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.
Maybe. But all those elements were in league with the Soviets and were a potential threat to the middle eastern oil supplies.
We tend to forget now just how big a threat the Soviets were. The American alliance with Saudi Arabia is what kept the world price of oil below the Soviet cost of production so they couldn't earn any hard currency from the sale of oil. Just like the US alliance with South Africa kept the world prices of gold and diamonds below the Soviet cost of production. The Soviet Union imploded because their economy collapsed and it was measures like this that made it happen. So yes, our support for the Saudi's has had some very negative consequences, but it has still been worth it.
It is fair now to ask why we continue to support the Saudi's. Sure, they are our allies against Iran, but Iran is not the Soviet Union. And Iran has made attempts to soften their relationship with us.