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The US-Saudi relationship is a strategic alliance. In this complex world there are few chances to ally with, support, trade with, or align with ONLY free and de
by docdeek 7y ago
The US-Saudi relationship is a strategic alliance. In this complex world there are few chances to ally with, support, trade with, or align with ONLY free and democratic countries.
The US is aligned with the most free and democratic state in the Middle East (Israel) as well as one of the least free (KSA). [0] The NATO alliance sees the US formally aligned with one of the world's most free democracies (Norway) and a country that is judged as not-free at all (Turkey)[0].
Unless the US sticks to supporting - in words, with trade, and in security terms - the very small handful of countries that can claim to be entirely free and democratic it's going to get its hands dirty siding with people and states that it would, in a perfect world, prefer not to.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_the_Middle_East_and_North_Africa#Measures_of_democracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_the_Middle_East_a...