Who said we talking about armed conflict? I’m speaking strictly on policy and sanctions
A lot of the votes/speeches etc we've seen post - Khashoggi were done precisely because they knew trump would never sign/implement the laws/resolutions.
At the end of the day you're never going to convince the foreign/national security policy establishment (which still holds a lot of influence in DC, and will continue to do so even after trump is gone) that we should risk the possibility that the saudis decide to turn elsewhere for their security guarantees.
The Israelis would be dead set against any serious effort to hold the saudi royal family accountable.
A serious split b/tn the US/Saudi relationship would be seen as a net plus/foreign policy coup for the Iranians and Russians.
And to guarantee their survival the Sauds would jump quickly on the road to a nuclear program.
We're not going to sanction anyone - what would that even look like? We don't give them billions every year like the Israelis or Egyptians that we can just stop.
The Saudis account for 1/5 of our military related foreign sales over the last 5 years, and the total amount of arms sales to them in that period has increased almost 500%...that revenue stream is not going to be touched as it results in jobs etc to companies in just about every state in the country.
All of the shyt the politicians are saying = virtue signaling.