A senior diplomat in a western mission to the UN in New York, who I have known over ten years and trust, has told me for sure that Hillary Clinton agreed to the cross-border use of troops to crush democracy in the Gulf, as a quid pro quo for the Arab League calling for Western intervention in Libya.
The hideous King of Bahrain has called in troops from Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait to attack pro-democracy protestors in Bahrain.
Can you imagine the outrage if Gadaffi now called in the armies of Chad. Mali and Burkina Faso to attack the rebels in Ben Ghazi?
But do you think that those in power, who rightly condemn Gadaffi’s apparent use of foreign mercenaries, will condemn this use of foreign military power by oil sheiks to crush majority protestors in Bahrain? Of course they won’t. We just had Sky News rationalising it by telling us that the Gulf Cooperation Council have a military alliance that a state can call in help if attacked. But that does not mean attacked by its own, incidentally unarmed, people. NATO is a military alliance. It does not mean Cameron could call in US troops to gun down tuition fees protestors in Parliament Square.
This dreadful outrage by the Arab sheikhs will be swallowed silently by the West because they are “our” bastards, they host our troops and they buy our weapons.
I do hope this latest development will open the eyes of those duped into supporting western intervention in Libya, who believe those who control the western armies are motivated by humanitarian concern. Bahrain already had foreign forces in it – notably the US fifth fleet. Do you think that Clinton and Obama will threaten that they will intervene if foreign armies are let loose on pro-democracy demonstrators? No they won’t.
Whether this will have any effect on the railroading of public opinion behind military intervention in Libya remains to be seen. I am fascinated to hear, for example, whether Ming Campbell and Phillippe Sands, who wrote of Our Duty To Protect The Libyan People , also believe we have a duty to pro-democracy demonstrators in Bahrain to protect them from attack by foreign forces.
We know from Iraq and Afghanistan, Serbia, Lebanon and Gaza that the “collateral damage” from the initial bombing of Libyan air defences will kill more people than are dying already in the terrible situation in Libya. While a no-fly zone would help rebel morale, most of the actual damage rebels are sustaining is from heavy artillery; without a no tank, no artillery and no gunboat zone, a no-fly zone will not in itself tip the military balance.
It appears that getting rid of Gadaffi may be a longer slog than we would like, but an attempt at a quick fix will lead to another Iraq, and give him an undeserved patriotic mantle. It was former UK Ambassador to Libya, Oliver Miles who said western military intervention in Libya should be avoided above all because of the law of unintended consequences. One consequence has happened already, unintended by the liberals who fell in behind the calls for military attacks on Gadaffi. They helped cause the foreign military suppression of democracy in Bahrain. For Clinton and Obama, it is a win-win forwarding US foreign policy on both Libya and the Gulf, where they don’t want democracy.
People of good heart should weep.
The only way your source could 'know for sure' what Clinton agrees with gulf states is if the State Dept. is sharing this information with western missions, ie that Europe is totally complicit in what is going on.
willy,
yes the US might have shared it. Or my contact might be an American, or it could be someone spying on the Americans. Or they might have found out by accident. I am afraid I am not going to give any more information on which possibility it is as it can help lead to identification of my source.
Yet again the mask is lifted to reveal the true face of Western foreign policy and it's commitment to democracy and freedom. Truly hideous. The average US citizen might not know the reality, but all those suffering under the oppression certainly do.
Isn't the Bahraini protest Shiite led? If so it makes sense that this is where the US has drawn a line in the sand. Can't have another state sympathetic to Iran in the region. The no fly zone in Libya also make the perfect distraction.
Cheebacow the protest is Shia lead and they have been peaceful for weeks, many have already died for this hypocrisy, as Craig points out, and once the Arab masses get to hear of this macabre 'this for that' dealings by our allies, it will be too late for our kind of diplomacy. Saudi paranoia about its own Shia population, as well as its militaristic actions for the last two weeks, will ensure that the Bahraini protests is not contained, will spread.
Everyone says it will strenghten Irans hand,but I do not agree. If these old fashioned rulers would only move aside and let younger generation take over, open up their feudal societies, they would not need to use arms against their own people.
