When the Tunisian protest movement succeeded in toppling its dictator, the protests spread like wildfire to the rest of the region. Mubarak in Egypt fell, protests brought things to a standstill in Bahrain and Yemen, and revolutionaries in Libya responded to grotesque state violence by launching an armed rebellion. But, just as the Tunisian example spread to the wider region, Qaddafi’s counter-attack and its success thus far in re-capturing almost all the rebel-held cities has emboldened the regimes in Bahrain and Yemen to crackdown as well.  Although they are not using the same degree of violence as Qaddafi, the thinking is that if Qaddafi can get away with all that he is doing, they can get away with a lot less. This, I feel, is one key reason prompting such repression at this critical juncture in Bahrain and Yemen. I mean, even Saudi Arabia has joined the counter-revolution by sending troops into Bahrain.
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