protect its ally's oil trade.

Despite the importance of the U.S. operation for Saudi interests, the kingdom refused to give Washington permission to base its Navy or Marines on Saudi territory. The Navy was forced to conduct many of its operations from seagoing barges anchored in the gulf, an arrangement some military observers saw as vulnerable to Iranian attack.

In Riyadh's shift yesterday, according to Hudson, "one factor that may have weighed in the decision, which was not taken easily, is the collapse of the Kuwaiti monarchy."

The fall of Kuwait's traditional tribal sheikdom, similar in its history and claims to authority to the House of Saud, "poses serious longer term questions about the legitimacy and viability of the others, including their own," Hudson said. "This is more serious for themWASHINGTON  President Obama on Monday admonished President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan that he must take on what American officials have said he avoided during his first term: the rampant corruption and drug trade that have fueled the resurgence of the Taliban.

As Mr. Karzai was officially declared the winner of the much-disputed presidential election, Mr. Obama placed a congratulatory call in which he asked for a “new chapter” in the legitimacy of the Afghan government.

What he is seeking, Mr. Obama told reporters afterward, is “a sense on the part of President Karzai that, after some difficult years in which there has been some drift, that in fact he’s going to move boldly and forcefully forward and take advantage of the international community’s interest in his country to initiate