{"id":14254,"date":"2012-11-21T12:31:39","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T19:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14254"},"modified":"2012-11-21T12:31:39","modified_gmt":"2012-11-21T19:31:39","slug":"bahrain-uprising-threatens-to-unhinge-us-hegemony-that-hides-behind-the-gulf-monarchies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=14254","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain Uprising Threatens to unhinge US Hegemony that hides behind the Gulf Monarchies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bahrain Uprising Threatens US Hegemony<\/strong>
\nby PressTV \u2013 TRANSCEND Media Service – 20 November, 2012<\/p>\n

Connecting the dots of recent dramatic events in Bahrain spells one unmistakable message \u2014 the US-backed Al Khalifa regime is on the political ropes. It is desperately trying to defeat a determined pro-democracy movement that just won\u2019t lie down or go away.<\/p>\n

The regime is fighting for its very survival under unrelenting pressure from the mainly Shia population, who won\u2019t back down in their demand for human dignity and freedom, no matter how much they are brutalized and terrorized.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just the survival of the Khalifa regime that is at stake. It\u2019s the entire US-backed order of Arab monarchies which has been in place for over six decades, and which is now showing cracks in the dam. This order has historically guaranteed the West a reliable source of oil; and more recently it is crucial to shoring up the bankrupt petrodollar system that Anglo-American global capitalism depends on.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the Persian Gulf Arab dictatorships are a lucrative destination for the American and British weapons industries. The latter vital interest was underscored last week by the visit of British prime minister to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia \u2014 whose sole mission was to sell $9 billion-worth of fighter jets to these regimes. The Pentagon is also planning to sell Saudi Arabia $6.7 billion-worth of military transport planes, on top of the $60 billion deal signed off last year. In an age of debt-ridden American and British capitalism, the Arab dictators are vital sources of cash.<\/p>\n

This crucial geo-strategic backdrop to Bahrain explains the escalating repression in the tiny island kingdom against civilian protesters, with a blanket ban invoked by the regime on all public demonstrations. Bloggers and organisers caught or suspected of agitating on social media have been dealt with instant imprisonment.<\/p>\n

Then last week saw the rulers making the extraordinary Orwellian move of deleting the nationality status of 31 Bahraini pro-democracy leaders \u2014 a move that has shocked human rights observers and which contravenes the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Imagine a government making its own citizens \u201cnon-nationals.\u201d How sinister is that?<\/p>\n

Those draconian moves followed on the heels of suspicious explosions in the capital, Manama, and earlier last month in the village of Eker, which claimed the lives of two Indian workers and a policeman, respectively.<\/p>\n

This theatre of dirty tricks and playing to the gallery with lurid accusations of foreign subversion is, to be sure, aimed at justifying the unjustifiable \u2014 the use of state terrorism and repression against civilians who are simply demanding basic democratic rights. However, what the latest draconian moves by the Khalifa dictatorship tells us is that the regime and its powerful backers are coming under acute pressure for political survival. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Bahrain Uprising Threatens US Hegemony by PressTV \u2013 TRANSCEND Media Service – 20 November, 2012 Connecting the dots of recent dramatic events in Bahrain spells one unmistakable message \u2014 the US-backed Al Khalifa regime is on the political ropes. It is desperately trying to defeat a determined pro-democracy movement that just won\u2019t lie down or more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[708],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14256,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14254\/revisions\/14256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}