Warren Dew wrote:Ian wrote:Warren's overly-simple quote that "the US is supporting a Saudi invasion" isn't accurate at all. Mostly, the US is befuddled by all that's happening and scared of how things might explode if Washington were to take too strong a stance one way or the other. If Saudi Arabia were to go the way of Libya, the implications for Planet Earth, nevermind the US, would be enormous.
If that were true, the Saudis would not have waited for the U.S. Secretary of Defense to visit Bahrain so they could consult him before their military intervention.
It's cute that you use "overly-simple" as a synonym for "straightforward and correct", though. You're definitely inside the beltway.
And who is to say that the other side of the maelstrom would see a more democratic Arabian peninsula, or a more stable world energy market? The only possible answer is: nobody.
That's just as true of Egypt and Libya as it is of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. So what's the excuse for siding with the protestors in the former cases, but with the ruling monarchy in the latter cases? Obama prefers hereditary autocrats to nonhereditary ones? Or just befuddlement?
Are you not actually
reading the news or something? The US isn't putting any support behind what's happening in Bahrain.
Bahrain crushes protests, draws U.S. criticism
By Lin Noueihed
MANAMA | Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:07pm EDT
MANAMA (Reuters) - Bahraini forces used tanks and helicopters to drive protesters from the streets on Wednesday clearing a camp that had become a symbol of the Shi'ite Muslim uprising and drawing rare criticism from their U.S. allies.
Three police and three protesters were killed in the violence that has transformed a crisis between the island's majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis into a regional standoff between Sunni Gulf Arab states and non-Arab Shi'ite power Iran.
President Barack Obama called the kings of Saudi Arabia, a strategic ally of Washington in the Middle East, and of Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet, to urge restraint. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Bahrain and Gulf allies who sent in troops to back the Sunni royals were on the wrong track.
"We find what's happening in Bahrain alarming. We think that there is no security answer to the aspirations and demands of the demonstrators," she told CBS. "They are on the wrong track."
The assault began less than 24 hours after Bahrain declared martial law to quell sectarian unrest that has sucked in troops from fellow Sunni-ruled neighbors Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates .
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeff Feltman has been in Bahrain since Monday to push for talks to resolve the crisis.
Bahrain violence presents U.S. with fresh dilemma
(Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday Bahrain was "on the wrong track," but the United States may have little leverage as the Gulf kingdom presses a deadly security crackdown.
The United States has responded cautiously to the turmoil in Bahrain, saying this week it understood why the country's Sunni Muslim rulers called in reinforcements from Saudi Arabia as they face spreading anti-government protests by the country's Shi'ite Muslim majority.
But Clinton's tougher comments, made in TV interviews in Cairo while on a trip to the region, reflected what analysts said was growing U.S. concern that the situation could boil over into a full-blown confrontation between Sunni Gulf Arab states and Shi'ite-ruled Iran.
"We find what's happening in Bahrain alarming. We think that there is no security answer to the aspirations and demands of the demonstrators," Clinton told CBS, urging Bahrain to negotiate a political agreement with demonstrators.
"They're on the wrong track and we think that the wrong track is going to really affect adversely the ability of the Bahraini government to bring about the political reform that everyone says is needed," she told NBC.
Clinton spoke after Bahraini security forces drove protesters from the streets in an assault in which as many as six people were killed.
U.S. President Barack Obama called the kings of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on Wednesday to urge them to exercise "maximum restraint" and pursue a political solution to the crisis, the White House said.
Bahrain's hardline stance, backed by Saudi Arabia, comes despite repeated U.S. pleas for dialogue in the country, which hosts the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet and has long been seen as an important bulwark against Iranian influence in the region.
And how do you know what's true of Libya? For that matter, how do we even know what's going to be true of Egypt a year from now? We're hopeful, that's all. Obama's looking at Arab unrest on a country-by-country basis because he can't afford a grand, absolutist stance for the entire region, one way or the other.
