Perhaps this explains a bit of it:

Why Saudi Arabia and Qatar want to Eradicate Iraq

By John Galt on 06/12/2014

by John Galt
June  12, 2014 22:00 ET

On September 1, 2013, I published the following article referring to the idea of putting US troops on the ground in the Syrian Civil War:

Just Say NO on Syria

In that article, I stated the following:

The desire to build a natural gas pipeline from Qatar and Saudi Arabia first took hold in 2009 but due to the uprisings within the “Arab Spring” which followed and massive instability created from the uprisings, Bashar Al-Assad’s distrust of the Sunni governments which supported the rebellions caused his heart to change from one of cooperation to absolute opposition to the pipelines and any other projects with the governments on the Arabian peninsula. The pipeline project through Syria was spiked by Assad and shortly thereafter, the rebellion in Syria began under the guise of the Arab Spring.

The United States, once again, is being funded and pushed by the Arab nations within OPEC to fight a war so they will have a sustainable market for their natural gas and petroleum products in the near future as the United States shifts from an oil importer to the role of exporter in direct competition with their former Arab allies. Saudi Arabia and Qatar desperately need a consolidated Middle East free of Russian and Israeli influence so there is no competition for supplying Europe with their energy needs for at least the next forty plus years. As long as those two nations remain in the region with any economic or military superiority over the old OPEC regimes, then the ability to offer alternatives to Iranian and Russian petroleum products is via price competition versus a strategic monopoly.

Fast forward to the invasion of Iraq from Eastern Syria by the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and the rapid operational control they have over much of the northwestern region of Iraq:

While my map is crudely drawn and an approximation, based on media and internet reports this is the approximate region of control and the direction of the advance to cut off Baghdad from the South of Iraq and at least encircle the capitol on three sides. Thus one has to start asking a few key questions:

Who supports ISIS?

And who benefits from a radical Sunni Islamist group seizing control of Western Iraq?

The first question is somewhat nebulous as the Qatari and Saudi governments initially supported all of the Islamist opposition groups in Syria against Assad but soon realized that radical pro Al-Qaeda groups were splintering the rebellion and attacking more moderate Sunni elements operating in Syria. While there are doubts about direct support from the monarchies of the Gulf region, there is a strong possibility that Wahhabist and radical Sunni supporters in the business community within Saudi Arabia and Qatar are providing indirect support to the ISIS forces.

This line of thinking was not far from the mind of the Iraqi leadership who was already struggling before this massive offensive to contain ISIS in the north of Iraq. According to the Middle East Monitor’s May 29, 2014 article, Baghdad accuses Riyadh of supporting ISIS to undermine moderate Sunnis:

Iraqi authorities said Wednesday that Saudi intelligence sent “messages” to the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIS) urging them to “eliminate moderate Sunnis.”

The Iraqi official TV quoted the vice president of the security and defence committee in the Parliament as saying that Riyadh supports ISIS, as does Qatar and Turkey.

“Terrorist groups and ISIS and Al Qaeda own advanced weaponry, made in Israel, and delivered to them through Syria or Turkey,” Iskander Toot said.

Toot accused Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of “funding terrorists,” seeking to undermine the political process in Iraq.

He added that security agencies have evidence, which proves “the complicity of these countries in supporting terrorists, training them and sending them to Iraq to kill innocent citizens.”

Why would Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and perhaps even the European Union support such a move to eliminate or dissolve the Iraqi state? If one reviews the actions of the past week, it begins to make sense, especially from the perspective of the nations and EU regarding future energy supplies as Russia and Europe re-enter into a new Cold War over the Ukrainian situation. The original plan for the pipeline, as pictured in the map at the top,  circumvented Iraq because the Malaki government would not share the revenues nor guarantee the security of a pipeline through Iraq to Turkey. The Saudis and Qataris were enraged when Assad also refused to grant permission for this pipeline also and thus the reason for the sudden civil war with tens of thousands of foreign fighters descending on Syria to “protect Sunnis” and eradicate Alawites, Christians, and Shi’ites from Syria.

Since that failure to overthrow Assad, the diplomatic situation between Russia and the European Union has deteriorated with the EU basically ordering Bulgaria and Serbia to stop construction of the South Stream pipeline from Russia into Central and Southern Europe. Why would the EU want to gamble on Putin supplying energy if they thought there was an alternative; perhaps through Western Iraq and Eastern Syria into Turkey to avoid paying the higher rates for natural gas and forcing the United States to turn a blind eye while Saudi Arabia and Qatar (along with other GCC states) obtain an outlet for their ample supplies of natural gas. Based on the old pipeline map with the current ISIS control region as of today, this would have not worked unless all of Syria was conquered:

If ISIS is successful and the Jordanians, Saudis, and Qataris are able to mollify the ISIS leadership and promise them their own state in Western Iraq the new pipeline project might look something like this:

By seizing this swath of territory in Western Iraq it will essentially end Iraq as a functioning state and force Iran and the Kurds to either accept the de facto division of Iraq into a three state solution or create the largest multi-denominational military conflict since  the great schism between Sunni and Shi’ites centuries ago; this would have the unintended consequence of bringing the entire Islamic world into conflict with and against the West and Asia depending on alliances.

To demonstrate the falsehoods promoted by the Obama administration about their inability to react, one must consider that the limited drone action in the conflict region as reported by the Wall Street Journal tonight pales to the current air power we have available in Kuwait, Qatar,  and Turkey to launch attacks on ISIS forces. If the administration wanted to launch a coordinated attack with Turkish Air Force units along with the Saudis in support of the Iraqi government, the capacity is there yet for some reason our government continues to act with great restraint considering the threat to Baghdad and the fighting which has begun there tonight.

Logically speaking this does not appear to be another Middle East “war for oil” but the deafening silence from Riyadh and the GCC along with the inexplicable inaction from Washington, DC appears to support this theory. Europe needs an alternative natural gas supply instead of Russia and the royal families of the Arabian Peninsula need to force Iran into economic and geographical isolation, while cutting off the Kurds and Russia from creating an energy monopoly to Europe. If ISIS is successful and gains even more support to create its own independent state in exchange for a promise of “regional peace” then the trap becomes more obvious and the plans of the Wahhabi sect to begin the resurrection of the Caliphate shall begin.