It is conplicated agreed.
They certainly have enough agency to deal with the minor powers in the region. But Iran and Israel are too powerful to deal with, without some outside superpower.
Back in the second Bush Era the Saudi's heavily influenced the US and were able to convince them to deal with Saddam
But this time round it was the Zionists that contributed more. The Arab powers were also a lot more fragmented in terms of their strategy. They are rivals after all.
The US started building bases in the region starting in 1946.
But the thing with bases is they are useful in many ways. There are rarely single purpose.