Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Another U.S. ally in trouble

Thousands of anti-government demonstrators cut off Bahrain's financial center and drove back police trying to push them from the capital's central square - shaking the tiny island kingdom Sunday with the most disruptive protests since calls for more freedom erupted a month ago.

. . . The clashes fueled fears that Bahrain's political crisis could be stumbling toward open sectarian conflict between the ruling minority Sunnis and Shiites, who account for 70 percent of the nation's 525,000 people.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/03/12/2111796/bahrain-protesters-march-on-palace.html

Bahrain's royal family is crazy if they think they can continue to rule their nation as a medieval absolute monarchy with the sole backing of their coreligionists, the minority Sunnis, who make up less than 30% of the population.

The only crazier people are in the U.S. government, which decided to base the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, on the say so of the government of the unpopular and unrepresentative king.

Let's hope we have somewhere to station the fleet when the eventual new government eventually kicks us out, whether in the next few days or the next few years.

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