And we encouraged it as a counter to the communist PLO, the Bath parties in Syria and Iraq, and the socialist trajectory of Egypt and it's African neighbors. The Saudis and their violent religion have been very useful to the United States over the years.
I believe the Ba’athist and the Communists and the Pan Arabists would all have been trivial phenomena if the West had continued to deny the umma the resources for Jihad. As soon as there is excess wealth there is Jihad. That is the nature of Islam. Jihad is quiescent for a time when it suffers a complete and impoverishing defeat at the hands of the West and resumes when it begins to build wealth by raiding or extortion of the Western cultures.