Saudi Arabia Embraces Western Vices, Still Demands Western Protection
The irony isn't subtle: while Riyadh slowly opens liquor stores ( France 24 ), it continues to chop up journalists (Jamal Khashoggi, 2018), execute political dissidents, and jail women’s rights activists. Human rights organizations like Amnesty International consistently detail the kingdom's brutal repression, yet Western leaders, eager for oil and weapons deals, mostly offer polite tut-tuts. The
Biden administration, which once vowed to treat MBS as a "pariah," quickly swapped principles for petrodollars and arms sales. This isn't about 'progress'; it's about MBS sanitizing his image for foreign capital, particularly from the same Western nations whose moral outrage mysteriously dissipates at the sight of lucrative defense contracts. How convenient that 'modernization' only extends to
vices that attract foreign investors, not basic human dignity. One might wonder if Western leaders would be so accommodating if the Saudi regime wasn't such a reliable client for their military-industrial complex.