USA TODAY: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — While Bahrain's justice minister was making the latest accusations against alleged enemies of the state -- this time medical staff -- other officials were busy organizing a patriotic blitz that encourages pledges of loyalty on Facebook and Twitter.
These are the parallel worlds of one of Washington's linchpin military allies in the Gulf.
On one side is a grinding campaign to break the spirits of Shiite-led opponents whose pro-reform uprising was smothered by martial law. On the other: An expanding PR offensive to portray the Sunni monarchy as firmly in charge, and Bahrain as a firewall against Iranian influence in the nation that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.
Bahrain's current spin -- shifting from state media to the web -- could appear as just more boosterism in a region where rulers are constantly bathed in state-sponsored praise. But there is a distinct undercurrent in the island kingdom: pumping up its own rhetoric to match Iran's increasing barrage of criticism.
It serves as further recognition that Bahrain's crisis doubles as a window into the region's collective phobias -- the mutual mistrust of Sunni Arab leaders and Shiite powerhouse Iran -- as America effectively watches from the sidelines.
"So many of the Gulf's big issues are squeezed into this one tiny country," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. » | Brian Murphy And Barbara Surk, Associated Press | Saturday, May 07, 2011