I think a democratic regime in Bahrain would be beneficial to Iran. Not in the sense that Bahrain would be an Iranian puppet, but rather in the sense that a more democratic government would be less likely to support the US military or economic position. I also think it's safe to say that Bahrain would have closer relations with Iran than it currently has. It's ironic that the Shiite crescent that the US is so terrified of, has benefited greatly from the war in Iraq.
Cameron just bullshitted a direct question from Jo Swinson about it and certainly doesn't contradict this line of analysis.
A recent chance encounter with someone in the british military explained: there are no current plans for intervention (militaristic) in Libya from UK or US – due to the small amount of oil they have.
'Libya holds the largest proven oil reserves in Africa. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Libya had proved oil reserves of 41.464 billion barrels at the end of 2007 or 3.34 % of the world's reserves.Libya has very low production costs and the oilfields are close to the refineries and markets of Europe. In addition, despite almost half a century of exploration, Libya remains largely unexplored with vast oil and gas potential. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, Libya had 2007 proved natural gas reserves of 1.49 trillion cubic metres, 0.84% of the world total, while producing 15.2 billion cubic metres, 0.51% of the world total, in the same period.
That person in the British military is either lying or doesn't know what they're talking about I'm afraid – see Ruth's post below – in addition to it Libya has the tenth largest proven oil reserves in the world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves#Estimat…
and the US Energy Information Agency says "most analysts agree that the country is still under-explored" i.e there's likely to be a lot more that hasn't been found yet http://www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/Libya/Oil.html
@Craig,
Fair enough – and apologies for the somewhat presumptuous tone before. Very much in agreement with Dick – it will be interesting to see what the various players have to say.
willy,
Your tone was fine! It was me sounding accidentally confrontational.
I received a petition from the campaign group Avaaz addressed to NATO: "set up a no-fly zone". It's very popular, 866K signatories already. I think they've got this one wrong, but then they seem to have a touching faith in some of the establishment institutions around the world that are part of preserving ongoing global problems. Of the World Bank, they said "it was originally set up to reduce Third World poverty" – ha!
I remember some months ago reading about a plan whereby forces from other EU states could be used in any EU state to put down popular uprisings.
The NWO is clearly anticipating that it may have a fight on its hands to push through its interests. Looks like democracy has no part in its plans, neither here nor anywhere else.
Just out of interest – what would you suggest outside countries do when the massacre of Benghazi starts? Watch and issue a strongly-worded proclamation at the UN? You can just hear the Benghazians now – Yeah, great, thanks.
Glenn Greenwald has a great line on this:
"Even if we were capable of fostering humanitarian outcomes in [libya] — and that's highly doubtful — that wouldn't be our mission."
source: http://www.salon.com/news/afghanistan/index.html?…
Bahrain is different than Libya; because it has a majority of Shitat who sympathize with Iran who claimed that Bahrain is part of its land. I do not like to see Iran taking over another Arab country after Iraq.
Secondly, the police is not shooting protesters in Bahrain, at the opposite they gave in to opposition demands and withdraw all forces from the Pearl square in order to open the door for negotiations with protesters.
Gulf states are apparently helping Bahrain government not to fall in the hands of pro Iran Shiats and that is a good thing. I'm against all Western intervention in Arab states, but Arabs should and help each other.
ghaleb
Help each other against who? Against their own people? The fact is that 70% of Baheainis are Shia. Just because you don't like them you can't will them out of existence.
Craig;
Arab cooperation is not against anyone, but for peace and stability; Just the way the Egyptian Army helped keeping peace and securing vital sites in Cairo during the rebellion. Please give evidence that Saudi forces will shoot Bahraini protesters and show me where did I supported wiping Shiat out?
I understood from your source that the US has gave a green light for Gulf states military support to Bahrain, Saudi police has sent 1000 police force, other countries are expected to follow, that hopefully would help securing main government sites and prevent a sudden fall of the regime.
Iran is not only dominating Iraq, but has also sent shooting scuds to assassinate nearly 300 pilots and other prominent figures according to Wikileaks, I do not like to see this repeated in Bahrain.
Ghaleb
Do you support a democracy in Bahrain where one person, one vote elects the government? It's a yes or no question.
