Washington Preparing For ‘Regime Change’ in PR Disaster Kingdom – it’s worse than that…

[cb editor note: The work that goes on over at Global Research is excellent and no less praise from here for Mr. Cunningham. However, in the article that follows I respectfully disagree with Mr. Cunningham’s premise; Washington Preparing For ‘Regime Change’ in PR Disaster Kingdom. I expect the reality lies else where, in a broken down, over stretched and arrogant State Department and US Intelligence gathering Agencies. Their best briefings on Bahrain are little more that uninformed, uncritical from lazy analysts who reach no further than the BNA and feed Clinton and Obama the feel good, Pollyanna crap that they have cowed their staffs down to provide, as Obama tries to improve his election prospects, so we can all enjoy four more years of greedy democrats instead of greedy republicans. Tyrannical party leaders seem to enjoy the company and flattery of tyrannical kings.

The “partners” that occupy the White House aren’t interested in Bahrain aside from their personal and political profit motives. If democrats and “friends can make a few bucks” pimping the DNC leadership out as PR people to repackage al Khalifa’s sales image to the West and maybe increase national sales of a few extra tons of CS gas, they will, because that’s what interests them about the situation in Bahrain. They aren’t worried about loosing their base for the 5th fleet, they can just park the tanks and anti-riot gear there that the West has been selling the GCC and the Saudi’s. In Bahrain they sell CS gas and PR people but this Method of Operation was originally championed by former Secretary Albright in Kosov by snatching the Cell Phone concession as “spoils of war” after President Clinton and Cheney crushed Kosov and installed KBR and Haliburton as economic victors there. Same shit different theater.

The folks in DC have transformed themselves from the morally bankrupt to the morally dead. Their is no grand strategy, no ideal of a higher good other than amassing wealth, there is no real plan, just a world power dominated by egos and profit motives and a nation that has the guns and bombs to support their desires – here unto now anyway. This point of view would do the left some good, it might wake up and realize there is no grand plan or conspiracy other than profit motive and that the Western political system is neither sophisticated nor is it intelligent, it’s just fucking greedy. Sorry Mr. Cunningham maybe I’ll cheer up a little this week when (if) Greece defaults and Capitalism takes a shot to the nuts – one can only hope.

Peace,
Philipn ]

Bahrain: Is Washington Preparing For ‘Regime Change’ in PR Disaster Kingdom?
by Finian Cunningham – Global Research, September 18, 2011

The persistence of pro-democracy protests in Bahrain in the face of brutal repression may be giving Washington second thoughts about its unwavering support for the royal rulers of the strategically important Persian Gulf kingdom. Are we about to witness a cosmetic ‘regime change’ – not so much for the genuine sake of democratic rights in Bahrain, but more to save Washington’s vital interests across the region?

The tiny island situated between Saudi Arabia and Qatar serves as the base for the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. The Fifth Fleet, comprising 16,000 personnel and 30 vessels, is a staging ground for US military projection across the Middle East and Central Asia. It also monitors the sealanes of the Persian Gulf through which some 30 per cent of the world’s total supply of traded oil passes every day.

Since the mainly Shia population of Bahrain took to the streets on 14 February in protest against the unelected Sunni monarchy of the Al Khalifa dynasty, Washington has given unrelenting support to the regime – invariably describing Bahrain as “an important ally”.

Apart from the US Fifth Fleet, the US has a free trade agreement with Bahrain, it sells some $20 million in weapons every year to the kingdom, and Bahrain is a financial hub for American and global capital.

Bahrain returned all these favours by lending Washington and its NATO allies diplomatic cover for the military intervention in Libya to oust Muammar Gaddafi. Bahrain, along with the other Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, lined up dutifully behind the US/NATO intervention to give it a veneer of Arab approval, and thus head off charges that the aerial bombardment of Libya is a Western imperialist war of aggression. The Gulf Arab monarchies have also performed the same political function of providing diplomatic cover for the US/NATO sanctions and threats of intervention against Syria.

Bahrain and the other Gulf dictatorships (despite the irony of that) have thus played an important propaganda function. They have helped underpin the premise that the US and NATO involvement in Libya and Syria is guided by defence of human rights and democratic freedoms.

But now here’s the rub. Bahrain stands out as a glaring contradiction to stated US government claims regarding its interventions in Libya and Syria.

The fact that some 40 people have been killed in Bahrain for peacefully demanding democratic freedoms and basic human rights is an unmitigated damning indictment of the US-backed regime. Thousands have been injured – many horribly mutilated – from regime forces firing at unarmed peaceful demonstrators.

The apparent glaring contradiction between US foreign policy towards Bahrain and its espoused concerns for the people of Libya and Syria makes Bahrain under the Al Khalifa regime a serious liability to Washington’s “humanitarian” credibility.

Given the ongoing persecution against Shia workers (over 3,500 sacked); the preposterous use of military show trials to prosecute dozens of doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers and athletes; the widespread condemnation by human rights groups of illegal mass detention and torture; the targeting of independent journalists and bloggers; the expulsion of hundreds of students and academics – the liability of the Al Khalifa regime to Washington’s foreign policy credibility grows ever more unwieldy by the day. …more