whats good for the goose...??

An ambulance loaded with two paramedics, a doctor and critical patients was on its way to Salmaniya Medical Center, the island-nation's largest hospital, when it was stopped by a group of 20 government soldiers. According to one of the paramedics, all passengers were ordered out of the car, the injured thrown onto the street. The paramedic was forced to kneel on all fours while they took turns kicking his head from side to side. The female doctor was commanded to strip, "so that we all may see your body." When she refused, they beat her. Ambulances have been forbidden to drive to Salmaniya, the country's most sophisticated medical facility, which was under military control. They were forced instead to take critical patients to smaller local health centers which lacked the necessary surgical equipment and personnel. The streets around Salmaniya remained closed off on Thursday, guarded by masked, rifle-toting militiamen.The emergency room was blocked by tanks. Ambulance personnel had come under sporadic attack the past month, but the instances have increased dramatically. Nurses and patients at Salaminaya claimed that the perpetrators of recent attacks were Saudi. More than 100 Saudi tanks are now in Manama. The Saudis went into Bahrain to send a signal to their population, and that's, 'if you guys try to do this, we're going to crack down with force.' By cracking down abroad, they're able to send a message to their citizens that domestic turmoil will not be tolerated.

The protesters, said Barfi, researcher and Middle East specialist at the New America Foundation, "don't have the firepower to match the government and very few cards to play - unless they're willing to go onto the streets and have hundreds or even thousands massacred."

Mailstrom asks why there is no talk of a Security Council resolution similar to the recent one passed to defend the Libyan protestors from Gadhaffi to protect civilians in Bahrain? However, lest we may be accused of supporting the no-fly intervention in Libya, Mailstrom understands that this militry venture could and probably will escalate the violence in Libya. The law of unintended consequences that normally applies to military actions. Mailstrom simply points out the hypocrisy of capitalist international politics.