Bahrain Erupts

It was at Manama on the night of 16-17 February. People were unarmed. They were unprovoking. Suddenly there was an assault upon them. My first surprise was how well the repressive apparatus of the state was prepared. There was the riot police, so it seemed, who had no hesitation to use tear gas, rubber bullets and live munitions without warning. Even the rubber bullets do kill. The army was also deployed with a number of tanks. Such a massive machinery for a population of one million speaks for itself(the military expenditure was 3.6% of the GDP in this oil-rich country in 2005). This is not a democratic country.
My second surprise was that, in a society where the position of the people had been determined by the particular sects they belonged to, the demonstration was not organized along the sectarian lines. One of their demands was certainly the equal rights of people from different sects, but that also was expressed in universal democratic terms, and as such was secular.
And thirdly, there was the non-violent character of the demonstration. Even after the forcible, brutal eviction on that night, when people came to the funeral on 18 February of those killed, they were, as far as I could see, completely unarmed. This was not because they had no weapons or they were prohibited to carry them. This was apparently because they knew, instinctively, that the use of weapons on their part would destroy the cause itself. For this Egypt showed the way. Egypt, or more accurately the common Egyptians, deserves the credit. Bahrain is not the only country that owes to Egypt in this way.
The question is if the army who are mostly foreign mercenaries unlike in Egypt can be restrained in their dealing with the people. This may be called the peculiar disparity between the State and the Society in Bahrain. But behind this is the presence of the US 5th Fleet at Bahrain, of the US Central Command at Qatar next door, and also the British military involvement. The US and the dictatorial regimes have needed each other. This is a legacy of the Cold War days which is being sought to be maintained in the name of anti-terrorism.
It is noteworthy that, right on the day the people of Bahrain were attending the funeral at Manama, the US vetoed the draft resolution in the Security Council on restraining the Israeli settlement in the occupied territories. It would certainly show how they are learning from the recent eruption in the Middle East and North Africa.