But there’s a problem: George W. Bush wasn’t entirely wrong. The very autocrats whom Republicans now praise for maintaining stability are actually breeding the opposite.

Look at the events of the last few days. Last Saturday, the Saudi regime executed Nimr al-Nimr, an activist for the rights of Saudi Arabia’s Shiites, who have long been oppressed in the kingdom. Saudi officials claimed Nimr had advocated violence against the state, but released no evidence. More likely, his real offense was disparaging the late Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz, whose son, Muhammad bin Nayef, now runs the Saudi Interior Ministry, which oversaw Nimr’s execution.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of Iran’s Shia theocracy, responded with typically overblown rhetoric. (“God’s hand of retaliation will grip the neck of Saudi politicians.”) And enraged Iranians ransacked Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad. But after that, according to The New York Times, Iran’s leaders began taking “steps to prevent the dispute from escalating further.” They arrested 40 anti-Saudi demonstrators. Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, called the attacks on Saudi facilities “not acceptable” and demanded that his government’s interior, judiciary, and intelligence ministries, which he does not entirely control, protect Saudi officials.

But the Saudis refused to deescalate. They cut diplomatic and trade ties with Iran and appear to have influenced some of their Sunni allies to follow suit. In so doing, they have likely prolonged the monstrous civil war in Syria, since without an understanding between Tehran and Riyadh on the future of Assad, a peace deal is virtually impossible.

This kind of recklessness has become a feature of Saudi foreign policy since King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef took power a year ago. Last March, Saudi Arabia went to war against the Houthi rebels challenging President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi in neighboring Yemen. Declaring the Shia Houthis to be proxies of Iran, which few experts believe, the Saudis launched a bombing campaign and a naval blockade that tipped Yemen’s already grim humanitarian situation into a catastrophe. According to U.S. officials, Riyadh’s war in Yemen has also strengthened al-Qaeda, some of whose legions have reportedly fought alongside Saudi-led forces.

Then there’s Saudi Arabia’s close ally in Egypt, President Sisi, a man often praised by GOP presidential candidates. Sisi has brought “stability” to his country via horrific violence. On a single day in 2013, his forces killed more than 800 protesters, including women and children, in what Vox has called “one of the deadliest single-day mass killings in modern history.” He’s also banned the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, the party that won the free election he overturned in a coup.