US naval basing and Saudi alliance interests silenced Western outcry over Bahrain’s crackdown

Evidence

And that was it. There was little outcry in the West, and Arab media largely ignored the crackdown. There was no talk of “responsibility to protect” or even any real hiccup in relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia or Bahrain. A few things may help explain this. First, Bahrain is the home of the Fifth Fleet—the island hosts a huge US naval base. Washington was not going to countenance the “loss” of Bahrain to a Shia government (representing the majority of the people) that might be friendly with Iran. The foreign policy establishment had already “lost” Iraq to the Shia after the invasion of that country did not go as planned. Washington’s partnership with Saudi Arabia, forged back in the days when both Wahhabism and Zionism were cultivated as the best ways to counter the appeal of secular nationalism and Arab Socialism, was too important to let human rights and democracy get in the way. There may have been a deal struck—Washington will keep quiet on Bahrain if the Arab league backs the invasion of Libya. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 256

Categorization

• XREF: Directly parallels the Base Nation argument that US military basing interests outweigh human-rights considerations in host nations. — connects to: US Middle East oil policy pursued access, not territorial control; Yemen’s Saudi-led war drew silence while Ukraine’s drew global outrage — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1187; Neighboring Sunni Gulf states invaded Bahrain to crush its cross-sectarian uprising — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 255 (+5 more)
• QUESTION: Is the ‘no Libya invasion unless Arab League backs it’ quid pro quo actually documented anywhere, or is this Bevins’s conjecture?
• SEED: Essay angle: chart the Bahrain crackdown as the clearest proof that Western ‘values-based foreign policy’ was never real — only basing, oil, and anti-Iran geopolitics.

Broader Connections

• American bases in Bahrain make the U.S. complicit in human rights abuse #expands (0.84)
• Yemen’s Saudi-led war drew silence while Ukraine’s drew global outrage #corroborates (0.82) — Khaled A. Beydoun, The New Crusades_ Islamophobia and the…, 1187
• The Saudi-US war on Yemen drew no global condemnation unlike the Russian invasion #corroborates (0.80)
• Protecting Saudi oil monarchy, not democracy, has driven US regional policy since WWII #expands (0.80) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 381
• Neighboring Sunni Gulf states invaded Bahrain to crush its cross-sectarian uprising #expands (0.78) — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 255
• The US-backed Saudi war in Yemen killed 100,000 and starved 250,000 #corroborates (0.75)
• Western press deplored Saudi censorship while ignoring Israeli press restrictions. #corroborates (0.74) — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 218
• US Middle East oil policy pursued access, not territorial control #qualifies (0.72)