The United States and the Islamists
There is a wrong impression that the United States like the Islamists of the Middle East and North Africa. This is due to many years of black and red socialist propaganda. The truth is that the Americans love to have liberals as allies, and when they can, they always advise and push their allies to move towards this direction. I want to describe the framework within which the cooperation between the US and the Saudi Islamists took place in the 20th Century.
At the beginning of the 20th Century (1900), it was clear how important oil would be in during the 20th Century, since it was going to replace coal and the steam engines. At the beginning of the 20th Century the most industrialized countries were England and Germany, followed by France. None of them had oil. The only European power that had oil was Russia. The English, the German and the French could get oil from North Africa and the Middle East, since the Caspian Sea was controlled by Russia.
Germany, which was not a naval power, wanted to obtain access to the oil of the Middle East through her ally, the Ottoman Empire, and to the oil of North Africa through another ally i.e. Italy. Italy was a German ally at the beginning of WW1, even though it decided not to declare war on France, England and Russia at the beginning of the war, and later, in 1915, she entered the war on the side of the allies. But in 1914 Italy was a German ally. The allies managed to chop the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East and the Balkans, and also take Italy on their side, and the German army had no access to oil. The same was true during WW2, when Hitler did not manage to gain control of the oil of North Africa, the Middle East and the Caspian Sea, losing the war too.
After WW2, Germany did not exist as a geopolitical player, and the conflict was transferred between the West and the Soviet Union. The Soviets were very rich in oil, but the West controlled North Africa and the Middle East. However during the period of 1950-1970, Libya, Algeria and Iraq, all came under the control of socialist dictators who were supported by Russia. In 1979, with the Islamic revolution, Iran was lost for the West too. Therefore North Africa and the largest part of the Persian Gulf were lost for the West, and came under the control of socialist dictators who were aligned and armed by Russia. That was a very big change.
In case of war the Soviets would have a clear advantage, and during the peace the Soviets and the socialist dictators in North Africa and the Middle East would act as a cartel in order to reduce production and raise prices of oil, hurting the American and the European economies. It was Saudi Arabia, under American pressure, which would produce more, in order to keep oil prices low. The other Arabs of the Gulf too, but it is Saudi Arabia which has the huge reserves.
As a result, in 1979, after Libya, Algeria and Iraq went under socialist control, and after Iran was lost, when the Russians invaded Afghanistan, in order to keep the communist government in power, the United States brought forward the Carter Doctrine. The Carter Doctrine was very clear, and it was saying that the United States would use military force if her interest in the Persian Gulf were undermined. One has to keep in mind that at the time all the countries of Central Asia i.e. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kirgistan, they were part of the Soviet Union. Therefore from the oil rich regions of North Africa, the Caspian Sea and the Middle East, which hold more than 2/3 of the world’s oil reserves, only the Arabic part of the Persian Gulf was under Western influence, and that excluded Iraq.
What the Americans meant with the Carter Doctrine, was that if Saudi Arabia came under Soviet influence, they would declare war to Russia. No matter how Saudi Arabia would come under Russia influence i.e. with military means or through election etc. The Carter Doctrine meant that the US would not stand still seeing Saudi Arabia coming under Soviet control.
Therefore when we examine the relationship between the Americans and the Saudi Islamists, we have to take into account that in the Middle East and North Africa there are only socialist and islamists. There are no liberals for the Americans to support. Therefore the Americans had to either support the Islamists, who were enemies with the socialists supported by the Soviets, or let the socialist dictators overturn them, as it happened in Libya, Algeria and Iraq. Do you thing the Americans could do something else? Without oil you could not switch your car on. Uncle Sam makes sure that something happens when you turn the key. God bless America silly.