Mirror, Mirror
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- Published on Tuesday, 19 April 2011 02:00
The United States of America and its allies flaunt their “hypocritic” oath, and pick and choose when to support revolutions; for example, compare their attitudes in Libya and Bahrain.
A few weeks ago, in the midst of the Sahara, Gaddafi began an onslaught on a bunch of “revolutionaries” who had the mettle to rise against him. His forces began a merciless crackdown against them.
The United States and its entourage, along with the Arab League, first decided to impose a no-fly zone in support of the rebels. A few days later, British and American missiles began bombing pro-Gaddafi troops.
A few weeks ago, in Bahrain, thousands of revolutionaries began protests at Pearl Roundabout in the capital Manama. Peaceful for weeks, they kept on calling for an end to human rights violations.
The Bahraini monarchy didn’t like this much so they sent in troops to halt the demonstrations. Enraged, the protestors multiplied to hundreds of thousands. The Bahraini government decided to call in reinforcements, and rolled in Saudi Arabian armoured vehicles, flanked by UAE troops. They attacked hospitals, and started shooting at protestors from close range. Reports show a two-year old girl shot multiple times and a 71-year old man dead from asphyxiation. The soldiers then limited access to hospitals for injured protestors. To further discourage protestors, Saudi “religious leaders” issued convenient “fatwas” dubbing protests against the state as illegal and “haraam” (forbidden). The United States and the EU, on the other hand, remain conspicuously quiet, choosing not to interfere, even suggesting once that Bahrain was justified in “restoring calm and order.”
The Arab League (led by Saudi Arabia) and the US have cherry-picked revolutions to support. It’s easy to attack Libya. Gaddafi’s madcap antics have already left him with zero credibility. His oppressive regime is scattered and easy to attack. No-one disputes the validity of attacking Libyan forces.
Supporting the Libyan rebels ensures that yet another ally will be found in an oil-rich region. In Bahrain, the very presence of the US Fifth Fleet there, and the buddy-buddy relationship between Washington and Manama, means that it’s unacceptable for the US or NATO to interfere. Human rights violations obviously never occur in countries that are friends with America. The hypocrisy of the Arab League is even more revolting. Never great fans of Gaddafi, his ousting would rid them of a maverick in their midst. Bahrain, however, is one of their own, and the fall of Bahrain would mean that Arab monarchies are no longer sacrosanct. It would mean that one of them could be next, so they fight to ensure that the monarchy doesn’t crumble.
You just can’t pick and choose when to be a “bastion of morality”. You have to be consistent about it.