# Demonstrators killed in Bahrain **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 15, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498 "2011-02-15T21:11:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/41 "2011-02-18T17:48:09Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > More shooting about an hour ago, just at local sundown. You rarely see a professional police force screwing up so badly. I assume they figure that enough violence will cow the crowd and make them disperse. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/42 "2011-02-18T17:57:02Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I assume they figure that enough violence will cow the crowd and make them disperse. Enough violence will **always** do that. But it makes no friends of the survivors, just adds to their grudges against the state, and (media circumstances permitting) wins them even more sympathizers at home and abroad. A wise strongman will apply a careful cost-benefit analysis before ordering the troops to open fire. ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/43 "2011-02-18T17:59:54Z")
Mmm charming little American song, but since BBC cited the Bahrain crowd as chanting death to the Khalifas, I don’t think these lot are pacifists or anti war as such. ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/44 "2011-02-18T18:01:18Z")
What I do not understand is Bahrain has been selling itself as a moderate place and looking to steal business away from Dubai - I hear it all the time from Expat friends of mine working in Dubai. This just seems like a death blow to that. Is Bahrain well enough situated to just say “bloody hell, fuck the sodding Western firms.”? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/45 "2011-02-18T18:01:36Z")
It’ll be interesting to see how Al Jazeera plays the story as it goes along. On the one hand, the government of Qatar typically gives the station a lot of independence. On the other, they can’t be happy to see serious anti-government protests right on their doorstep. On the third hand (that would be the one holding [the severed head](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali)), Qatar and Bahrain have quite a rivalry, which has led to actual military clashes over the past couple decades or so. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/46 "2011-02-18T18:09:51Z")
> [@wmfellows](#): > > What I do not understand is Bahrain has been selling itself as a moderate place and looking to steal business away from Dubai - I hear it all the time from Expat friends of mine working in Dubai. This just seems like a death blow to that. Is Bahrain well enough situated to just say “bloody hell, fuck the sodding Western firms.”? Looking at [this map](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_world_protests) – the UAE (Dubai) is one of the few Arab states where there have been no protests at all since Tunisia. (The others are Qatar and Kuwait.) ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/47 "2011-02-18T18:12:52Z")
I wouldn’t expect protests in Dubai. The Emritatis are rich as hell. What would they protest about? Lack of subsidised double lattés? ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/48 "2011-02-19T00:50:21Z")
> [@wmfellows](#): > > I wouldn’t expect protests in Dubai. The Emritatis are rich as hell. What would they protest about? Lack of subsidised double lattés? It could happen in Sharjah, Fujairah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, or Ras al Khaimah. All are comparatively poor and Sharjah has quite strict policies required by Saudi Arabia since it loaned them a bunch of money. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/49 "2011-02-19T05:17:16Z")
Fortunately we have a[Secretary of State](http://www.skyvalleychronicle.com/BREAKING-NEWS/VETERAN-S-GROUP-DEMANDS-APOLOGY-FROM-SEC-OF-STATE-CLINTON-BR-Claims-vet-was-manhandled-for-silent-protest-596038) who knows how to handle rabble rousers. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/50 "2011-02-19T05:22:36Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Someone ought to tell the WaPo that being an island kind of disqualifies you from being at a georgraphic crossroads. Tell that to Sicily. Or Malta. Or Cyprus. Or… yeah. Unless it’s a purely semantic nitpick. In which case, grudging agreement. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/51 "2011-03-15T15:33:50Z")
[Bahrain declares martial law.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/15/bahrain-martial-law-protesters-troops) More than 1,000 troops from other Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, have been brought in to restore order. Like pre-Invasion Iraq, Bahrain is a country with a Sunni elite and a Shi’a majority. That is a formula for much ugliness when the lid comes off. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/52 "2011-03-15T16:43:23Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Fortunately we have a[Secretary of State](http://www.skyvalleychronicle.com/BREAKING-NEWS/VETERAN-S-GROUP-DEMANDS-APOLOGY-FROM-SEC-OF-STATE-CLINTON-BR-Claims-vet-was-manhandled-for-silent-protest-596038) who knows how to handle rabble rousers. That’s some high-level threadshitting right there. ---
**Author:** ![Dottygumdrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Dottygumdrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dottygumdrop)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/53 "2011-03-16T13:41:25Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [Bahrain declares martial law.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/15/bahrain-martial-law-protesters-troops) More than 1,000 troops from other Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, have been brought in to restore order. > > Like pre-Invasion Iraq, Bahrain is a country with a Sunni elite and a Shi’a majority. That is a formula for much ugliness when the lid comes off. GCC troops are guarding oil, aluminium refinery, hospitals, military zones. Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) is acting to restore order; foreign troops are not involved in the removal of protesters or manning checkpoints on major arterial roads and causeways. Let the people who are in Bahrain speak to what’s happening - both sides of media (including all your usual sources) are unreliable, thanks to heavy-handed propaganda FROM BOTH SIDES. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/54 "2011-03-25T16:45:35Z")
[Despite a week-old martial-law ban on public gatherings, protesters are planning a “Day of Rage” this Friday.](http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/03/20113258236776779.html) ---
**Author:** ![Dottygumdrop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Dottygumdrop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dottygumdrop)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2011, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498/55 "2011-03-25T17:36:11Z")
So far, so low-key. Not much rage - just a few isolated instances of clashes between riot police and people defying the ban on public gatherings. No reports of live fire at this stage, but lots of tear gas and water cannons apparently. Iran and Hezbollah continue to stir the pot … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/demonstrators-killed-in-bahrain/571498.md?page=2)