Ok so what if 70% are shiites. They are naturalised Bahrains. They came God knows when and now they want anyother naturalised bahrains to leave. wtf?
Have you ever been to Bahrain. I highly doubt it.
Completely agree with Craig. Shia Muslims are not all fifth columnists for the Iranian government, no matter how much US and Saudi policy makers claim they are. In Iraq the Bush administration ended up allying with SCIRI (very close to the Iranian government – and Shia – but mostly middle class or wealthy) against Al Sadr and the Medhi army ( Shia, but poor and so opposed to the insanely extreme "free market" policies of the Bush administration). They claimed the Sadrists were pro-Iranian. That was untrue – they were Iraqi nationalists – but by trying to assassinate Al Sadr and attacking the Medhi army the Americans managed to push Sadr into the arms of the Iranian government – then they could attack him for being for redistributing wealth to the poor. (I don't claim Sadr is any kind of saint here)
If all Shia Muslims are pawns of Iran then are all Sunni Muslims pawns of the House of Saud? Neither is true.
The only help being provided by Arabs to Arabs at the moment is one dictatorship helping another – that does nothing for the majority of Arabs of any country.
There are no Iranian troops in Bahrain. There are no armed rebels – only unarmed protesters. So why are the Saudi army going into Bahrain if not because they are more likely to obey orders to fire on unarmed Bahraini protesters than the Bahraini army are?
There is a difference between Sunni allegiance and Shiat, Sunnis has no higher reference or Pope, but Shias are more inclined to follow the reference or their Imam; Ayatalah Sistani for example.
Let us remember Shia didn't fight Americans in Iraq after being discouraged from Sistani, Sunnis fought the invaders and didn't follow the shameful saudi position in suppuration the occupation of Iraq.
that's completely untrue Ghaleb. Sistani and the SCIRI faction didn't fight the US forces much. Sadr and the Medhi army (also Shias) did. There's far more to politics in the middle east than Sunni vs Shia. Seeing it as just Sunni vs Shia is simplistic.
Sorry Duncan, you are wrong.
The Shia did not fight the Americans, neither the Sadr did, at the opposite his supporters fought the Sunnis and assassinated prominent figures including Imams of Sunni Mousques. In fact there are some videos of Sadr militias fighting the sunnis on Youtube where they call the Sunnis the Bastards or ( Manayeesh) in Iraqi slang.
One more piece of information for you; Moqtada Alsadr is the one who put the knot round the neck of Saddam Hussain when hanged, he was wearing the mask to the right hand side of him.
Bahrain's Shia are, in the majority, Arab in ethnicity and culture & are close to the general Sunni population with few sectarian issues.
Bahraini's voted in the 1971 referendum for an Arab state, not Iran rule. Also, in the national charter (put to a referendum in 2001) they voted for democracy and a real constitutional monarchy, with a fully elected parliament and an end to marshal law. The 2002 constitution introduced by the Royal family without input from the people constrained the parliament by giving half of the votes to an un-elected upper house (this is contrary to the national charter). other reforms are thought to have stalled over the past few years, the list goes on…
Most people in bahrain want varying degrees of increased democratic or constitutional reform. This doesn't automatically mean it will turn into an extension of Iran (a country that represses its own people & opposition). Inciting sectarian hate, fear, etc… are tools that oppressive governments use all too well. Lets not reinforce that by copying the rhetoric & instead focus on what the opposition is really demanding.
Isa;
"Most people in bahrain want varying degrees of increased democratic or constitutional reform. This doesn't automatically mean it will turn into an extension of Iran"
Correct and the King has agreed to the this and called for talks over reform and even new constitution if needed, he has also withdraw the army from streets and pardoned opposition figures in response to oposition demands before talks would start.
Arabs should help enforce stability in the country and prevent the fall of regime, no one like to see Iraqi module repeated.
Ghaleb
But you still haven,t said if you want democracy in Bahrain. The Saudis have sent their troops – they are not police – in because they don't want democracy. You support sending the troops, and you plainly dislike the Shia, who are the majority in Bahrain. So stop babbling on about the dangers of Iran, and answer whether you think Bahrain should be a democracy.
