Saudi Arabia's intervention in Bahrain's pro-democracy protests could leave the island bleeding for years to come.
Mark LeVine
Al-Jazeera
"Almost eight years to the day after the United States invaded Iraq, I never thought I'd see this sight: Saudi troops rolling through the capital of Bahrain the way Americans rolled through Baghdad.
Rhetorically, the difference between the two invasions couldn't be greater. The goal of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" was to liberate Iraq from the "grip of the dictator Saddam Hussein", while the stated reason for the Saudis entering Bahrain was to "safeguard security and stability".
Mark LeVine
Al-Jazeera
"Almost eight years to the day after the United States invaded Iraq, I never thought I'd see this sight: Saudi troops rolling through the capital of Bahrain the way Americans rolled through Baghdad.
Rhetorically, the difference between the two invasions couldn't be greater. The goal of "Operation Iraqi Freedom" was to liberate Iraq from the "grip of the dictator Saddam Hussein", while the stated reason for the Saudis entering Bahrain was to "safeguard security and stability".
But the reality of the two occupations are, at base, the same – as will be their results. The Saudis occupying Bahrain under cover of the "GCC" is like US invading Iraq under cover of the "Coalition of the Willing" – both will end in disaster, as is becoming more evident by the minute.
Whatever the intentions or rationales, when you bring foreign troops onto another country's soil, "freedom", "security" and "stability" almost always turn into violence, oppression, and chaos.....
The ends of mercenary power
Sadly, it seems that in order to achieve their goals, Bahrain's democracy forces will have to pass through a test of fire closer to Libya's than to Egypt or Tunisia's.
Protesters in Cairo or Tunis safely bet that young Egyptian and Tunisian conscripts would not commit large scale violence against them even if ordered to by superiors. In Bahrain, however, the security and armed forces are almost entirely foreign.
Pakistanis (particularly Baluchis), Yemenis, Jordanians, Syrians and now Saudis and GCC troops seconded to the kingdom – Bahrain's geography of repressive power is a confusing maze of nationalities, tribes and ethnic groups.
What unites them is the fact that they are entirely Sunni and have no compunction about harming and even killing Bahraini protesters at the command of their Bahraini paymasters (indeed, many receive Bahraini citizenship as a reward for their services).
Indeed, representatives from both local and major international human rights organisations specifically pointed out to me how Bahrain's state controlled media has been putting out messages to the Sunni minority that "any democracy will be a danger for you because you'll be killed by Shia."
They have incited them against their Shia fellow citizens in a manner that one senior activist compared to the propaganda on Rwandan radio during the genocide.
Even social media like Facebook have been coopted to this task.
A friend called me as I drove through Manama to warn that he was receiving "vicious" Facebook messages declaring that soon "the Shia would get what they deserved", while a group had formed, in his words, to prepare for the "end of time".
At base, such fear are based on a vision of the country falling into a fratricidal civil war in which Tehran and Riyadh use Bahrain's Shia and Sunnis as proxies in a war for control over the Persian/Arabian Gulf.
Such a scenario remains, we can hope, highly unlikely.
But with the Bahraini king abandoning any pretence of reform and the US, and other Western countries either powerless or uninterested in stopping the Saudi power play, Bahrain could well bleed for years to come, putting yet another stain on the inexorable if increasingly painful progress towards democratisation in the Arab world."
Whatever the intentions or rationales, when you bring foreign troops onto another country's soil, "freedom", "security" and "stability" almost always turn into violence, oppression, and chaos.....
The ends of mercenary power
Sadly, it seems that in order to achieve their goals, Bahrain's democracy forces will have to pass through a test of fire closer to Libya's than to Egypt or Tunisia's.
Protesters in Cairo or Tunis safely bet that young Egyptian and Tunisian conscripts would not commit large scale violence against them even if ordered to by superiors. In Bahrain, however, the security and armed forces are almost entirely foreign.
Pakistanis (particularly Baluchis), Yemenis, Jordanians, Syrians and now Saudis and GCC troops seconded to the kingdom – Bahrain's geography of repressive power is a confusing maze of nationalities, tribes and ethnic groups.
What unites them is the fact that they are entirely Sunni and have no compunction about harming and even killing Bahraini protesters at the command of their Bahraini paymasters (indeed, many receive Bahraini citizenship as a reward for their services).
Indeed, representatives from both local and major international human rights organisations specifically pointed out to me how Bahrain's state controlled media has been putting out messages to the Sunni minority that "any democracy will be a danger for you because you'll be killed by Shia."
They have incited them against their Shia fellow citizens in a manner that one senior activist compared to the propaganda on Rwandan radio during the genocide.
Even social media like Facebook have been coopted to this task.
A friend called me as I drove through Manama to warn that he was receiving "vicious" Facebook messages declaring that soon "the Shia would get what they deserved", while a group had formed, in his words, to prepare for the "end of time".
At base, such fear are based on a vision of the country falling into a fratricidal civil war in which Tehran and Riyadh use Bahrain's Shia and Sunnis as proxies in a war for control over the Persian/Arabian Gulf.
Such a scenario remains, we can hope, highly unlikely.
But with the Bahraini king abandoning any pretence of reform and the US, and other Western countries either powerless or uninterested in stopping the Saudi power play, Bahrain could well bleed for years to come, putting yet another stain on the inexorable if increasingly painful progress towards democratisation in the Arab world."
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