BEIRUT -- The first wave of the Arab awakening, which led to the euphoric overthrow of autocracy in Tunisia and Egypt and then the uprising in Libya, is giving way to the next turn of events: the emergence of the counter-revolution led by Saudi Arabia.
The brutal military suppression of protest in Bahrain as well as Yemeni President Saleh's massacre of 50 protestors by sniper fire reflect the urgings of the al-Saud family and the line taken by King Abdullah that he will "never accept a Shia government in Bahrain -- never." Bahrain is 70 percent Shia, and most have family and tribal links with the Shia of Eastern Saudi Arabia (who are linked more closely to Ayatollah Sistani and the "quietists" in Najaf than to emulation of the theocratic mullahs in Qom. Unlike the theocrats of Qom in Iran, the quietists of Najaf in Iraq eschew political power).
The disconnect between the West's implicit endorsement of the Yemeni and Bahraini leaderships, on the one hand, and military intervention in Libya, on the other, could not be more obvious.
Despite widespread sympathy for the Libyan rebels, an antipathy is nonetheless growing among the Arab public against Western intervention as the hypocrisy of policies is laid bare.
The newly "awakened" Arab world will not simply ignore the plight of the Bahrainis or Yemenis. Like the Tunisians and Egyptians, they are also demanding their dignity and an end to the disdain and contempt with which their rulers have treated them. Nor will the recent Bahraini military suppression mark the end of a political insurgency that has been festering for the last 20 to 30 years. It is hard to underestimate the depths of the underlying animosities that have surfaced with the Saudi intervention in Bahrain, sanctioned by the Gulf Cooperation Council.
As events in the region play out under the double standard of Western policy, many in the Arab world fear that the end result in Libya won't turn out like the indigenous revolts in Egypt or Tunisia. Instead, the West is likely to be drawn into the machinations of Libya's complex tribal conflicts and the fight over who finally ends up controlling the oil.
There seem to be grounds for such suspicions. It is surely optimistic that, through air power alone, the West will be able to find a resolution in Libya that is "saleable" to Western publics, and yet not throw up some Karzai-type manufactured Western partner. In short, there is a paradoxical danger that Western intervention on behalf of the Libyan rebels will end up subverting the homegrown nature of the revolt itself.
If the West truly wants to see freedom flower in the Arab world, it needs to take sides against the Saudi counter-revolution while resisting the temptation to shape the Libyan revolution in its own image.
Alastair Crooke, a former top British MI-6 agent in the Middle East, is author of Resistance: The Essence of Islamic Revolution.
© 2011 Global Viewpoint Network; Dist. by Tribune Media SERVICES.
Alas that issue is not up to "His Majesty" or anyone else to decide, but solely that of the BAHRAINI PEOPLE. The sooner the people pulling the strings (those representing corporate and neo-imperial interests, fellow neighboring and regional despots, etc.) the world over understand this basic principle, the better off the world will be.
But the oil comes from here so nothing will change. The Saudi Press makes FOX news look like the BBC, news, internet, press, blogs, all are censored. A call day of protests for rights fell upon deaf ears, the Saudi people are happier being ignorant and accepting a paycheck in exchange for their rights.
Do you think the Saudi Arabian monarchy will keep, absolute power, in a Free Middle East?
With that said, the King is old and his health isn't good. The crown prince (next in line) is also very ill. Next after him is a very conservative (no rights for ANY foreigners) brother who wants to be king. But the sons of the current king also want to be king, so it does not look good for stability here.
The treatment of workers from anywhere but the US and Europe is horrendous. Maids are tortured and the courts rule that they disfigured themselves. Some are killed and their bodies vanish or are dumped into wells, those are all 'suicides'. A man who's employer did not pay him for months (very common here) ate a piece of chicken from his employer's restaurant, for which he gets 18 months and 80 lashes. The poor beg weekly after prayer, they only get welfare if they are Saudi. In the meantime, I see Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Rolls Royce all day long. Being from the DC area, I'd see one a month if lucky. Here, a Honda is rare.
A dictatorship that oppresses 70% of the people will not last in the new Middle East.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD02Ak01.html
hmmm…. U might have a point….
"But oddly, the Libyan revolution has been led by inauspicious technocrats from within the Gadhafi regime. One of these is Mahmoud Jibril, a US-educated professor who became secretary of the national planning council under Gadhafi. Jibril spent years working with Gadhafi's son Saif on political and economic reforms, and while many of those efforts were stifled by reactionary elements in the regime, the job put him in contact with international diplomats...But the chairman of the National Council is Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who was much more of a public figure under Gadhafi. He rose through Libya's legal system to become justice minister…"
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,14952376,00.html
The familiar tale of puppets and puppeteers…..
There is nothing that can be done or not done that will the right thing to do or not do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyCpJPwu4_s&feature=related