A Bit of Foreign Policy Realism to Ponder

There is one place in the Arab world where I'd go all in to support the government against a revolt on the streets. That place is Bahrain where we have basing rights for our 5th Fleet.

The main reason I would fight to preserve the less-than-democratic government in Bahrain is that any uprising is likely to be manipulated by Iran--if not actually started by Tehran--to stage a pro-mullah coup. The mullahs of Iran have a record on this issue.

That is not people power. There would be the same risk of Iranian involvment if demonstrations broke out in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. All the more reason we should revive our goal of pushing for rule of law in the Arab world in order to move toward real democracy.

Of course, that is a long process if we want it done peacefully. Wouldn't it be helpful to eliminate the despotic regime (Iran) that could trip up progress on that issue and exploit unrest to create jihadi-friendly states?

Back to Bahrain, if there is a revolt before we can start pushing the government to rule of law on the path to democracy and defuse popular resentment against the government, and we can help the government in suppressing a revolt, we would then need to quickly make it clear that our backing has the price of post-crisis reform.

Yes, freedom is better than pro-American despotism. But a pro-Iranian despotism is hardly a step forward for anyone but Iran's mullahs. That's being realistic.