Yes, I'm for Constitutional kingdom in Bahrain, where people elect their parliament and the party of majority form the government. I'm not for a republic the way Iraq is.
Saudis said they sent a Police force yesterday, and I watched this on Aljazeera, the news came today that it is an Army force not police, but what do you make of Iranian response when they said intervention is NOT ACCEPTABLE? who they are to accept or not?
I detest Saudi Arabia and wish to see a real rebellion there, and I know they are protecting their back door by helping Bahrain. but again for Bahrainis this support is a good thing, I truly have no dislike of Shia and my opinion is irrelevant here.
To those who don't know, Iran has announced many times that Bahrain is an Iranian province and a diplomatic crisis erupted because of this, Iran is occupying 3 Arab Islands belong to UAE, in addition to occupying a whole arab province larger than Iraq called AHWAZ since the 1920s. Please look at the wider picture and try to see Iran when you make your mind over Bahrain.
I'm for Bahrainis to organize their own country and agree on more fair system of governing. the current absolute jurisdictions for the king should be changed. and this is what cross negotiations is about.
I would hope that most democratic peoples would prefer to expand democracy globally; however, I am sure the US and European communities are more concerned about the “types” of democracy that would form in this area of the world. It is more expedient to support a government that has at least cooperated with them in the past politically and economically, than to risk an opposition democracy. Historically, I feel it has been a long-term mistake not to support these nascent democracies, but geopolitics is not my area and that is only my opinion. I don’t support the Saudi’s sending troops into Bahrain nor do I support imposing a no fly zone over Libya.
Ok. Now that its been a few days the following is clear:
– This is not like the 94-99 era in Bahrain which was a dark time for the country. This is worse. In my opinion it is either (A) the beginning of an Apartheid type Saudi sponsored rule where the military suppress a large part of the population for the ruling family, loyalists & foreigners to run their economy or (B) The start of a systematic long term extermination/genocide/cleansing/pick-a-word of the general Shia population, opposition & sympathisers by AlSaud. I got the word "cleansing" the opposition form the state mouthpiece Bahrain TV (they're very fond of that word. Tat-Heer) [I really hope I'm wrong about both].
– Police State is in effect & capable of repression: Foreign (i.e. Saudi) troops are mostly stationed somewhere in the South of the country. The Bahrain government security forces (entirely foreigners), national guard & army were deployed across the country to crackdown on civilians. So there was no need for Saudi troops. Bahraini civilians are unarmed & defenceless. So there must be another reason for Saudi troops (need i spell it out? AlSaud are now in full & absolute control of Bahrain).
– State Sponsored Terror Continues: With marshal law the Bahraini government are terrorising the villages of Bahrain killing & injuring people. Over 100 missing, 16 dead, uncountable injured. Ask anyone who lives in Sitra, Bani Jamra, Malkia, Qadam, etc (the list goes on). Doctors, journalists, activists, etc… are among the missing.
– Unconstitutional Human Rights Abuses: The government have detained, interrogated and basically abducted dozens of people without any due process, access to attorneys, knowledge of their whereabouts or any other basic rights in clear contradiction of its own 2002 constitution (even during cases of Marshal Law).
– Sick actions directly by the security forces in Bahrain over the past 24 hours include: Destruction of private property (uniformed gangs of foreign security forces enter villages and smash cars, etc…). Harassment and physical abuse (beating) of people at check points (especially if you have a Bahrain flag). Bahrain Defence Force refusal to give bodies of the dead back to their families unless their families agree to sign that they died in car accidents…. list goes on & on & on… I'm leaving Bahrain tomorrow. Will try to start a business abroad with my savings and will do my best to support my people and hope one day to return when it is free. My fellow Bahraini's have been and continue to be brave.
Thank you for that extremely informative contribution. Best of luck to you on your travels, and please do keep commenting here.
The one that concerns me the most is the Libyan dictator and his collaborators. My family never recovered from the bombardments carried out by the old Somalia dictator who gained control of cities he regarded as hosts to enemies. The then government only inherited empty cities and towns, with refugees fleeing in every direction they could.
It is one thing for the pro-Gaddafi people to take advantage of the volunteer forces, but what sort of people will tolerate enslavement by a single family?
