Elliot Abrams: Did you learn the lesson?

On May 11, 2012 Elliot Abrams as usual wrote negatively about Bahrain following the same media propaganada of the shia majority repressed by the sunni monarchy which becomes to be discusting to Bahrainis and expats living in harmony for decades just because the US and Imperialists are not happy anymore with ruling regmis in the Middle East. 

 

I chose two comments on the Article "Missing in Bahrain: Leadership" from Mr.Nabeel and Mrs, Reem Mohammed which I consider them as lessons to Abrams, he might learn from them when he thinks to write about Bahrain again!

 

 

1. Nabeel May 11, 2012 at 10:52 am 

  

You based your entire article on, I heard, I was told, I read. I can only say one thing to you, I LIVE.

Yes, I live in Bahrain, I see, I feel, I witness. All of that give me a bull’s eye perspective on the events in Bahrain and it is a really simple conclusion. What we have here is pure terrorism made by Iranians or Iranian operatives. This is the very same terror the West has long fought against.

So far, Bahraini Sunnis have exhibited the utmost self-restraints against daily terror attacks in an attempt to avoid bloodshed, but the Shia’s are determined to take us down that path.

Shia’s have forgone all peaceful initiatives and dialogues, for them anything short of holding power is not acceptable and will be considered as a defeat. For the Sunni’s and our surrounding countries this is not an option, never was and never will be.

Yes, they have always been given posts in the government and a representation of about half of the parliament and had a say in decision making – granted not as much as they liked, but we lived in peace and harmony with them. Things changed and by their own ill-conceived deeds. Now they are the enemy.

If you really believe that the Iranian influence is only mere inflammatory broadcasts, then I have an ocean front property in Phoenix I would like to sell to you at rock-bottom price. Please don’t be so gullible as to believe the Iranian innocence as the so the called Bahraini opposition would like you to believe. If you buy into that, then you actually believe they are not meddling in Iraq or Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Yemen and the list go on.

You don’t see God, but that does not stop you from believing God’s existence, in the same token, you may not see the Iranian evil from the safety of DC, but it thrives in Bahrain, so believe in it. Bahrain stands today as the last gateway between the expansion and the exportation of the Iranian revolution and the Arab way of life – the choice are yours. Actually, the choice is ours.

 

2. Reem Mohammed May 11, 2012 at 3:22 pm 

 

 Let me bring in a different prospective on this Mr Elliot as a business consultant in Bahrain which might disappoint you. Every week I have new clients including locals Bahrainis that visit my office to establish new businesses and enterprises.

 

My last visit was from a young Bahraini lady – if it makes a huge difference to you, she is shia (however that does not matter to me however it seems to matter to you and the mass media propaganda) who just established a new business and was pleased that her business was thriving and is in the process of establishing another branch of her business elsewhere in the Kingdom.
Before I go on and despite as per your constant updates of new reports of protests and police “abuses” most of which are reported however without evidence by a rights group that are also politically involved and therefore bias , as well as media mostly again run by opposition individual figures or their wives, what you fail to comprehend is a fact that this is not as you put it a “gap between the Sunni royal family and the mostly Shia population is by all accounts widening” but a gap that a radical opposition would like you to believe.

As per the accounts of this young Bahraini lady again I will re-affirm is a shia (as it is always important to you to highlight the sunni /shia rhetoric) one of the first topics she started with prior to business was the fact that she and many were tired of the radical youths that terrorize their villages and homes every day and also wished the law would be enforced so they could get about their daily lives without having to hide in their homes. Her and many villagers have had enough of the constant violence that they also object to. I would suggest Mr Elliot that you come down on the ground and let me introduce you to her and many others like her that also disagree with your shia/sunni sentiment.

Regarding the “democracy” statement. Please explain how democracy will change my life?
 

Will by having “democracy” mean I will be entitled to live in a palace? Will “democracy” provide me with a job? Will “democracy” solve my housing problems? Democracy certainly hasn’t solved yours.
 

