While the world watches the fine results of building nuclear reactors almost upon a fault line, in one of the world’s seismically most active areas, but not thinking it necessary to build them to withstand the most severe event – while we all absorb the wisdom and forethought of that – events in Bahrain are getting less notice than they deserve.
Bahrain is like Saudi, it far larger neighbour an absolute monarchy and one divided from many of its people not only by accumulated wealth and jealously hoarded power, but by religious conviction. Like Saudi Bahrain has a deep Sunni/Shiite divide.
For the last few weeks there have been pro-democracy protests in Bahrain. As there have been on and off for the last thirty years or more. In Bahrain, as in Yemen, Saudi’s southern neighbor, and in Saudi itself, the desire is first and foremost for democracy. And that frightens the Saudi elite which does not like or want democracy. But in all three countries there is a volatile admixture of Sunni/Shia discrimination and unrest.
And this complicates already turbulent matters.
Today 1000 Saudi and emirates troops in armoured vehicles and tanks entered Bahrain. The royal rulers of Bahrain invited them, for the purposes of ‘restoring and maintaining order’ presumably from the ‘threat’ of democracy. Today a Saudi soldier has been shot and killed by a protester. And Iran has denounced the intervention of Saudi and the UAE in Bahrain.
Iran is not an Arab state. It is Persian. Arabs and Persians are not the best of friends. Iran is also Shia while the Saudi and the others are generally ruled by Sunni elites. How ironic if Iran comes to be seen as the champion of democracy while the West, greedy above all else for oil, sides with ruling elites who care nothing at all for democracy.
And we do not have much of a record of supporting democracy. In fact our record shows we don’t really care much for democracy either. It always amazes me how quick we in the West are, to assassinate left leaning leaders of other countries (the CIA murdered Allende) and install and support murdering right wing dictators. Saddam Hussein was one of ours, as was/is (we just can’t make up our minds) Gaddafi, as was Noriega in Panama, and Somoza in Nicaragua. And of course presidents of life are our favourites being democratic (presidents!) and absolute rulers (for life) like Mubarak in Egypt.
We are oh so willing to murder left leaders who nationalize our interests or won’t negotiate to give us what we want, but oh so scrupulous when it comes to even offering a hankie to mop up the blood when it is Gaddafi murdering his people.
We might be accused of double standards but that would be to dignify us with having any standards at all.
David,
I feel you touch upon a raw nerve. We citizenry in the west are, consciously or subconsciously and to varying degrees, always aware of the hypocrisy of our lifestyles and participation in democracies whose tacit approval of injustices & inequalities which effectively subsidise our standards of living.
I wonder to what extent this mitigates against a more righteous response to growing injustices and inequality in our own countries?
Americans say they care about democracy but, in reality, some Americans care about liberty, others about democracy. Those who care about Liberty tend to see America as it was meant to be: a democratic republic where the natural rights of the individual are generally protected from the tyranny of the majority. So a democracy that ushers in an Islamo-fascist regime is no more tolerable than the historically stable Kleptocracies currently in place. So what to do now? Nobody knows but many recognize that the rebels do not necessarily intend to embrace the American ideals of a Democratic Republic with protection from tyranny of the majority. So we end up supporting what is in OUR best interests. I am not sure if we should be involved at all.
And with respect to Allende, it is my understanding that the CIA did not kill him but stepped back and enabled his assassination. However this is all very speculative. Allende was not aligned with America's core principles and was likely being supported by a powerful enemy of the United States and an Evil Empire. In retrospect, it seems that Allende's assassination was the best thing that happened to Chile.
David,
Please add the following to the list of ousted / assinated (democratically elected) political leaders:
Mosaddeq – Iran 1953
Torrijos – Panama 1981
Roldos – Equador 1981
Many of the wars and skirmishes of the 20th Century had nothing to do with democracy. Everything to do with resource exploitation.
And it all started with Kermit!
P.S. Note that the Saudi hardware rolling in to Bahrain comprises 261 (US manufactured) Tactica 4×4 APCs (courtesy of Paul Mason)
"Like Saudi Bahrain has a deep Sunni/Shiite divide." incorrect, its only Bahrain
(the CIA murdered Allende) incorrect he committed suicide.
Chile is a wonderful place, well worth a visit and the Mitrokhin Archive is well worth a read…as for Bahrain, be careful when you hear arabs chanting for freedom and democracy, as they found out in Iran these things mean different things to different people, for quite a few in the arab world it means a key to rule and freedom to impose their world view on everyone else.
The great game continues…………
Allende did commit suicide, but it was because his palace was being pounded by explosives.
He made a farewell speech on the radio (referred to himself in the past tense) then shot himself.
Allende committed suicide, verified by his personal doctor, accepted by his family.
