Al-Khobar Killings

[Flip Flop Flyer]

I've recently accepted a position in Bahrain, having visited this fine Island numerous times over the past few years. From speaking to my Bahraini friends it is plainly obvious that the main problem here is not so much Israel, but rather the complete and total lack of understanding Arab mentality on behalf of the western world, especially the US.

Basically, these people are not interested in having our way of life imposed on them, just as "we" would not be interested in having their way of life imposed on us. The sad part is that your average American cannot fathom that the US way of life has very little in the way of appeal here, and I will venture the proposition this is also valid for a large part of the rest of the world.

Until such time that the US realises that people from different parts of the planet have no wish to live like Americans, but would rather perserve their own culture and way of life, there is litttle hope that the deep distrust and even outright hatred against the US will diminish, and thus terrorism will continue.

As you will probably know there is a very large US presence here in Bahrain, and I've meet quite a few people from the US Navy, Army and Air Force. To a man, they are utterly incapable of understanding that neither Europeans nor Arabs have any inclination to become "Americanized" - they fully belive that the US way of life is the end all and be all of civilization.

So when the US fails to win hearts and minds, they resort to bullying tactics thereby further alianting both supposed allies and adding fire to an already burning hatred. One is inclined to put the present US government in the same basket as so-called Muslem fundamentalists - their simplistic and narrow minded views of the world, although directly opposed, bears many similarities.

The fact of the matter is that somewhere around 99% of the poulation, both here and in the rest of the world, wants nothing more than to live a peaceful life, raise their families and succeed to the best of their abilities. The problem is the 1% who are fundamentalists, whether they are Muslem, Jewish or Christians. And yes, I will list the present US government among the fundamentalists.

Is there a solution to this problem? Well, of course there is. The House of Saud needs to be replaced by another form of government - the US support for that family of deep corruption and dictatorship is another cause of hatred. The Israeli / Palestinian conflict needs to be resolved - again the unilateral US support to Israel is another source of hatred. To put it in a nutshell, the US will need to stop messing around with the politics here and get to grasp with the fact that the US way of life is not wanted, nor needed, in this and many other parts of the world.

Finally, no matter how well we mean it this place is not yet ready for the sort of democracy we enjoy in the west. A strong leader is needed to handle the "big issues" like security, defence and foreign policy. Domestic politics can be handled by a democratically elected parliament, but there neeeds to be a top dog. Arabs have little in the way of respect for touchy-feely democracy and that is exactly why the mission in Iraq is bound to fail.