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[Blargityblarg]

The UN is only as good as its member countries want it to be. It would require a serious remodeling of the UNSC for that body to be anything other than a superpower arm-wrestling table.

United Nations Space Command?

United Nations Security Council.

[Siquo]

but c'mon man...the French are ready to fight before we are.

Y'want freedom fries with your double-cheese-dictator?

[GlyphGryph]

I have to say, Obama's distinct lack of notable leadership both here and in budgetary reform is likely to butcher him next election. And I can't say I'm unhappy about it.

[Nadaka]

I have to say, Obama's distinct lack of notable leadership both here and in budgetary reform is likely to butcher him next election. And I can't say I'm unhappy about it.

I am. Of course, I would also like to see him NOT win the democratic primary and have someone else up for a shot as the democratic candidate.

[Siquo]

I have to say, Obama's distinct lack of notable leadership both here and in budgetary reform is likely to butcher him next election.

Since when has that ever bothered the US voter? Or mattered at all? Be glad you finally have a puppet who manages to not make the whole country look like an ass every other day.

[PTTG??]

I think this election will be a strong third-party one. Both conservatives and liberals have good reasons to distrust the two parties. I suppose that if they make the tactical mistake of attacking each other in the upcoming election, and we see a strong conservative third party to split the republican vote.

[Phmcw]

Smooth, very smooth, Saudi Arabia sent troops to crush the protest in Bahreïn. But Saudi Arabia is dominated by the Sunny, Barheïn  too, but the majority of Barheïn inhabitants are Shiites. Now they have a full ethnical conflict on their hands. And a wild guess : the Shiites of Saudi Arabia won't take that well.

[GlyphGryph]

I am. Of course, I would also like to see him NOT win the democratic primary and have someone else up for a shot as the democratic candidate.

This is what I'd like to see as well. This or a viable third party start making some moves - while the Tea Party is currently full of crazies, I think it would be nice if they did fully break off from the Republicans. With a couple years to mellow outside of classic Republican sponsors I think they have potential of becoming a decent and more reasonable force. But whatever.

Now they have a full ethnical conflict on their hands. And a wild guess : the Shiites of Saudi Arabia won't take that well.

So things might yet get worse before they get better... not that's its easy to see exactly what "better" and "worse" are in this situation.

[Bouchart]

Smooth, very smooth, Saudi Arabia sent troops to crush the protest in Bahreïn. But Saudi Arabia is dominated by the Sunny, Barheïn  too, but the majority of Barheïn inhabitants are Shiites. Now they have a full ethnical conflict on their hands. And a wild guess : the Shiites of Saudi Arabia won't take that well.

This could lead to something of a proxy (if not real) war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.  Something I brought up a few dozen pages ago and was laughed at for stating.

[olemars]

There's not exactly much room for a war on Bahrain. Any armed conflict is going to be either very low-intensity or very short.

[Bouchart]

Or spill over into neighboring Saudi Arabia and Iran.

[RedKing]

Smooth, very smooth, Saudi Arabia sent troops to crush the protest in Bahreïn. But Saudi Arabia is dominated by the Sunny, Barheïn  too, but the majority of Barheïn inhabitants are Shiites. Now they have a full ethnical conflict on their hands. And a wild guess : the Shiites of Saudi Arabia won't take that well.

This could lead to something of a proxy (if not real) war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.  Something I brought up a few dozen pages ago and was laughed at for stating.

Proxy war, possibly. Real war, highly unlikely. I *do* think the fecal matter is going to impact the rotary air circulator this week in Bahrain. Was hearing some news reports this morning from Bahrain, and it sounds like the protesters are mentally preparing themselves for a confrontation with the armed security forces. They've already started constructing barricades and roadblocks, but it sounds like they're not arming themselves. I don't trust the Saudi and UAE forces to exercise judicious restraint if confronted, which could lead to a bloodbath. Which really could trigger a popular uprising. Now, if there's a popular uprising by the Shi'ites in Bahrain, then I do think the Iranians would start supplying them weapons. Direct intervention would still be highly unlikely, though.

And even then, Iranian material support for an uprising in Bahrain would grossly complicate things in Iraq, and you'd have the Saudis and Bahrainis asking us to intervene to stop them, which might take the form of the Sixth Fleet interdicting shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf to search for weapons....bleaugh. It's times like this I'm kind of glad that State Department job never panned out. Those poor bastards must be hating life right now trying to plan for all the contingencies.



EDIT:

Updates:

Libya -- Rebels lose Zuwara to Qaddafi. This, and the fall of az-Zawiyah in the last few days, means that resistance in western Libya is essentially over. In the east, the front line continues to hover around the city of Brega.

Bahrain -- "State of emergency" declared. Tehran has made some unhappy noises about Saudi troops being used in Bahrain. Interesting to note that the arrival of Saudi and UAE troops comes just a day after US Secretary of Defense paid a visit to Bahrain. Would not be surprised if the Bahrainis got the US to sign off beforehand on using regional GCC forces, as the US has publicly made no comment about it, other than the typical "we want everybody to cooperate and talk and play nice" rhetoric. It's a sad day when Iran is on the side of pro-democracy protestors, and we're not, even if the reasons for both have nothing to do with "freedom and liberty".

[Puzzlemaker]

Hmm, I am pissed about Zawiyah.  It looks like they flattened the city to take it.

It also looks like this is going to turn into a long-term civil war now, which is bad for, well, everyone.

Why don't we have a CIA assassin just... take care of things?

I mean really.  The CIA meddles all the time, except when it actually matters.

[ChairmanPoo]

Like that would help with anything.

Besides, it's not like CIA assasins have an astounding record. Likely as not it would fail AND make things worse

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I doubt that the CIA actually has very many assassins. They just want people to think that they have a million double agents hidden all across the world, ready to kill at a moments notice, so that people will fear them. Same goes for the FBI and information monitoring.