The US does not have "conservative yet secular allies". We have Islamists and their client states.Yes, you're right ... it was misleading when I wrote "conservative, yet secular" Muslims are allies of the West against the islamists.
Our "allies" in the Middle East do not "play by our rules".The general rule seems to be "we'll support anybody, as long as they play by our rules politically".
You understand that the official state religion of Saudi Arabia (Wahhabism) is Islamism, right? I mean literally. Wahhabism is as much a political credo as a religious one. Amongst other things it designates the Saudi monarch as the political leader of the entire Islamic world and Wahhabism as the true Islam that all must submit to. There's nothing "hardcore conservative" about it. It is Islamism and the Salafist groups that they're exporting are spreading Wahhabi Islam by terror.The Saudis, America's best ally, is hardcore conservative, its government formally attacks islamism. Yet the same government often tolerates islamism inside its country, and supports islamists abroad when they serve their political purposes.
America has been formally attacking the secular regimes of the Middle East for years. And they do it because secular government doesn't gibe with the visions of Saudi Arabia or Israel.In America's defense, there were simply never liberal organizations or governments available for America to work with. America had more or less no choice but working what they were given.