For three decades Washington told you the missiles are for the people (we have to commit mass murder to save them!) — for the oppressed, the voiceless, those living under theocratic tyranny. It funded colour revolutions. Cheered manufactured protesters in Iran. Ran Farsi-language CIA social media accounts urging Iranians into the streets. Every last word of it in the name of freedom. But where is CNN and the BBC demanding freedom and liberty for this popular uprising in Bahrain? Absolute hypocrites.

The majority Shia population of Bahrain are in the streets. Saudi tanks are crossing the King Fahd Causeway. Again. Where is the White House statement cheering on this popular uprising for liberty and freedom? Where is the State Department's grave concern? Silent — because Bahrain hosts the Fifth Fleet, and the Al Khalifa family are the right kind of autocrats. The kind that price their oil in dollars. The wrong kind of autocrat is simply the one Washington doesn't own. Washington loves brutal dictatorships and the feeling is mutual for the Sunni monarchs that are loyal to the empire's exporting of actual terrorism.