Very graphic video of protestor shot in head shows why Saudi intervention may backfire

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FG
by FG
17-Mar-2011
 

To the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C.

I understand the concerns that led the Saudi government to intervene in Bahrain.  However, a recent incident involving your forces has been caught on video and is being widely circulated throughout the Gulf.  See:

//en.irangreenvoice.com/article/2011/mar/16/2951

I assume Saudi rulers are realists.  Before taking risky decisions, any realistic government should assume three things: first, that inflamatory events will occur.  Secondly, they can't be concealed and will be widely known (millions of individual can circumvent all censors via modern technology).  Thirdly, such news will have repercussions.

Hence, there is no doubt that the above video will reach almost every house in Bahrain and in your eastern provinces, whether Shia or Sunni.  Consider the likely effect on volative and frustrated young people.  Won't it accelerate sectarianism?  Will the end result be a Rwanda or Yugoslavia with the Shia playing the role of Bosnians?  Is there any way to allieviate such pressure before things go that far? 

As for Bahrain's ruler, isn't it likeley that his people will hold him accountable for any violence committed by foreigners whose intervention he sought?  In terms of popular "legitimacy," is he not in the same position as "puppet" Czech rulers in the fall of 1968 after Breshnev's forces intervened to prevent "contagion" from a Prague spring?

If the Khamenei regime runs true to form, that regime will exploit the incident to the maximum. If people are alienated enough, Al Quds can arm and train radicalized youths,  suggest a few "strategic targets"and assist in planning effective attacks.  Should that happen, might the Saudi kingdom return the favor?  An Iranian regime known for attacking minorities and stomping on its own reformers appears vulnerable. 

For histoical reasons you can easily discern, people everywhere are insisting on human rights and substantial--not merely symbolic--say in government.  That tendency will not stop.   As in England, monarchs or their equivalents (sheiks, Iran's Supreme Leader) can choose to yield gracefully and survive with ceremonial powers.  The latter is not a bad life and has fewer headaches. 

Their other option is a gamble--that force and intimidation will allow them to keep everything.   Unfortunately the more severe th repression and the longer it goes on, the more a blocked volcano builds underneath until an explosion occurs, a la Libya.   In that case any regime victory will be pyrrhic while a loss will be fatal (Khadaffi and sons can expect death if they remain and life in prison if they flee).  

Instead of eliminating demands for fairness and human rights, repression increases such demands.  It creates revulsion that drives new elements of the population into resistenc while it radicalizes those who once sought major reforms.  Any respect or trust a regime had vanishes.  

The "tipover point" occurs when a government, through its own actions, becomes so widely discredited or even hated that it can no longer save itself by agreeing to major reforms.   The time is long past when such things are acceptable.  

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more from FG
 
amirparvizforsecularmonarchy

Saudis are the lowest scum of all.

by amirparvizforsecularmonarchy on

When Saudis should be saving PALESTINIANS from Israeli's , instead Saudi's are busy killing fellow muslims to keep control, if even by tyranny and despotic evil, against the natural birth right of every human being to have the freedom to choose ones own life affairs and destiny.

Saudi's make great hypocrits and liars and thieves, but they are the worst muslims based on korans ideals. The people don't even care and won't do anything about this... and their evil lives will continue.


default

Hemar!

by Doctor mohandes on

AL e Hemmar... Should be the new title... No more Al saud.

Doesn't hemmar means aszz or Donkey in arabic???

 


divaneh

Very depressing

by divaneh on

This is what we can expect from the House of Saud. It is known and recorded that Abdel Aziz Abdel Rahman Al Saud (known as Ibn Saud) who founded the Saud dynasty and changed the name of the Arabia to Saudi Arabia with the help of British, used to insist on killing the captives himself and kissed his bloody sword after beheading the captives. These are nothing but the same tribe. The West hypocrisy in this instance is shameful.


Fatollah

couldn't watch

by Fatollah on

level of barbarity! imagine what bombs can do ...


Bavafa

This is by far the most gruesome video I have seen

by Bavafa on

And my heart goes to his family. It is truly shameful for this to be allowed and thank you for your passionate and well written blog about it.

I hope one day soon, justice is brought to all the barbaric criminals in Iran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Israel and else where in ME.

Mehrdad


Soosan Khanoom

These days one must be a

by Soosan Khanoom on

These days one must be a fool not to see the Hypocrisy in action ....  In Bahrain  there is a massacre of civilians going on at the same time  Saudi's are  being sent there to assist in more  massacre ....... On the other  hand we have no fly zone   passed for libya .....   Are we not witnessing selective reinforcement of democracy?

Quite frankly  the hypocrisy is just beyond belief ........... 

And still I wonder what happened to the Egyptian revolution ? !!!!!


MM

indeed graphic

by MM on

Thanks.  I had to close my eyes at times.

Reminder: Besides South Africa and the Soviet bloc, Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that originally abstained from voting for the UN declaration of human rights in 1948.