Why Are Kate And William Inviting A Bahraini Dictator To Their Wedding?
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on April 25th, 2011 4:30 am by HL
Why Are Kate And William Inviting A Bahraini Dictator To Their Wedding?
Next week, the United Kingdom’s Prince William and Catherine Middleton will tie the knot, in a wedding that has graced the cover of newspapers across the world. One study from technology specialist firm Greenlight found that the wedding receives one mention online every ten seconds, and online search engine and news source Yahoo! brags that Internet searches about the royal wedding soared “eight million percent overall” since the couple announced their wedding.
One of the most-covered aspects of the wedding is its guest list. Included among the coveted list are singer-songwriter Elton John and actor Rowan Atkinson of “Mr. Bean” fame.
However, one name on the guest list is stirring up controversy. Al Jazeera English reports that Bahraini human rights activists — who are facing a brutal crackdown in the country that has killed or disappeared hundreds following a nonviolent pro-democracy uprising — are outraged that Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, is among the 40 foreign royals invited to attend the wedding:
Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, the Crown Prince of Bahrain, was one of more than 40 foreign royals invited to attend the British royals’ wedding in Westminster Abbey on Friday. Human rights advocates were quick to condemn the decision to invite al-Khalifa to the ceremony.
Najib Rajab, president of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, told Al Jazeera that protesters were expecting the British to take a “tough stance,” rather than invite those accused of grievous human rights abuses to the high-profile celebrations. “Calling our crown prince at a time when people are being killed … for demanding their political rights and peacefully protesting, is extremely disappointing,” he said in a phone interview. “They’re losing the hearts and minds of the people in this region.”
Watch Al Jazeera English’s report about activists protesting the invitation of the Crown Prince:
It was the Crown Prince himself that was widely regarded as the Bahraini figure who invited Saudi troops into the country to help violently put down the student-led movement for democracy.
The Bahraini government’s latest tactic it is using against its nonviolent protest movement is to target Shi’a mosques for destruction. Some reports indicated that dozens of places of worship have been destroyed by al-Khalifa’s government. Earlier this month, a Bahraini captured a picture of a man praying in the ruins of one mosque ordered demolished by the government:
By inviting al-Khalifa, Kate and William may be sending a message to the world that the British monarchy is indifferent to the atrocities being committed by the Bahraini monarchy. The famed couple should consider whether this is the message it wants to send.
Bill Kristol Says It’s ?Wrong? For Obama to Worry About ?One American Pilot? Getting Shot Down
No one loves war more than the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol. Kristol is one of the biggest cheerleaders for George W. Bush’s costly and unnecessary war in Iraq. He is a staunch defender of torture. And he wants America to start even more wars to bring about “regime change in Syria and Iran.” So it should come as no surprise that Kristol wants the Obama Administration to ramp up its military presence in Libya.
On Fox News Sunday this morning, Kristol lamented what he perceives as an obstacle to a broader effort in Libya. Kristol claims that the United States is now relying less on slower, lower flying aircraft that are relatively easy to shoot down — and that this is a bad thing:
The A-10 and the AC-130 were doing a huge amount of damage in those first couple of days. Then we pulled them back. Now we’re bombing from 25,000 feet . . . . It’s ridiculous. What are we saving now?
If you talk off the record with people from the Administration, they’re terrified of having some American pilot show down, taken hostage. The A-10 and the AC-130 fly low and sort of lumber along. They do a huge amount of damage.
You can’t get involved in a military action like this though and be totally driven by fear of one American pilot getting shot down. It’s just wrong, in my opinion.
Watch it:
Morality is obviously a difficult subject for Kristol, so he could use a brief tutorial on what the word “wrong” means. Dragging the United States into an unnecessary war against a nation that did not attack us is “wrong.” Torture, which is both an ineffective interrogation method and a good way to contribute to our enemies’ recruitment efforts, is “wrong.” Thrusting our already-overstretched military into war with every nation Bill Kristol doesn’t like is “wrong.”
Living every day in abject terror that the people you sent into harms way could be killed or captured — even if you sent them there for good reason — is the opposite of “wrong.”
