The spreading unrest in the Middle East is now gripping the country. Reports of government crackdowns leading to deaths have coincided with the arrival of Saudi Arabian military forces.

The instability in Bahrain is a big issue for the USA as Andrew Sullivan notes

this, unlike Libya,requires an American response. Because Bahrain hosts the Fifth Fleet.

The Fifth Fleet is America’s naval presence in the Persian Gulf. This is a pretty important strategic area for the US to maintain a fleet so we care quite a bit about what happens in Bahrain.

What should America do? Matt Yglesias thinks that the situation proposes a much cheaper soultion than any presented about Libya as

if the Secretary of Defense were to call the relevant royal families and say that the United States does not intend to sell weapons in the future to countries that use them to crack down on peaceful democratic protesters, that this would be an important spur to political change.

Just because there are options to put pressure on the government doesn’t mean the US will. Nick Turse, of Mother Jones, worries that maintaining our ‘friends’ and thus our Naval base in Bahrain

seems to be more powerful than the President of the United States’ commitment to support peaceful, democratic change in the oil-rich region.

So far President Obama has demanded that Bahrain’s government shows restraint. We’ll have to wait and see if there are any teeth in that request.