{"id":15495,"date":"2013-01-09T09:14:50","date_gmt":"2013-01-09T16:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=15495"},"modified":"2013-01-09T09:14:50","modified_gmt":"2013-01-09T16:14:50","slug":"obama-policy-on-bahrain-saudi-arabia-is-heresy-toward-democracy-and-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=15495","title":{"rendered":"Obama policy on Bahrain, Saudi Arabia is Heresy toward Democracy and Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obama Should Reconsider US Approach to Bahrain<\/strong>
\nToby C. Jones – LobeLog – 8 January, 2013<\/p>\n

Justice is a fiction in much of the Persian Gulf. Nowhere is this truer than in Bahrain, a place where torture and state terror have become the norm. The country\u2019s political elites talk frequently about freedom and the need for legal and political order. The reality, however, is that Bahrain\u2019s judicial system is little more than theater. The courts are sites in which freedoms are not assured, but where they are subordinated to the whims of centralized tyranny. Over the last two years, Bahrain has blithely ignored almost all of its domestic and international commitments to refrain from torture, to protect free speech and to honor due process, all conventions that the country has ostensibly built into its \u201cconstitutional\u201d order.<\/p>\n

In the most recent instance, the country\u2019s highest court upheld lengthy prison sentences for 13 prominent human rights and political activists, including life imprisonment in some of the world\u2019s most brutal dungeons. Having already been subjected to late night abductions, military tribunals, torture, and false accusation, it is hardly surprising that the imprisoned were unable to find relief in Bahrain\u2019s sham appeals process.<\/p>\n

More remarkable is the unwillingness of Bahrain\u2019s most important Western patron, the United States, to openly acknowledge that its partner and host to the 5th Fleet is not merely managing its way through a crisis, but building a regime of fear and violence all while claiming the opposite. In her comments yesterday at the State Department\u2019s daily briefing, spokesperson Victoria Nuland offered what has become a familiar refrain \u2014 a mild rebuke dressed up in principle, but one that makes clear that the US is unwilling to say or do more.<\/p>\n

The US position on Bahrain\u2019s excesses, in ways that are eerily similar to the island country\u2019s own theatrical posturing, is more histrionic than substantive. Clearly, in spite of their claims otherwise, American leaders are mostly content with the status quo. Nuland expressed \u201cregret\u201d and \u201cconcern\u201d about Bahrain\u2019s high court\u2019s decision to uphold the convictions of key opposition figures yesterday. She added \u201cthat this decision further restricts freedom of expression and compromises the atmosphere within Bahrain for reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reality is that there is nothing further to restrict. The only clear willingness for reconciliation has come from the country\u2019s opposition, not the government. In also calling for further investigations into torture and accountability, Ms. Nuland asks her listeners to suspend disbelief and to consider seriously that Bahrain has any real interest in the pursuit of a meaningful resolution. It has been clear for two years that Bahrain\u2019s leaders desire victory and vengeance, the total destruction of the democratic opposition.<\/p>\n

While American leaders almost certainly would prefer a political resolution to Bahrain\u2019s challenges, they have done little to help advance the cause. Bahrain\u2019s leaders have learned that mild admonishment is a small price to pay while they consolidate a new era of authoritarianism. They understand that the American approach is feeble and feckless, if often justified, because of Bahrain\u2019s strategic significance. Long a reliable partner in the US mission to police and patrol the Persian Gulf and to ensure the \u201cflow of oil,\u201d American unwillingness to come down too hard on Manama is also a sign of deference to Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has little interest in seeing Bahrain\u2019s opposition enjoy political gain.<\/p>\n

It is, however, well past time to think seriously about whether US strategy in the Gulf is working or, instead, whether it helps abet the very conditions of instability that threaten the region and prospects for more open and durable regional politics. The reality is that oil\u2019s flow does not need protecting. Bahrain does not deserve a pass because it is home to American military facilities. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Obama Should Reconsider US Approach to Bahrain Toby C. Jones – LobeLog – 8 January, 2013 Justice is a fiction in much of the Persian Gulf. Nowhere is this truer than in Bahrain, a place where torture and state terror have become the norm. The country\u2019s political elites talk frequently about freedom and the need 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":[582],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15495"}],"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=15495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15496,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15495\/revisions\/15496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}