Bahrain’s slow burn, about to get much hotter as US State Department “plays with itself” – Egypt Redux

Bahrain’s slow burn
13 April, 2012 – By Editorial Board – Washington Post

Between an autocratic Arab regime and a popular opposition is slowly worsening. Violence in Bahrain, a Persian Gulf emirate, has killed only a few score in the last year, compared with more than 9,000killed in Syria. But in many respects its uprising resembles that of Syria: The ruling al-Khalifa family, from the Sunni minority, has repeatedly promised, and failed to deliver, political reforms to empower the long-repressed Shiite majority.

Between them, Syria and Bahrain are revealing about Middle East politics. Saudi Arabia, which has led the calls for democratic regime change in Sunni-majority Syria, sent troops to back up the Bahraini autocracy last year. Shiite Iran, which is the strongest defender of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, is calling for democracy in Bahrain.

The United States ought to provide the exception to this sectarian cynicism. President Obama has pledged to support democratic transitions across the region and, in several speeches, has called for reform in Bahrain as well as in Syria. But the administration also has its pragmatic interests: Bahrain is a close military ally, the host of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet and a key partner in the U.S. strategy for repelling potential Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf.

The administration has consequently soft-pedaled its calls for change in Bahrain, supporting not regime change nor democracy but “a genuine dialogue leading to meaningful reforms,” as a White House statement on Wednesday put it. Washington’s leverage probably explains some of the regime’s more conciliatory actions, such as the appointment of an independent commission last year that reported on abuses by the security forces and recommended reforms. Still, the regime’s slowness to enact meaningful change and continued persecution of opponents have led the political situation to worsen, rather than improve. In two alarming episodes this week, an improvised explosive device attack on a police checkpoint was followed by the ransacking of a Shiite-owned shopping center by a Sunni mob. …more