Foreign Interference

Cairo, Egypt

There was a protest of mostly women in black headscarves and big trendy sunglasses on the sidewalk in front of the Embassy of Bahrain in Zamalek today as I was walking home.

From Bahrain Embassy, Zamalek

What's happening in Bahrain is in some ways the most disturbing of all the uprisings in the Middle East. Until Sunday, those uprisings were domestic affairs. Financial assets have been frozen in foreign accounts, and plenty of rhetoric has flown about concerning the rest of the world's recommendations to the leaders of Algeria, Egypt, Yemen.... After weeks of discussing it and making proclamations, no country has even stepped in militarily to stop the atrocities in Libya.

On Sunday, the Saudi army rolled across the border into Bahrain to assist the police there in crushing the opposition protests. By Tuesday there was blood in the streets. It doesn't bode well for the future of democracy in the oil-rich Persian Gulf states. The interests of oppressive Arab governments in that region are too deeply entrenched to allow free expression, and too essential to the global economy for the international community to intervene.