Saudi Arabia. Israel is deeply worried about Iran's nuclear program and, if it had not been Obama's threat to shoot down its planes, would have bombed Iran's nuclear facilities. With Trump in the White House a combined Israeli/Saudi attack on Iran does not look so far-fetched. Kim Jong-un is 33 years old and MBS is 32 years old. No wonder they are so gung-ho.