originally published on Neo-Civilisation
as Princes of Persia

The uprisings popularly called the ‘Arab Spring’ have seen regional power in the middle east wrestled away from pro-American Regimes

The young and the oppressed have bravely taken to the streets and the self-immolation of a lowly fruitseller in Tunisia continues to send shock waves through the middle east and north Africa.

It is safe to assume despite the millions of dollars the US spends on strategic planning to ensure its continued global dominance, not a single person at the Pentagon imagined that one man’s act of resistance would lead to the biggest shift of power seen in generations.

The Americans had busied themselves with large naval bases (Bahrain) and numerous operating bases and spheres of influence to ensure that their biggest rival in the region, Iran, was kept well and truly in its place.

In addition to pursuing numerous UN resolutions and sanctions over Tehran’s defiance of the “International Community” in respect of its continued enrichment of Uranium (that Washington assures us is anything but peaceful) the US has made sure Iran would see the tanks were firmly parked on their lawns.

Ironically America’s biggest military presence in the region, Iraq, actually begun to strengthen their Persian foes as the Iranian Shi’a influence was heavily felt in the protracted Sectarian conflict that followed the toppling of Saddam.

America was able to largely accept this as it was confident it had sufficient military resources in the region to continue to assert it’s authority

In any event a price worth paying to get their hands on the black gold.

The various uprisings across the middle-east have led to an “unacceptable” assertion of Iranian power.

Whilst the uprisings have been led by oppressed and disenfranchised masses nation-states seize the opportunity to subvert these admirable revolutions for their own ends.

I hate to break it to readers but there isn’t just “a group of muslims” in the middle east, obviously all plotting to take our liberty and kill us so they can spread their religion to our nations in a bloody reverse crusade, oh no, it’s much worse than that…there’s lots of different groups of them!

The Sunni/Shi’a split in the Muslim religion has often fueled infighting

The good news is that America has picked a team, we all know that America always picks the winning team so obviously the Sunni’s, the chosen friends of the US, have spent the majority of the past few decades doing exactly as they wish with their Shi’a brethren, on the proviso they remain on Team USA. I’m not sure, but I don’t think, that the USA chose the Sunni’s because they’re fans of that form of Islam but largely because the house of Saud, that happens to sit on the largest oil reserves in the middle east, just happen to be Sunni.

It’s interesting to look at the splits of population and the ruling leaders in each of the regional players:

What we can see from this is that the US isn’t a big fan of Shi’a controlled regimes, but why? Well Iran, either directly, or indirectly through the likes of Hezbollah is able to assert it’s influence in these countries. If we school through the Whitehouse Facebook friends list we can see:

Bahrain

Brutal repression, 541 injured, 31 dead, numerous detained. Alleged Sweeps of girls schools. Has anyone else noticed how the coverage, the disgust, the international condemnation has now fallen largely silent? Moving on quicker than Bernie’s F1 roadshow. Bahrain was lucky it got knocked off the front page by American action in Libya just as it needed a break. Bahrain called in troops from the Gulf Cooperation Council to aid in it’s suppression, it’s highly unlikely such a provocative move of Saudi troops moving over the border would’ve been allowed without some prior notification to the Pentagon especially when you consider the size of the US Naval Base on Bahrain, but hey the Bahraini regime are wearing the stars and stripes, bought and paid for, so there’s nothing to see, go and look at evil Syria.

Yemen

Numerous dead, savage armed crackdown on largely peaceful protests for longer than just about any other regime in the region but remember that Yemen is apparently an Al-Qaeda stronghold and a staunch ally of the war on terror allowing drone attacks at will as long as the Americans continue to support the discredited leader in his efforts to suppress the pro-democracy movement. After all who wants democracy? We tried that in Gaza and the Palestinians chose Hamas, we can’t have that happening again.

Saudi Arabia

There’s little evidence of strong uprisings in Saudi Arabia but who would rise up against a regime with the human rights record of the Saudi’s when they’ve been armed to the teeth courtesy of the UK and USA.

The Al-Amara Arms deals remains one of the hookiest deals the UK have ever managed to pull off but we’ll never know just how bad it was because the Serious Fraud Office Investigation into the backhanders and bribes was shelved at the request of the UK Government long before it could ever reveal the true extend of the complicity of any ministers in the UK.

Syria

Now we look at the treatment of the Syrian regime where the US has pleaded that those pesky Persian’s have been aiding and abetting Assad in his crackdown. How evil can a country be?

Actively supporting the repression of a defenseless nation by an evil dictator? Anyway it doesn’t work, Iran could just ask the Americans about Chile, or just about any other student of the now notorious school of the Americas.

Clearly the Syrian response to the brave people taking to the streets is totally and utterly wrong but the point here is even handedness, why is the coverage of Yemen and Bahrain, which have likely killed just as many, if not more, innocents now largely consigned to the “tried but failed” bin but the Syrian’s adopting the same strategy are under ever-increasing pressure from the international community and the Hoard of Presstitutes* that need to ensure their press contacts in the Pentagon remain onside and continue to give them the inside track (otherwise known as the government spin) on American endeavours to support the spread of “democracy” in the middle east.

If Syria remains destabilised but doesn’t fall Syria will owe it’s survival in no small part to Iran. If the Bahraini revolution was allowed to succeed the United States would have it’s largest regional naval base in the heart of country which would, in all likelihood, become a Shi’a controlled country in line with it’s demographics. If Iran now had a stronger hold in Syria and Bahrain and continued to assert it’s power, by proxy, through Hezbollah in Lebanon and continued to feel itself as a considerable player in Iraq the House of Saud could find itself in a pretty unfriendly neighbourhood.

Do you think the Americans will allow their Oil piggy bank of Saudi Arabia to be encircled by Shi’a dominated regimes friendly with Tehran?

If Iran continues to spread it’s ever growing influence throughout the region wouldn’t it just be a matter of time before the poor man on the street in Saudi Arabia would finally rise up against a regime that has busily lined their pockets with gold, their garages with Ferrari’s and their airports with private jets whilst there is virtually no welfare state, massive unemployment and poverty amongst the masses remains an epidemic? But surely Saudi Arabia could never fall? You just told me we’d armed them to the teeth with fighter jets, missiles and high-powered weaponry! Well that’s as maybe, but how much use are all of those things unless you’re prepared to use them against your entire nation? They’re helpful against enemy states but not much use against ideas, determination, frustration, bravery and free thinking….oh yeah and twitter and facebook.

*presstitute – “News” organisations that whore themselves out to corrupt corporations and governments in order to maintain access and readership. The price is the truth and if you can afford to pay then “embed”, enjoy the service and leave with a smile on your face.