Goodspeed Analysis: Unrest in Bahrain could threaten key U.S. military outpost
Could the tiny Persian Gulf island state of Bahrain be the next U.S. diplomatic domino to fall in a rapidly changing Middle East?
As riot police in Bahrain attacked hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators Monday with tear gas, rubber bullets and concussion grenades, U.S. strategic interests in the Gulf appeared poised to receive yet another battering from the revolutionary wave that is sweeping the Arab world.
Just days after the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, stripped Washington of its strongest diplomatic partner in the region, pro-democracy demonstrations in Bahrain threaten one of its most crucial military outposts in the centre of an arc of instability that now stretches from North Africa through the Middle East to South Asia.
Bahrain’s Shiite majority, which accounts for almost 70% of the population, is challenging the island’s Sunni king, Sheik Hamid bin Isa al-Khalifa. They want him to rewrite the constitution to give Shiites a larger share of power and economic opportunity, while demanding investigations into widespread complaints of torture and corruption.
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