The End of an Alliance: It's time to tell the House of Saud goodbye.

Over the long run, the key to winning the war against Islamist terror is helping moderates win the political struggle within Islam. The early stages of the war on terror showed much promise in this respect. In a remarkably short time, using a quiet but effective carrot-and-stick approach, Washington was able to effect an about-face in Pakistan's policies, transforming it from an al-Qaeda sponsor to a cooperative ally. Similar changes were secured by similar methods in some other countries known previously as havens for extremists, such as Yemen, Somalia, and Sudan.

Since then, however, the U.S. has failed to pursue a coherent political strategy aimed at ...