March 8, 2007:
The American fleet has a new
favorite liberty port, and it's in the Persian Gulf. Bahrain, is a small (665
square kilometer) island kingdom off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Bahrains population is only 700,000. But oil
and gas provide a per-capita income of over $20,000. The oil is running out, so
Bahrain has been recasting itself as an Arab playground and financial center,
replacing Beirut, Lebanon (which ceased, for two decades, to play that role in the late 1970s because
of a civil war). Bahrain has used a lot of their oil revenue to build
infrastructure, and encouraged entrepreneurs to create shopping and
entertainment facilities superior to anything available in the region. Unlike
Saudi Arabia, which is connected to Bahrain by a causeway bridge, Bahrain does
not enforce Islamic law on visitors or residents. Bahrain has, for centuries,
been a port of call for ships, and sailors. That means booze and women were
always available. But now there are also shopping malls, a full range of
hotels, brothels, clubs and bars. Most of the business for the entertainment
spots, comes from Saudi Arabia, but sailors, especially those from the 40-50
foreign warships that base themselves here, come a close second. A little over
half the foreign sailors are American.
While generally peaceful, the country has many
unhappy, and violence prone, citizens. The problems are many. First, there is
the monarchy. Although competent, many of the educated citizens would prefer a
democracy. Then there's the religion angle. The monarchy is Sunni, while two
thirds of the population are Shia. Moreover, about 20 percent of the population
are Christian and Hindu. This offends about ten percent of the population who
are Islamic conservatives. Thus the police have a Shia majority that is often
stirred up when the Islamic radicals get violent. Then the Shia villagers will
take to the streets, and riot, if they feel the police are being too hard on
Shia Islamic radicals. This violence rarely gets into the urban, and tourist,
areas. But at times, the police have to warn visitors going outside the city,
to avoid certain towns and villages.
With all this, many American sailors, after one
tour of duty in Bahrain, are volunteering to come right back.
