Saudi Arabian troops enter Bahrain to crush the democratic uprising.
By Samer Araabi, Links
August 23, 2011 — RightWeb — At the end of February 2011, it looked as though the old order was crumbling across the Arab world. Inspired by the self-immolation of a Tunisian street vendor, massive popular demonstrations ousted Tunisia’s president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak was not long to follow. Similar uprisings began to swell in Algeria, Jordan, Bahrain and Yemen, and the anciens regimes appeared helpless against the rising tide of popular anger and nonviolent resistance.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, actively worked to encourage the forces of counter-revolution throughout the region. From Morocco to Bahrain, Saudi finance, support and intelligence has sought to prevent political turmoil, reinforce existing dynasties and crush nascent democratic movements before they could reach critical mass. This reactionary tide has been supported by some ideologues in Washington, which worries that Arab democratisation would be detrimental to US policy objectives.
Though allowing Saudi Arabia to stifle change and suffocate democratic aspirations within the region may appear to serve US interests in the short term, it will certainly have blowback down the road. At a watershed political moment, the United States has failed to act in accordance with its stated principles, and as a result, popular anger towards Saudi Arabia’s counter-revolutionary campaigns is causing increasing numbers of Arabs to turn against the United States as well. The fallout from Washington’s support for the Arab counter-revolution could haunt US policy for decades to come.
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1 comment:
Mr Araabi writes: 'As a result, the United States has significantly stepped back its support for Arab revolutions.'
Such a formulation of the role of American policy towards Arab revolutions does not sound right! The real question is: When has the United States supported any democratic revolution in the Middle East or anywhere else?
But most of the article is praiseworthy for its clarity and shows how the partnership of the tyrannical regime of the Saudi family and the Washington rulers works in practice against the democratic forces in the Arab Middle East and North Africa.
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