Do Our Allies Match the United States Values?

The concept of an alliance has been around since the formation of states. People figured out pretty fast that the more people you've got, the more powerful you are. Especially in todays world, an abundance of allies is key to success. This need for allies increases immensely when you're the hegemonic world power, like the United States is today. Usually, when you think of a list of the current allied countries with the U.S., many European and western states come to mind. England, Canada, Germany, France, countries which, today, share our values as a country. However, the United States also has some questionable allies, such as Saudi Arabia.

photo from: https://politicalgraffiti.wordpress.com/category/iraq/

Why would the U.S. be allied with an oppressive regime?

Well, lets be honest, Saudi possess about 40% of the worlds oil: something the U.S. needs. So, Saudi Arabia is our ally, and in exchange we turn a blind eye to violations of human rights. But what happens when citizens here in the U.S. use their freedom of speech to talk about how freedom speech is being crushed in a country the U.S. calls a friend?

While the United States and other western countries speak out against the atrocities committed by the terrorist group known as ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or ISIL), Saudi Arabia continues to oppress the rights of their citizens, and imposes sharia law in some ways as drastically as ISIS has. Saudi Arabia also possess a recent history of imprisoning individuals who spoke out against authorities or for political and human rights reforms. In addition, Saudi Arabia has continuously been executing those charged with minor drug possessions.

These actions committed by the Saudi government have led to unrest in the U.S., especially with the revival of diplomatic ties with Cuba, many U.S. citizens believe it's time to reevaluate the U.S.'s relations with Saudi Arabia. And they're not afraid to let their voices be heard.