In 1979 I went to Poland with my grandfather to visit relatives, thru checkpoint charlie, thru the DDR and onto Upper Silesia (or Opole has it is now, and not its Prussian manifestation) to the local police station to show our papers and visas, where the reception area had the usual pictures of local commies and the rest of the socialist elite, as well as Allende funny enough, and not forgetting Che.
He certainly made an impression.
Hello Sean,
If I were the personal doctor or family member of someone the CIA had topped I'd very likely verify anything they wanted. As it happens I know someone who was there. As in, 'there'.
Sean,
just read your earlier correction. Sean I really don't mind being corrected at all. But the corrections need to be correct. There are sunni and Shia and there are tnesions between them in Saudi. Please just look it up. As for Allende, if we're defining 'assassinated' as physically being the ones who pulled the trigger then you may want to say the CIA didn't do it. But to me, arranging and paying for it and making sure they had CIA men on the ground who made sure he could not get away and were tasked with making sure he died if those who had been given the task somehow failed – to me that counts as assassinated.
And the CIA did do all that.
Cash212:
"Allende was not aligned with America's core principles and was likely being supported by a powerful enemy of the United States and an Evil Empire."
Some evidence of that support, please?
Chile was an independent country, thousands of miles away from the USA, on a different continent. What right did the CIA have to bring down their government?
"In retrospect, it seems that Allende's assassination was the best thing that happened to Chile."
Tell that to the 3000 disaparecidos and their relatives.
And you lot whine about the other 9/11….
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8384189/Bank-of-England-court-worried-about-Mervyn-Kings-politicised-role.html
So, will they be able to shut up "our" man inside the Establisment, Mr. King, the man who recently told the British the naked truth that the cuts in public services actually is the people of GB paying for the banking elite's excesses and folly, paying their debts as it were?
Keep up the good work, David! Maybe the image of the two vortices spinning in opposite directions was a bit far-fetched, but your "conjecture" about the two currencies, the cash and the debt/bank created one, inflation in the one and deflation in the other, should earn you the Nobel prize if developed further and empirically tested. Mervyn King maybe reads it too… Really impressive also the quality of your followers postings on the site.
Dear Mr Eirik,
It is always good to hear from you. I am glad you liked the conjecture. He's getting ready for his retirement from the bank and obviously feeling a little freer. Shame he didn't have the courage earlier.
Allende shot himself, alone, with his collaborators and key staff just metres away, having just been told to move on ahead out the room where Allende remained. There is no doubt about this point at all. By asserting that this may not have happened, you begin to flirt with the swivel-eyed conspiracy theorists. Please don't go there, as you don't want to give your enemies any ammunitition with which to discredit the other 99.9% of your posts.
Lets not forget that Hitler too was funded by the american intelligence elite through funds organised by GWs grandad, ostensibly as a bulwark against Stalin, but as a plus it bankrupted the UK and opened up the empire to American trade, and facilitated the wholesale movement of european scientific know how to a relatively backward US.
thrawn pop,
I am not asserting that the truth did not happen only that the man didn't decide to do this on a whim. A person has to have a compelling and desperate reason to shoot himself. What was that reason? I maintain that he knew if he didn't kill himself there were others, paid for by the CIA, drawing a ring around him, who were ready to do a lot worse to him.
I simply do not feel truth is served by claiming, as some have done, taht this is suicide. It is suicide only in so far as he pulled the trigger. But the circumsatnces of his demise seem to me to be more accurately described as an assassintaion. He and his governemtn were removed with teh violent support of the CIA.
Many of Allende's supporters and close allies as well as many other prominent people were spirited out fo the country to prevent them being murdered.
Like you, and I thank you for you advice – I take it fully – I see no need to indulge in conspiracy theories. They weaken the truth. But the truth is not confined to the official denials and accepted narrative. The CIA's leading role in Allende's death is a fact and does not need any theory, conspiracy or otherwise, to obscure it.
The UK intelligence services knew what was going on and who was doing it. MI6 had people on active service on teh ground during Allende's assassination and his elected government's overthrow. So did the CIA. So did at least one other country which was directly involved and has been since throughout the blood leeting in South and Central America.
Golem — on King, perhaps not so much a lack of 'courage' as scales finally dropping from the eyes ?
Re King,
Absobloodylutely typical!
The moment he expresses his own opinion, he's accused of being politicised. While he was being Brown/Balls's poodle, he wasn't?
Adam Posen is yet another legacy of Brown we'd be far better off without.
Thanks for the Allende debate, not a piece of history I knew anything about. Interesting stuff.
The troops entering Bahrain are an overt US/Saudi action, a response to the covert Iranian stirring of the Shia uprising.
Furthermore Yemeni snipers are murdering citizens from rooftops. Again, Saudi backed and you might say tacitly US supported.
Meanwhile over in Libya the situation is opposite – the US is supporting the rebels. Sheepishly. It is not taking a primary role. Wonder why?
US Double standards? Of course.