My point was that the Saudis DO NOT sell us discount oil in exchange for commiting our national treasure, reputation and blood to their continued defense. They see it as their right.

The Saudis look at the American Military and Oil Industry Engineers, and perhaps even our leadership, in the same way they look at the thousands of Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Philippino, etc workers they import to deal with other dirty work that is beneath them.

Most Saudi's want moderate reforms, such as a judiciary not controlled by the King (Justice, anyone?); Others would like to have some voice (Hope) in the system; others greater equality (Respect); many perceive (and this perception is targeted heavily by OBL, who is not a Saudi insurgent, he is conducting UW to incite and leverage the Saudi populace to rise up) that the King would not be such a bad guy but that he has lost his way in eroding his support to what the people want in favor of his relationship with the US, thereby calling his (legitimacy) into question.

I also would never promote pushing US Values onto others; principles that we buy into perhaps, but always urge that we resist the tendency to see how we do something as the way everyone else needs to do the same things (Democracy, womens rights, corruption, etc) We come across as judgmental A-holes when we do that. My point is that the documents I mention have powerfull COIN mechanism woven into them due to their origin in Insurgency. There are great lessons for those who look and think.

Every culture is different and needs to develop guiding documents and forms of govenrance that work for them. But there are principles that can be derived from American documents that are proven effective in the prevention of Governmental abuses and the resultant insurgency that comes from such abuses. (and no, the American Civil War was not insurgency; there are lessons there as well. But anytime an emotional, economic issue divides a country geographically, it is a red flag that all should take seriously).