Hamdi,
I would certainly like to see Gadaffi gone. Forgive me, but after years of running this blog you develop a feel for these things, and I am not quite convinced yet you are actually who you say you are.
Who do you think Hamdi is?
I really don't know. I am not sure why, he didn't quite ring true to me. I may be wrong.
Wasn’t U.K., France and Canada doing a deal for yellowcake in Libya recently? Maybe Libya has limited oil reserves, but plenty cheap uranium to fuel EDFs new series of reactors in France and U.K. Just a thought.
No doubt the US encouraged the Saudis to Occupy Bahrain to protect their interests the American base there, so they picked an opportune moment while the world is distracted by news out of Japan.
Bahrain is Vassal state of Saudi Arabia, which supplies electricity, water and Oil daily as Aid to Bahrain which could be stopped and the Causeway linking Bahrain to Saudi Arabia could be shut too. Bahrain is a Bar come Play ground for the Saudis who flock there for their bit of Sins which are nor allowed in Saudi Arabia.
Even if the Bahrain Government wanted to carry out reforms, the Saudis would not allow them as it would set a bad president for their oppressed Shias. The Bahrain Special Force of Police is Mercenary army recruited from Pakistan and other places has no qualms about shooting protesters and they have done it before. The Saudi National Guard now in Bahrain is tribal army to keep the Al Sauds in power, they have put down Shias uprising ruthlessly in the past and will kill any number of protesters if challenged.
Listen to yourselves! Were you not around in the 60's & 70's? Don't you remember how you felt? What you thought? These young Arabs are us! They are still idealistic, altruistic and filled with Hollywood visions of the cavalry coming over the hill to help them. Talk to them. They are becoming so bitter at the lack of compassion they see for their fight for the"Arabian Dream" of western democracy. They are forlorn and it is incredibly difficult to keep their spirits up. They know that if they stop, the torture, mutilations, imprisonment, & death of the Gaddafis awaits them. They fight or they die. There is no turning back for them. This is Custer's Last Stand. Seriously, I am not being melodramatic. I have talked with many of these very brave, if naive, people. This article and others like it, added to the shenanigans of the international community is killing them psychologically, emotionally and physically. Is there no humanity, compassion and good will left on this planet? Are we totally owned by corporations and a few billionaires who have dollar bills for hearts? What have we become?
So much agree with you Diane, its 1968 all over again, just on a larger scale and more urgent. I do not advocate airstrikes likely, preceding any no fly zone. The elemnt of surprise has been taken away and replaced with dithering which has cost already hundreds of lifes.
I suggested France, because they have unilaterally acknowledged the revolutionary council as legitamite Government, if France would act and take out planes and tanks, this would dramatically change the equasion and enable a more equally balanced confrontation. I do not advocate this likely, indeed if airstrikes would be sucessfull in taking out planes, a no fly zone would be superfluous, as there would be nothing left to fly.
This would off course not root out those flights by parties who would love to sell arms and are currently stopping UN unity on the issue.
"its 1968 all over again" … I know what you mean. I was listening to the news from Egypt and thinking the same thing, remembering how it felt (I was 16 in 1968). But, no. What's become clearer (to me, anyway) is that the Egyptians had done the work. The political work. They'd built the organisations that could make it stick. We didn't, and couldn't, and have been in reactionary times (with Alternative Lifestyle Options, admittedly, where it can generate a profit) ever since. And, I begin to worry that, yes, Libya may indeed be like that. In which case, they're dead. Prague, not Paris.
Prague laid the groundwork for Gdansk. Give it another five years or so.
I agree. I remain highly optimistic about the general direction. A counter-revolutionary surge was inevitable.
"Prague laid the groundwork for Gdansk"
I guess. And, Prague didn't come out of nowhere itself. But, 68 – 89 … "What the hell, maybe just one more generation" might not look like much in the history books, but must feel a little kind of wasteful, on the ground.
I'm hoping to discover I'm guessing wrong. It's easy to do.
I agree with you that the motives of the governments calling for intervention in Libya are not humanitarian – and i agree with you that they've committed plenty of war crimes of their own. The fact is though there is no other option for the rebels and protesters now except to get foreign air forces backing them up or else risk ending up like the Iraqi Shia in 1991 – with a high probablity of most of the rebels and protesters and people who are suspected of sympathising with them being killed – not necessarily on camera all togetherr – more likely "disappeared" one or a few at a time.
