Matt Bevan

This displeased Qatar's big brother.

In case you've forgotten... Big brother is Saudi Arabia.

The new emir wasn't willing to accept Saudi Arabia's role as the regional superpower.

So Saudi Arabia tried to get rid of him.

The Saudi counter-coup failed, potentially, because Hamad refused to go on holiday, but it left him in a tricky position, wedged between a pushy big brother to the south and something even scarier to the north.

The only real threat to the development programs of the ruling family would appear to be Islamic fundamentalism along the lines of the Iran model.

Iran.

While Saudi Arabia might see the Qataris as a little brother, they were at least from the same family.

Iran is extremely different in almost every way.

Different ethnicity, different language, different religion, Shia instead of Sunni Islam.

And a totally different regime.

A fundamentalist theocracy that had overthrown their monarch in a violent revolution.

Qatar would need to find a bigger, scarier friend.

And so they went to the biggest and scariest friend there is.

It's my honor to welcome the Emir of Gutter to the Oval Office.

I'm pretty sure George W. Bush just called him the Emir of Gutter.

But anyway.

So your highness, it's such an honor to have you here.

To secure this new friendship, Hamad agreed to host an enormous American air base in his country.

And to say thanks, the US moved its regional base of operations to Qatar.