Oh well, I was in Bahrain a few times many years ago but I hardly consider myself to be an expert on the place. The thing about learning is realizing how much you don't know.
If folks would let me digress a bit I'd like to introduce an analogy. A British forum about the First World War has an off-topic subforum for members who have a certain number of posts. By and large people in Britain are very well informed about events taking place in the U.S.
However, when the mass-shooting happened at Virginia Tech a few years ago there was a long thread in the off-topic forum about what madmen we are to have the gun laws that let it happen. These are people who speak our language and know a lot about our country, but most of the nuances of the gun control/Second Amendment debate in the U.S. escape them. What I'm talking about are cultural nuances, and if British people can't read them in regard to gun control in America than I doubt Americans can see them in regard to certain issues the Middle East or Central Asia, where the people speak other languages.
My point is that we ought to be careful about lecturing people overseas about how they ought to lead their lives. If American and British people could have such a collision of opinions when we speak the same language and share a common heritage it means we ought to be a bit careful about hectoring foreign countries.
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