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Time is Not Our Friend in Bahrain

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US Secretary of Defense was quoted on his recent trip to Bahrain "Time is not our friend."
We are worried about the situation there, now that the Saudi forces have crossed the bridge to Bahrain.   Technically, they are GCC forces -- like the "Coalition" in Iraq, these forces are 95% from the big gorilla.  The NYTimes has a good image of the convoy, grabbed from Bahrain TV.

In the meantime, Saudi's Arab News runs an article quoting the king's council of advisers -- the closest thing the country has to a legislature:  The Shoura Council congratulated the Saudi leadership on Sunday for commanding the confidence and respect of the people who eloquently displayed their loyalty toward maintaining security and stability in the country.

But back to Bahrain: we had the chance tonight to talk with one of the few people to leave Bahrain today as the border was closed -- a Canadian who talked his way through.  He noted the extensive convoy of Saudi military vehicles with plain black-uniformed troops (like Special Forces or Interior Ministry) as the only traffic going the other direction.  Earlier he was spooked by the tense questioning at the airport as he escorted his fiancee there, and then the crowds of demonstrating youths with big sticks channeling traffic toward the Pearl Roundabout (apparently defending the Roundabout from the foreign troops?).  He needed a glass of wine to calm his nerves as he spoke with us about his eerie sense that Bahrain is nearing civil war.
This correspondent agrees that the presence of foreign troops is a very bad sign:   it signals weakness in the current government; those troops are much more likely to shoot foreign demonstrators; and to any nationalist, the presence of foreign troops is embarassing and provocative.     One opposition politician has already called it an "occupation".

Still peaceful in Jubail.  School is proceeding well, though our budget requests are getting squashed by District office.   Next year we will have some new classrooms, but no additional staff, and not much technology there.

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