'Al Khalifa servile to Western empire'
Fri Jun 3, 2011 7:57AM
Interview with Peter Rushton, historian and political commentator, London
Bahrain is an example of a country that does the bidding of the US Empire under an indirect rule and as such is almost totally dependent on the relationship, says an analyst.
Press TV talks with Peter Rushton, a historian and political commentator in London, who frames the ruling al-Khalifa family in the context of a clan leader given greater powers by the West in exchange for complete subservience to the Western Empire. He extends the discussion to identify Israel at the heart of the matter. Following is a transcript of his interview.
Press TV: Let's look at the US troops i.e. the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain - putting ourselves in their shoes - they are witnessing the violent clampdown that is happening by Saudi-backed security forces (on the Bahrain population) and the US-made arms and ammunition such as tear gas and bullets that have been used on peaceful protests. Doesn't the US bear some responsibility in this matter especially considering their base occupies 20% of the island?
Peter Rushton: Yes, and I think this situation can best be understood by seeing it in the context of a traditional imperial policy namely what was called indirect rule. This was a policy that the British Empire used in the 19th century where you would select some local wealthy family or local clan leader and you would turn them into a king or turn them into an emir and they would be given a territory ostensibly to rule, but to rule of course in the interests of the empire. And that system of indirect rule was picked up with the decline of the British Empire by the American Empire. What the Americans don't like to call an empire, but is one none the less and they rule by very often this same method of indirect rule.
Nominally Bahrain has its own ruling family, but that ruling family is heavily dependent on aid from outside and from the point of view of the imperial power it's all the better that that ruling family represents a minority community within that country because of course that makes them all the more dependent on outside forces.
Press TV: You say they're heavily dependent on outside forces, but how much ruling power do they have as a ruling family - Are they being dictated to by such as Saudi Arabia with coordination by US and UK?
Peter Rushton: Very much so. The matter of military advisers, military aid, all of the contracts for equipment over the years - this makes a government more or less entirely dependent when it's gone on for as many years as this; more or less entirely dependent on these outside forces. And we shouldn't forget that even the mechanics of repression on the ground in Bahrain was supplied by Britain in this instance. The mechanics of repression were handled by Colonel Ian Henderson now retired, but who was there for three decades organizing the torture machinery. So it's not just a matter of one or two arms contracts it's a whole pattern of dependency. To a large extent as well we can see why it's in the interests of an empire to have these undemocratic rulers representing them.
Press TV: Barak Obama in his recent made reference to Bahrain that came off as a slap on the wrist. Can you put this into context? The US has its fifth fleet interests there; providing arms to Bahrain; and then you have Saudi national guard by the UK according to a recent report and also been given arms by the UK. How does this tie in? - Are they all on the same page? - It seems doubtful that they would be working independently when it comes to Bahrain especially where Saudi Arabia is concerned?
Peter Rushton: Yes I think the whole pattern ties in very neatly. We hear these words from President Obama about human rights, but we hear a very different line from him about human rights in one country than in another.
In one country he's prepared to drop bombs on people supposedly to enforce human rights while in another country it's a few words issued almost as an afterthought. And in the case of the Zionist regime in Israel of course it's a few words which he then appears to retract and back track on and you hear one thing on week and something different the next.
I think in some ways when we look at the approach to Bahrain, this relationship to the Zionist regime in Israel is at the heart of an awful lot of it. Because not only does America get a strategic advantage from having this naval base in Bahrain, just as the British Empire did before it, but in Bahrain we have a country, which according to the WikiLeaks documents and according to more recent information is more willing even than the other US puppets in the region to develop close ties to Israel - both secret ties to the intelligence establishment in Israel and increasingly open diplomatic ties.
As I spoke earlier about indirect imperial rule let's not forget that even in London, even in Washington - these supposed democracies - When it comes to matters affecting the Zionist regime of Israel, democracy is very limited. There is only a small range of acceptable opinion when it comes to affairs that might affect the security of the state of Israel. And anyone who takes a significantly anti-Zionist stance quickly finds themselves marginalized, demonized, driven out of any public space, and not given any public arena to express their views in the British and American media. So the situation in Bahrain I think has to be seen in that light.
And when we see the Crown Prince recently saying that yes there'll be constitutional reform, but only if there's progress towards consensus first, what that amounts to saying is - yes you can have your democracy as long as you agree with me - yes you can have your democracy as long as we get the right result.
And as one politician here in London once put it - if voting changed anything they'd abolish it. That appears to be the state of affairs in Bahrain. If democratic reform appeared to be going in a truly democratic direction and in particular appeared to be going in a direction that undermined Zionist interests you'd soon find that democratic reform being abandoned. We've seen that already in the past, we've seen it in the 1970s and we'll see it again today for as long as that regime remains in power.
Press TV: There has been talk about a model that the US is following when it comes to the Middle East and Bahrain and that is for the national armies to be supported by Western powers over the façade of a civilian government, which has basically won the votes at the ballot box. Is that how you see the plan mapped out by the US and others?
Peter Rushton: Well, if so, that road map and that model that the US would prefer is being overturned now and challenged by an alternative model proposed by the people an brave revolutionaries in Bahrain and in Yemen also. They are saying we want genuine democracy and genuine control over our lives; we are not prepared to go through this meaningless façade of civilian institutions backed by military force if those civilian institutions dare to demand genuine change.
They want genuine change. Not only are they challenging autocracies on the ground in this region, but they are exposing the patronizing hypocrisy that we hear so much in the Western media.
Press TV: The problem is and we've seen it in the G20 meeting with the billions that the US has pledged - Are they going to be able to win this through money, just throwing money in order to gain the power they want?
Peter Rushton: Of course there are sinister forces behind this money, but the very fact that this revolutionary tide has been going for so many months now and the fact that the Americans and the Saudis have not been able do far to impose their preferred solution in Bahrain; we've seen this cosmetic gesture today and we've seen attempts at cosmetic gestures in Yemen, but so far the momentum has remained with these brave revolutionary protesters on the streets.
It remains to be seen whether they can carry that momentum forward, but so far they have managed to keep that momentum and they have managed to prevent these sinister forces from just being able to paper over the situation with fake democracy and with fake constitutionality...
SC/GHN
