Friendly Nations

Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia are neighboring countries with totalitarian governments, two of them dictatorships and the third an absolute monarchy. Syria and Iran are considered enemies of the U.S., with strong sanctions on one and near warfare with the other. But Saudi Arabia is a "friendly nation" and a close partner of the U.S. Its total lack of what we consider basic "freedom" is ignored. Why the difference? What is different is that Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the U.S., and its policies permit U.S. businesses, especially the oil companies, to make big profits there. So its absence of "freedom" is ignored, while in the other two the lack of freedom is claimed to be the reason for our opposition.