The groundwork has been laid for U.S. and allied military intervention in the Persian Gulf. [13]
The day after Saudi and Emirati military forces arrived in Bahrain, several thousand protesters descended on the Saudi embassy to demonstrate their opposition to the intervention. As the Reuters news agency reported, "Bahrainis are concerned that their tiny island could become a proxy battleground for a wider stand-off between the Sunni-ruled Gulf Arab countries, all U.S. allies, and Shi'ite-ruled Iran, a U.S. foe."
The Iranian Foreign Ministry referred to the foreign military deployment in Bahrain as "unacceptable" and the Bahraini king recalled his ambassador from Tehran in response.
Two years ago Saudi Arabia engaged in its true first war, that against Houthi militias in northern Yemen. On December 14 of 2009 BBC News reported that 70 Yemeni civilians had been killed in a Saudi bombing raid on the village of Bani Maan. Houthi sources on the same day claimed that "US fighter jets have attacked Yemen's Sa'ada Province" and "US fighter jets have launched 28 attacks on the northwestern province of Sa'ada." [14]
The U.S. is no less complicit in the Saudi military intervention currently underway in Bahrain. Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan stated the U.S. had been "informed" of but not "consulted" on the Saudi deployment, but his verbal sleight of hand was solely intended to cozen the uninformed and unwary given the recent visits to Bahrain by the head of the Pentagon and America's top military commander, who decidedly were not there to discuss the weather.
1) U.S. Department of Defense, March 12, 2011
2) Ibid
3) Ibid
4) Arabian Sea: Center Of West's 21st Century War
Stop NATO, October 25, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/arabian-sea-center-of-wests-21st-century-war
5) U.S. Department of Defense, February 21, 2011
6) Ibid
7) Joint Chiefs of Staff, February 25, 2011
8) Marine Forward Element Set Up to Help in Middle East
U.S. Department of Defense, February 25, 2011
9) The Peninsula, February 16, 2011
10) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, June 29, 2004
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/SID-DA0A4642-13E9063A/natolive/news_20811.htm?
11) Ibid
12) North Atlantic Treaty Organization, April 28, 2008
http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2008/04-april/e0424a.html
14) NATO's Role In The Military Encirclement Of Iran
Stop NATO, February 10, 2010
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/natos-role-in-the-military-encirclement-of-iran
14) Yemen: Pentagon's War On The Arabian Peninsula
Stop NATO, December 15, 2009
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/15/yemen-pentagons-war-on-the-arabian-peninsula
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