There are over forty millions jobless in USA with ten millions homeless and the lucky is the one who lives in tent city. There is no health insurance and no security for any American without paying life time endless health insurance policies for the same corporate that destroyed their economy. At same time their government has been looting their future and spent trillions on endless adventures against Arabs- John Churchilly
 

Democracy is a word frequently used in Western politics. We are constantly told that you live in a democracy and that your political system is “democratic” and that nations that do not match these standards are classed as “undemocratic”. D Robertson, writing in 1986, stated that:
 

“Democracy is the most valued and also the vaguest of political terms in the modern world”
 

Robertson continued by stating that the word only starts to mean something tangible in the modern world when it is prefixed with other political words, such as direct, representative, liberal and parliamentary.
 

When you speak about “democracy” you fail to provide the public with a full insight into the meaning of your “democratic” process.
 

There is no such thing as a real democracy, it doesn’t exist.
The only real democracy is a direct democracy which no country in the western world can boast they have to date after thousands of years.
 

So what you speak about when you refer to “democracy” is a “Representative Democracy” like the UK as an example where you elect an MP who is supposedly supposed to represent you, yet once elected you don’t really get any representation at all.
 

Basically, the people hand over the responsibility of decision making to someone else who wishes to be in that position and they are held accountable to them. If they fail to perform (or if the party has done badly during its time in office) they can be removed by the people of their constituency. In this way, the people exercise control over their representatives.
 

However, by handing to their MP’s the right to participate in decision making within the Commons, the electorate is removing itself from the process of decision making…. So much for the democratic process…
 

For the point that you make regarding having spoken to Bahrainis who acknowledge these divisions, it’s about time you come and speak to Bahrainis like me.
 

And another point, the centre will always hold, at the end of the day what you fail to understand is the fact that regardless of how you look at things there are many Bahrainis that have both shia and sunni- as you always like to reference- within their family nucleus.
 

When you have a chance to sit with ordinary people in Bahrain, you will notice that the Bahrainis that you have sat and spoken with are the ones politically and selfishly motivated for personal gain.
Now I am neither pro nor antigovernment, but what I am is pro truth, and that is the truth.
 

Years ago Mr Elliot, the imperialists spoke about “Civilisation” and how important it was to “export” civilization, today you speak about “democracy” and are in the process of “exporting” a “democracy”.
This is what your “civilization” did to a great nation.

Lord Macaulay addressed the British Parliament in 1835:
 

“I do not think we would ever conquer this country unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage”
 

“I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber that I do not think we would ever conquer this country unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and therefore I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native culture, and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.”
 

A few years later, with “civilization” came beggars, thieves and the wealth was gone.
Hope I am making a clear point. It is a little like your democracy that you insist on, yet fail to show what democracy will reap the citizens of this nation besides voting.
 

For your point on violence and alienation, this must come from people like you to speak about the truth of what you wish to export to our nation that is a failure in yours.
 

What went wrong? You ask.. What went wrong was a western promise to radicals to assist with a coup without taking into account a vast majority that you fail to hear the voices of even today.
 

A western promise to assist without taking to account a silent majority that awoke from a political sleep that went out on to the streets to demand their voice be heard to.
 

You must remember that during February and March of last year, the US administration – According to the BICI report (that you and the mass media like to constantly refer to however not on all the points)- and the opposition was in the process of forming an interim government without democratically conferring with the rest of the population , now that in itself caused an uproar and a 

widening mistrust and gap in society. That on its own damaged the trust.
 

I personally believe that the real underlying problem is simple to understand: the people ruling the western so called “democracies” do not wish to lose power and fear that moves to Arab independency will leave them out of a “loop” and no longer in power dictating to the Arab and the rest of the world as they have done for centuries.
 

What is to be done? Well Mr Elliot, in my opinion, ask the west to stop interfering in the Middle East and elsewhere, they have been doing so for centuries. Is it hopeless? Yes it is because the West just can’t manage that.