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a calm and sane atmosphere. Not.

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What the presence of those forces means is that dialogue can now take place in a calm and sane atmosphere.
 (final sentence of editorial in ArabNews)
Cognitive dissonance:  foreign troops arrive during demonstrations; own police kill unarmed demonstrators; and a calm and sane atmosphere?
Bahrain is now occupied by Saudi troops and UAE police.  Although they are not directly involved in killing Bahraini citizens, they are a clear sign of the weakness of Bahrain's Khalifa royal family compared to the Sa'uds.  The move was not even staged as an invitation -- rather, the troops simply moved, and Bahrain's foreign minister tweeted the move as a fact. 
BBC HardTalk presented a fairly illustrative talk today countering spokesmen for the Bahrain ruling council and the exiled opposition.  The pro-government politician/businessman simply repeated his talking-point: we don't want to kill people, we just want stability and security (to which any objective viewer responds -- that's easy for him to say, as he has all the guns and money).   The opposition politician finessed his earlier inflammatory rhetoric, and pointed out the peacefulness of the demonstrations and readily maintained the moral high ground.  
This correspondent notes a couple of points that seem to be much more pertinent than many U.S. onlookers realize: 1- in both Saudi and Sharia traditions, brutal physical force is an expected and legitimate part of life; and 2- the rulers and most people on this side of the Gulf are Very Afraid of Persia.  (After all, whose Gulf is it, anyway?)  They are inclined to see an Irani hand in every Shi'ite neighborhood, fomenting rebellion against the natural order of benevolent (Sunni) rulers.    Note that the Saudi foreign minister recently stated he would “cut any finger that crosses into the kingdom.”
ArabNews also notes approvingly that the US cited “..another example of Iran’s destabilizing activities in the region.” (ironically that supported Israel's claims of Iranian arms smuggling to Gaza -- maybe the enemy of my enemy is starting to be my friend?  No, Arab News is sure to include at least one negative article every day about Israel, thus maintaining its anti-Zionist bona fides.)

But back to Bahrain -- our weekend jaunts to drink a Guinness, watch a movie, eat a full breakfast?  They will return, but will be tinged with guilt over the price paid by hundreds, thousands of protestors squashed by intolerant and brutal regimes.   On the BBC interview, the Bahraini businessman referred several times to the need to protect expatriates and keep them from fleeing the country -- I fear that this brutal crackdown simply puts a lid on a pot of boiling aspirations.   We wonder what will happen next, and pray for calmer counsel to prevail.

A separate note, about a good new source of information: the Crossroads Arabia blog has insightful commentary from a US perspective.

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