>"Are you suggesting we sanction Saudi or drop sanctions on Russia? I buy the hypocrisy argument, but don't understand the direction of the whataboutism?"
Where did you see any mention of dropping sanctions on Russia? The post seem to advocate sanctions on Saudis. The US has oil. And yes Saudis are sensitive to sanctions. Not sanctioning Saudis just shows true colors to the rest of the world. See one day you are telling that some XYZ country is bad, bad, bad and the next day whatever bad they do is suddenly ok since it plays to your minute interests. I think that the reaction of any normal person would be something like fuck yourself and go preach your moral values to some other gullible idiots.
I do understand the danger though. There are currently whole bunch of not so unimportant countries like China, Russia, India etc. They lately seem to show various degrees of go fuck yourself attitude when it comes to sharing the agenda. of the West. Having Saudis join the block will not do the West any good.
No idea how to get out of this situation. However not selling them weapons should be a must.