Will they do it? Who knows? I am of course talking about this port sale business. When I wrote before I didn't know what to think about it. That was because I didn't have enough information to know whether it was a good idea or not. That didn't stop some people from from screaming bloody murder and now everybody is all upset. And there's lots of posturing and grandstanding going on. And to top that off Bush threatened the first Veto of his Presidency over this. Whoa what happened to our hawkish President?
After looking at the deal and getting a number of different perspectives on it I now fully support the sale of these ports. After the initial misgivings, that I'm sure everyone felt when they heard about this, I took a closer look and found that it's not really bad at all. The UAE has been an ally in the war on terror, not a terror enabler like a Saudi Arabia or Iran for instance. This is also an established and respected company making this deal, this not "Mohamed Crazyhead's Bargain Import/Export Service". I generally distrust a bureaucracy to handle any sort of security, but the UAE company will allow stronger security measures than the UK company running the ports now would permit. And hey, I'm glad to see secular Arab countries participating in the free market. Powerline has a straightforward look at the deal if you want to read it and get past your knee jerk reaction of "we're letting who control our ports?"
But this deal has caused a huge political storm, a tsunami as Rush Limbaugh calls it. And like the Dick Cheney shooting incident, the buzz has started to dwarf the actual issue itself. Three basic things have contributed to this. First is Conservatives knee jerk reaction to oppose something like this. And having it come from the President was really jarring. Ever since 9/11 Conservatives have been told to be tolerant towards muslims, and warned not to be racist and told that not all Muslims are terrorists. In general Conservatives have rejected the PC polices war against racial profiling, saying that it wasn't caucasian grandmothers who hijack planes. And we see the media and Democrats covering for Muslims everywhere, the US media's refusal to publish the Danish cartoons is a prime example. So when Bush comes out and says this is a good deal and we should treat the UAE with the respect it deserves, regardless of how much they actually do deserve the respect, it sounds like PC claptrap.
The second is the media hyping this to no end with an endless stream of misinformation. If you read the regular newspapers you would think that the UAE is going to be taking over the ports and the US will now have nothing to do with them and no way to guarantee security. This is the media trying to strike at the heart of the Bush administration's support by making him look weak on National Security. When in reality the ports will be just as secure as before, and probably even more so under this new deal. And the UAE will not "own" anything, indeed all they will really have is the business of loading and unloading cargo. This is fairly easy to see once you look past the crazy noise of the "Get Bush" media.
Three you have Democrats falling all over each other trying to oppose this. It's almost like you can see them jumping up and down squealing "we get to look strong on National Security". Now wait a minute you say. Doesn't opposing this qualify(at least in a Liberal's view) as racial profiling? Well yes I answer. But so what? They are the party of special interest groups and guess who has a huge vested interest in the dock work and port management. That's right the Unions! I'm sure Hillary got a call from her AFL-CIO buddies as soon as word of this got out. And speaking of Hillary, she has no business opposing this, back in 1998 the Clintons sold 80 F-16's to the UAE. She didn't have a problem with it then. But you say, that was before 9/11. Yes it was, but the Dems are the ones who want to opperate like 9/11 didn't happen. They want to treat the war on terror like law enforcement. They want to defend the detainees in Gitmo. They don't want the NSA to be able to tap the phones of suspected Al Qeada members for fear that an American's civil liberties will be violated. So I saw that it's a perfectly legitimate comparison.
I have faith in my fellow Americans that we will look past the noise machine of the Mediacrats and see that Bush is not really trying to hand over Port Security to Terrorists. It will take some time but I'm sure it will happen.
Linked to Don Surber, Basil's Blog, RightwingNation.com, and Joe's Cafe.