Air forces can take out tanks and artillery – but i agree it most likely can't be done without likely "collateral damage" civilian deaths.
There isn't any very good option here short of the possibility that if we back the rebels in holding Benghazi but not in capturing Tripoli there might be a chance for a negotiated peace and some compromises coming out of it. I don't know whether the rebels in Libya will accept stopping short of overthrowing the dictatorship now any more than those in Egypt will. I suspect they'll try to overthrow it or die trying.
If we intervene the likelihood is more fighting and more military and civilian casualties – and the risk of a long civil war. If we don't there's a high risk of Gaddafi killing off large numbers of people as soon as he defeats the rebellion entirely (which he will given time), like Saddam at the end of the 1991 war.
I'm pretty sure the Saudis would be going into Bahrain whatever the Americans said – and that the Americans would publicly condemn it but privately support them anyway.
Arabs called Westren Armies to help bring democracy in Libya. Arabs sent Armies to protect Bahrain regime from democracy in Bahrain. The claim that Shia in Bahrain are loyal to Iran reminds me of Gaddafi accusing pro-democracy protesters of being on drugs. Maliki of Iraq also accused Protesters of being Baathists. Sorry, but we are smarter than the governments think. We think that the oppressed people have more credibility than its oppressive regimes. Persecuting the majority in Bahrain on sectarian basis is a crime against humanity.
found on an Uzbek site, It seems related because we all know who keeps him in power
10.03.11 23:04
Uzbek government demands schoolchildren collect scrap metal
Uznews.net – Uzbek President Islam Karimov has decreed that schoolchildren, college students and public-sector workers should collect scrap metal on behalf of a business which has links to Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyayev.
Karimov issued decree No 3534 on collecting scrap metal on 6 December 2010.
A resolution passed by the government the following day ordered universities, schools, colleges, public and private-sector businesses and neighbourhood committees to collect scrap metal. The metal would be handed over to Vtorchermet, the scrap metal business of the Bekabad Metallurgical Combine, which is thought to be controlled by Prime Minister Mirziyayev.
One school headmaster in Taylak District, Samarkand Region, said that his school had been set a
Scrap metal; photo: alibaba.com
target of 6 kg of scrap metal per pupil. “For 1,400 pupils we have to collect over 8,000 kg of scrap metal. In Soviet times, collecting scrap was not a problem, but now there are plastic buckets and equipment everywhere and no metal,” he said.
He said that because pupils were not able to collect that much scrap metal the school demanded they pay 2,000 sums (just under $1) each, which was spent on buying scrap metal.
“The district education department has ordered us to sign a contract with Vtorchermet,” he explained. “The contract requires us to pay a fine equal to 0.5% of the total target for each day we fail to fulfil our commitments.”
One company director said that he had to buy scrap metal at 300 sums per kilo to fulfil the company’s target of 15 tonnes, but Vtorchermet paid his enterprise 142 sums per kilo.
Mikhail Nikolayev, an engineer from Samarkand, said Vtorchermet needed scrap to improve the quality of metal it produced.
Pressure to collect scrap metal is so great that a 14-year-old girl in Kashkadarya Region, Maftuna Hujakulova, committed suicide on 1 March, human rights activists said.
Hi David – Do you mean that Putin keeps him in power now? Karimov went back to being Russian backed after Rice came up with some very lukewarm criticism of him after the Andijan massacre saying there was a need for "greater transparency" from Karimov's government. (Not that that makes the US and British government backing for him until then and anaemic criticism of the massacre any better)
An air strike, hopefully last week, taking out tanks, aircraft and chemical weapons dumps, would have killed a few, still this had to be weighed up with Ghaddafis madness, his plan to rub out 1 million of Benghazi Libyans, not a choice at all.
If this was a deal of engagement, as Craig outlined, then we should see action before Ghaddafi manages to lumber into Benghazi. UK and US naval vessels are intensively evesdropping on Libya and the MOD has issued notices to sailors families that they will not see or hear from their relatives for a while, we can draw some logical conclusions from that.
