Bahrain
 

What a difficult situation for American foreign policy, the government has been close ally of US and our base there is of huge importance to say nothing of the oil. The Shiites, which are in the majority, want more say and their protests have threatened to overthrow the minority government. Recently Saudi Arabia and UAE have sent ground forces in to assist the government squash the rebel factions and this doesn't sit well with the US. The big danger is that if the Shiite majority gains control, they would become a defacto arm of the extremist government in Iran. How do we balance our support of democracy with the real world reality that supporting the rebels might effect the balance of power in the region and greatly strengthen Iran?

Drill in Alaska and North Dakota and starve them into acting like humans.

Yeah, that's the answer....

what's the worse case scenario?

Slaughter of innocent people, radical Islam taking over and kicking our forces out of a very important base....oil is a factor here but not as important as that base. Very touchy situation.

Who's going to slaughter innocent people? Muslims are peaceful. Only a couple hundred radicals exist. We have oil here. Time to get work and harvest. Jobs, jobs, jobs....

Dictators will do anything to remain in power, regardless of professed religious dogma. Drilling for oil (or not) in the US has nothing to do with the situation in Behrain. Neither does your argument with Riot over the extent of radical Islamic elements.

Tell that to Riot.....

Naw. Riot gets that part. You? Not so much:D

part of the few hundred bad muslims?

It's too bad you only think in simplistic, black-and-white political talking points.

no it's too bad you think 100's maybe thousands of muslims hate America when in fact it's in the 10's of millions at the least.

CARTER!

Guess having a discussion about Bahrain is impossible as it quickly becomes a WWF cagematch between Dell and Riot.

You were doing very well trying to have an intelligent thread about Bahrain. But Dell has this unhealthy weird fixation thing where he drags my name into threads I'm not even posting upon.

Carry on, I was silently agreeing with your insights :tro:

I'm not sure I have a lot of insight here but to me, Bahrain is a test of our values. We must decide whether basic human rights extend to everyone regardless of their feelings about us, their religion, even their willingness to extend those rights to us. I don't think 10 of millions of Muslims hate us because we worship the Almighty differently than them, rather because they see us as the "haves" to their "have nots". Religion is the easy way out, just as popes and kings of past Europe used religion to justify the Crusades, radical Islamic elements attempt to urge hatred using beliefs that are so important to people who have little else in life. Two elements are at play, failure to listen to those who think differently than us, and hatred that arises from fear of those who we perceive as different than us...race, religious beliefs, politics...all are just tools to perpetuate this fear and hatred. In the end, if we as a nation are to be true to ourselves, we must stand with the people of Bahrain against tyrany. The results are not within our control, our actions are.

Why do they hate Israel?

it's a current test, the latest part of aa test we've been failing for years. our goal has been stability in the middle east, not democracy. now, when the people there are seemingly ready, we're not! this is what we get as a nation for not standing up for our core beliefs. instead, we've taken the road that benefits us monetarily. greed has won the day for years.
it's time for us to stand tall for peoples' rights-in the end that will pay off far more than the years of giving aid to foreign countries run by dictators. we have been short sighted for far too long.
that said, obama is in latin america instead of meeting with europes top leaders about libya. wrong move there! the veep should have gone south.

I simply disagree. The numbers don't add up. More people living in any semblance of a democracy means more opportunities for our corrupt corporations and politicians to ship jobs overseas.

We NEVER benefit in the long run. All of the free trade agreements have been disastrous for the average American.

that's an interesting take on things. i'd have to think tho that everyone would be better off if more countries were stable, and less theocracies, dictatorships ,etc. you'd also have to think it would save us money long range-militarily as well as economically.