People make the excuse that the West needs an ally in Middle East. Yes, it needs an ally in ME. But SA is not an ally, it's a back-stabber. They are exporting extremism all over the world (I didn't use the words terrorism because someone will come and start arguing there is no proof SA has funded terrorism and they have issued a diplomatic condemnation when a terrorist attack happened). The West has the diplomatic power over SA to force it to stop exporting its extreme ideology all over the world, it's late, the damage has been done, but further damage can be stopped. Not a single politician or all the altruist medias even call out SA, let alone do something about their back-stabbing.

Decades ago, my country was liberated from Pakistan on the value of secularism. Then SA started to fund madrassas, mosques filled with their extremist ideology and now we are heading back to being another Islamist country. As a third world country with majority of people living in poverty what can we do more when Saudis fund terrorism with their unlimited petro-dollars and the West being their ally.

Like many, I find the West has contributed to Islamic terrorism. But not in the way that the West has invaded other countries, but it has been allies with extremism-exporters like SA and let SA export extremism all over the world.

> But SA is not an ally, it's a back-stabber.

I can assure that whatever SA is doing is under explicit or implicitly allowed/permitted maybe even planned by the US long time ago.

It's like being pissed with the 6-year old kid for acting like an idiot when you should really blame the parent for giving him fireworks.

Maybe the US/NATO interests in the area are not the ones you think?! Just saying.

Saudi haven't been "given" any weapons, and they're rich enough that they could easily have purchased from parties other than USA.

You are right to imply that national interests that are commonly understood and discussed differ sharply from the personal interests of those agents charged with pursuing national interests.

The only thing I like about Trump that he calls out SA on terrorism. Other politicians and media are bought by SA money, they will never call out SA despite the extremism it breeds killing innocent people all over the world.

You do realize the so called Trump foreign policy is not based on any political reality but is a tailored marketing message mainly aimed at uneducated and fearing populace. It's quality is similar to the snakeoil commercials which sell instant weight loss - i.e. promises to solve your problem exactly like you want to. The downside is the marketing message is not based on no other reality or craft except that of getting the sale done. The presidential election is even better than a sale - there is no way to return the vote once the political reality after elections does not match with that which was promised.

I'm not taking a stance on the content of Trump's message (not in the US, not really my business). That said he is obviously a fantastic salesman.

If you compare the marketing/spin apparatus of Clinton, Obama and Trump; I am not sure that you will find that Trump has the largest.

The original comment though was intended more as a snarky hint at the current administration rather than a praise for the policies of Trump.