Saudi Arabia Sends Troops Into Bahrain

As most of the world sits transfixed watching the still unfolding disaster in Japan in horror, unsettling events are taking place in the Middle East. Namely, the Saudi autocrats sending troops into Bahrain to aid the Sunni monarchy in subduing the Shi'ite majority. Obviously, if things ignite further, the majority in Saudi Arabia may decide that a homegrown uprising is needed as well. Meanwhile, the USA, because of its own severe dependence on foreign oil and the need for bases to support Chimperator Bush and Emperor Palpatine Cheney's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is left trying to walk a tight rope that may come back to bite it in the ass either way things play out in the longer term. Huffington Post looks at this development. It's a mess and the USA still has no longer term plan for energy independence. Here are some highlights:
*
Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain on Monday to help put down weeks of protests by the Shi'ite Muslim majority, a move opponents of the Sunni ruling family on the island called a declaration of war.
*
Analysts saw the troop movement into Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, as a mark of concern in Saudi Arabia that concessions by the country's [Bahrain's] monarchy could inspire the conservative Sunni kingdom's own Shi'ite minority. . . .
*
Saudi Arabia, which is worried about any spillover to restive Shi'ites in its own Eastern Province, the center of its oil industry.
*
Bahraini opposition groups including the largest Shi'ite party Wefaq said the move was an attack on defenseless citizens. "We consider the entry of any soldier or military machinery into the Kingdom of Bahrain's air, sea or land territories a blatant occupation," they said in a statement.
*
"This real threat about the entry of Saudi and other Gulf forces into Bahrain to confront the defenseless Bahraini people puts the Bahraini people in real danger and threatens them with an undeclared war by armed troops."
*
Any intervention by Gulf Arab troops in Bahrain is highly sensitive on the island, where the Shi'ite Muslim majority complains of discrimination by the Sunni Muslim royal family. Most Gulf Arab ruling families are Sunni and intervention might encourage a response from non-Arab Iran, the main Shi'ite power in the region. Accusations already abound of Iranian backing for Shi'ite activists in Bahrain -- charges they deny.
*
"The Bahraini unrest could potentially turn into regional sectarian violence that goes beyond the borders of the particular states concerned," said Ghanem Nuseibeh, partner at consultancy Cornerstone Global.
*
Wefaq is calling for a new government and a constitutional monarchy that vests the judicial, executive and legislative authority with the people. A coalition of much smaller Shi'ite parties are calling for the overthrow of the monarchy -- demands that scare Sunnis who fear this would benefit Iran.
*
Will the USA once again support brutal autocrats over rank and file citizens demanding a form of government based on the founding principles of America? Yes, principles such as freedom of speech, the right to free assembly - and maybe even freedom of religion.