It's 1848 all over again and the King of Saudi is the new Metternich!
I was thinking more of the Anschluss, but you are right. And Robert Gates is the new Radetzky.
And remember what happened to Metternich.
Re: the Avaaz petition…. It's been in the 800,000s for a number of days now. It was going great guns until many people (myself included) began complaining that they did not post the negative possibilities of a NFZ. It's pretty much stalled now although they did change the wording. Here's a reason to be against a NFZ: http://ow.ly/4eYsx Spooky.
By the way, I have seen reports in Arabic about Syrian special forces fight with Qaddafi, in addition to 50 Syrian pilots manning the Qaddaffi Airplanes bombing libyan cities, the rebels claimed they captured a Sytian pilot after hitting his plane.
This is very credible, given the bloody history of Syrian regime.
Ghaleb
That's interesting. There has been very little about the awful Syrian regime in the media in recent weeks. Have you got a source?
I live in bahrain. I havn't been able to leave my house for the past 3 days thanks to the "peaceful pro democracy" supporters.
I'm sure that you havn't seen what these barbarians have done to expats here? No you only look at what the one sided media show. Sad!
You don't seem to care that iran has played a major part in this havoc. NOOO, all you care about is sticking your nose in other peoples business.
You CAN NOT compare King Hamad to Gaddafi. When Nato comes in to control Europe no one gives a damn, but the minute someone tries to stop acts of terrorism in the middle east it suddenly becomes inhumane?
Learn your facts before you talk. People like you and Nicholas Kristof have really messed things up here by supporting these terrorists. Thank you.
All the violence is done by the government mercenaries, don't believe the lays. this has been a peaceful protest since the beginning. but the government staged a play to use as a PR tool. And now it's an occupation and Genocide. Help us
And one more thing, how is it a bloody invasion when people were welcoming the forces in?!
Just what Hitler said about the Anschluss
rsj
Genuinely interested to hear what "acts of terrorism" you are referring to and "what these barbarians have done to expats". I have seen nothing on attacks on expats – of whom I presume you are one?
RSJ
Being an expat working for a regime that is no democratic or fair maybe dosnt make you very impartial does it? So when you talk about the biased media I guess someone worried about their tax free well paid job going up the river dosnt make you biased.
I undestand that having a radical new regime in power with more sympathy towards hard line Islam may not be very good for expats drinking clubs and hotels. And wider issues like terrorism but maybe we should have thought of this far earlier when we were sucking up to these leaders selling them guns putting bases in there countrys and buying and helping their oil industry. If we had put more conditions and pressure on these regimes earlier instead of running at them with arms outstretched we wouldnt be paying £6 a gallon for petrol and lots of people would still be alive. History has been full of situations like this where leaders have been toadied up to just for them to bite us on the arse later. Will we never learn or is it because we are led by a bunch of greedy bastard lawyers and not historians?
Stop the genocide
Urgent message to the democratic free world
There is a genocide of the Bahraini people being committed right now. The Bahraini army and mercenaries along with the invading GCC forces are killing unarmed civilians everywhere. the international community must stop this ethnic cleansing of the shiite Bahrainis.
We were asking for freedom and democracy and we got bullets and blood. Please Please Please Please stop this genocide. armies from 3 countries are shooting live ammunition at unarmed civilians. Hospitals are running out of medical supplies, Doctors and ambulances are being attacked.
Where is the world from all of this … Help us and shed some light on whats going on in Bahrain. this is inhuman. this is not a clash between protestors and government. it's a forceful attack on civilians in their homes.
The Prague Spring was drenched in blood too. Then, as now, the US of A and the other western countries stood by and watched. Yet, the empire eventually fell, by the sheer power of regular people not doing what they were supposed to do to prop it up, be they industrial workers in Gdansk or military men in Moscow. I bet Arabs have the courage to just stay at home for a month or two, or, if pressed at gunpoint to work, to do their utmost to fuck up at their assigned posts, malinger, steal and generally make a nuisance of themselves until the oil stops flowing and the mercenaries find out that the next paycheck will NOT be forthcoming. Guess who's homes get invaded and who's children get shot then?
So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
(Proverbs 3:4)