Middle East Focus: Bahrain: Lulu's Forced Child Marriage…………….

Arabia Deserta

Bahrain: Lulu's Forced Child Marriage…………….

Rattlesnake Ridge

BFF

“The uprising in Bahrain and its crackdown will go down in history as the point when the West finally failed to live up to its commitment to democracy and lost the Arab Spring. One could even argue that the U.S. alliance with Bahrain could be compared to Russia's alliance with Syria. Both global powers have major naval bases in the respective countries that they do not want to relocate and fear to lose in case of a regime change. Of course the Syrian regime's response has been more vicious and deadly than in Bahrain, but Bahrain's tiny population means that the death toll per capita is one of the highest in the Arab uprisings. The West would indeed be well advised to live up to its ideals of democracy, citizenship, and human rights and develop a consistent response to the demands of people in the Middle East, rather than again becoming entangled in the old game of short-term alliances and geopolitics. The hopes that this could happen, however, were crushed in the crackdown on the Pearl Roundabout almost a year ago……………….”

Of course the West is as culpable in Bahrain as Russia is in Syria. Both want to keep client regimes in power, both provide international diplomatic support and weapons of repression. Russian and American and British and French governments, and their legislatures, are all hypocritical in this matter. So are Iran and Saudi Arabia hypocritical for supporting selective Arab uprisings and opposing others (as in Bahrain and Syria). That is what we have been pointing out for a year now. That is why I was skeptical about the Western “outrage” and Susan Rice’s hissy fit at the UN Security Council.

Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com