Bud-Nipping 101

Saudi King Abdullah is not a stupid man.  He knows a bad situation in Bahrain when he sees it, and he will do what is necessary to remain in power next door.  That means settling the neighbor's problems with a baseball bat.

First King Abdullah stomped out the protests in Saudi Arabia. Now he has sent troops to Bahrain to keep protesters out of the Gulf, according to Bahrain State TV and Al-Watan.

UAE forces are also expected to arrive today.

Bahrain put the call out yesterday  after protesters blockaded the financial district in some of the largest unrest yet, according to the FT.

Saudi Arabia and UAE have far more oil money than Bahrain, and Saudia Arabia in particular has a powerful US-backed military.

With protests in Bahrain going where the money is, the financial district of capital Manama, the Saudis know that if these protests aren't stopped with considerable force, they are next.  No Mubarak/Qaddafi scenario in Riyadh will be allowed.  Any more protests on the Arabian Peninsula will be answered by the finest US military ordnance that Saudi oil can buy.

Oil is down this morning as a result as Abdullah restores "order".  Meanwhile, Manama is under martial law, and the martial part is coming from next door.

Gulf Cooperation Council security forces are in Bahrain, the strategically important kingdom's foreign minister said on Twitter Monday.

The announcement by Khalid al-Khalifa follows a day of clashes between protesters and security forces that resulted in more than 1,000 people hospitalized, human rights activists said.

The foreign minister gave no other details on Twitter, advising journalists to wait for an official announcement. The Cooperation Council is a group of six Gulf states -- Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Oman, and Qatar -- that encourages cooperation among members in a number of areas including economic and security cooperation.

Also on Monday, a key part of the capital was taken over by protesters, a Human Rights Watch official told CNN.

About 100 demonstrators blocked access to the Bahrain Financial Harbour with barricades such as trash cans and cinder blocks, effectively shutting down the commercial district, Faraz Sanei said.

There was no police presence, he added.

Yeah, they don't want to be in the fire zone either.  Don't blame them. When the GCC security forces show up with the big toys that make the big noise, things are going to get extremely bad.  The US Fifth Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain, which probably explains the very fast reaction by the six Gulf State nations to release the GCC boys.

Stay tuned.