It is the cruelest of ironies that with all of the promise of the Arab Spring and its tropes of democratization, gender equality, freedom of conscience, and the like, it is the authoritarian kings, Saudi Arabia in particular -- the anti-force to all of these values -- that have survived largely untouched. And this administration and its predecessor -- for all the talk of the Freedom Agenda and being on the right side of history -- still values stability as the paramount virtue. The Saudis don't want an Arab Spring in Riyadh. And neither does Washington.
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