Gloating Guerillas
The Stratfor daily email digest mentions that some of the Gulf States are asking if a newspaper editorial calling Bahrain part of Iran represents an official position.
Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmad al-Khalifa summoned Iran's charge d'affaires to answer questions about Tehran's official position on an editorial written by Hussain Shariatmadari, managing editor of Iranian daily newspaper Kayhan, in which Shariatmadari calls Bahrain an Iranian province, The Media Line reported. Shariatmadari, who is also an adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, wrote that Bahrain was separated from Iran under an illegal agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom and the Shah of Iran."
The Mideast News Source has more details ...
In his editorial Shari'atmadari claimed the main demand of the Bahraini people was the return of the "Bahraini Province" to its motherland, Iran. Shari'atmadari also said Bahrain was separated from Iran following "an illegal agreement between the Iranian shah and the governments of the United States and Britain." ...
In March 2007 an Iranian dissident diplomat revealed details of the recruitment and training in Iran of citizens from the Persian Gulf states. 'Adil Al-Asadi was an adviser to Iran's foreign minister and was later posted to Dubai as the Iranian consul. According to Al-Asadi, after receiving military training in Iran, these mostly Shi'ite citizens formed dormant cells in the Persian Gulf states, where they now await Iranian orders.
An age that feels itself able to scoff at the naivete of Pentagon for failing to craft an exit strategy in Iraq and offer advice on counterinsurgency theory to professional soldiers might do well to remember the words of a famous insurgent, Mao Tse Tung. He summed up his strategy in these words: when "the enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue". Those who argue that a forced retreat from Iraq is without serious consequence and may in fact promote regional stability should ask themselves the question: is Bahrain really a province of Iran? "When the enemy retreats, we pursue."
posted by wretchardthecat at 7/12/2007 04:53:00 PM
9 Comments:
Interesting that Bahrain is across the Persian Gulf from Iran, on the Saudi Arabia side, next to Qatar.
The Saudis won't be too thrilled about this . .
According to the World Factbook:
"In 1782, the Al Khalifa family captured Bahrain from the Persians. In order to secure these holdings, it entered into a series of treaties with the UK during the 19th century that made Bahrain a British protectorate. The archipelago attained its independence in 1971."
Well, nuff said about why it is successful today and why the "Persians" want it back.
Wretchard,
This might be of interest to you.
Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait on the pretext that it was the 19th province of Iraq. In truth, the whole area, including Iraq, was remade by the Europeans, notably the British and the French at the end of the Great War. Today, however stridently the UN may bleat, the borders drawn up by colonial powers are being called into question. Not only will they become increasingly politically dubious, but they will become, with a mandated withdrawal from Iraq openly undefended, except by the tiny armies of the region. During 1990s, the danger of such a situation was sufficiently strong enough to motivate the assemblage of a coalition to fight Desert Storm. Today, if Iran decided to suddenly or gradually assimilate Bahrain, who would stop them?
No one would stop them Wretchard. That's the whole point.
The elites have become so disconnected from ordinary people, and also unsurprisingly deeply feminized, that it's impossible to think of anything military.
As military action is a profound threat to elites.
So until the elites are overthrown, expect nothing to happen.
From Bill Roggio's site:
In order to further our mission to provide reporing and analysis on The Long War, PMI will be supporting 3 embeds in the upcoming days. We are fully sponsoring 2 embeds: Wes Morgan, an ROTC cadet from Princeton University who writes for the Daily Princetonian, will be embedding in Iraq with General Petreaus and his staff in Baghdad; and Bradley Patty, a military contractor who has written on intelligence and counterinsurgency, who will be reporting from the Philippines with U.S. special operations forces and the Armed Forces of Philippines. In addition, PMI will be providing Michael Totten with insurance for his current embed in Iraq. I also anticipate traveling back to Iraq in September to report on the progress of the surge.
The Roggio site URL is: http://billroggio.com/archives/2007/07/please_support_publi.php
I guess I should clarify my earlier comment by saying go to the Roggio post after the jump.
I know you got it already, Wretchard.
Wretchard,
One typo in the post in the mext-to-last sentence "Is Bahrain really a province of Iran?"
But a brilliant post as usual. You da man.
buck,
Fixed. Thanks.
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