Why All The Fuss About The Dubai Port Deal?

[Danny]

http://wokeuptoday.blogspot.com/2007/03/reflections-on-dubai-port-controversy.html

 

[brewer12345]

Racist garbage, pure and simple. Very sstupid in the long run. If we want to consume more than we produce, we have to be willing to allow furriners to buy more than Merkin gummint IOUs. We start putting heavier restrictions on foreign direct investment and two things happen: 1) furriners will reduce their investing here, and 2) Merkins will face more restrictions on buying stuff overseas. We all lose.

 

[MasterBlaster]

This is all politics.

It plays well in Peoria. That's all.

 

[SLC Tortfeasor]

I couldn't agree more.  This is a difficult issue for me, because I'm used to hating everything this administration does.  But on the Dubai Ports World issue, they were right, and Congress (and the majority of the American people, I suppose) were wrong.

We should not be going out of our way to alienate the few allies we have in the middle east.  We should not be going out of our way to appear prejudiced against the muslim world.  But that's what we've done. 

This will have a negative impact on foreign investment in the USA.  Perhaps the more serious blow, however, will be to our our reputation in the muslim world--already at an all-time low, and now sinking even lower.

 

[Dawg52]

This is all politics.

It plays well in Peoria. That's all.

I'm still looking at your avatar..............what did you just say?   

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I cant believe it took this long for this topic to show up.

I prairie dogged this one. Its easy to debate whether or not the UAE's ties with Bin Laden and their 'issues' with israel are serious enough to exclude them. Its easy to debate the relative amount of dangerous exposure created by turning over the management to a country like this whose people overall dont like america. Its easy to say that our ports are so ridiculously run that throwing some america hating arabs into managing the asset wont really hurt.

All good points. But mine was "Why do this at all?". Obviously theres going to be a furor, right or wrong. The average joe hears "ports" and "arabs" and freaks out. Right or wrong. Obviously there is some element of concern that one or more of the people involved in the 'management' could be a bad guy and influence the already poor port security. Obviously this isnt necessarily the friendliest country to the US. Equally obvious is the likelihood that an american company or a close american ally wants to and could do the job.

But why even go here in the first place?

This has the allegorical flavor of letting your kids day care with the brother of the guy that was just sent to jail for child molestation. Just because the jailed brother was a bad person doesnt make the potential day care brother a risk. But surely somebody else would be a better choice to consider, just the same? While you might become more saintly by putting aside thin predjudices, perhaps when something serious is on the line you just go the way of full prudence?

Perhaps the more interesting pieces of discussion are:

- Why 5 years after 9/11 is port security still so lousy?
- Why were we poised to allow a semi-friendly arab country control of our ports and neither the president or congress were (allegedly) aware of it? Isnt this important enough to land on their radar screens?

 

[mickeyd]

Mr. Bush and company left the door open and the Dems just drove in and set up camp. Other GOPers panicked when they noticed that the Dems were taking away the national security headlines so they attacked Bush also. It's all about the 2006 and 2008 elections.

Unfortunately it makes us look like fools to much of the world but we've gotten used to that by now.

 

[brewer12345]

Mr. Bush and company left the door open and the Dems just drove in and set up camp. Other GOPers panicked when they noticed that the Dems were taking away the national security headlines so they attacked Bush also. It's all about the 2006 and 2008 elections.

Unfortunately it makes us look like fools to much of the world but we've gotten used to that by now.

Just wait until this fall. It will be the 100 yard sprint to see which republican wanker up for election can distance themselves from the president faster...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Interesting to see McCains recent strategy of hugging up to Bush. Last time he ran he went as a republican 'outsider' and lost. This time when that strategy might work for him, he's going the opposite direction...

Maybe his advisors think there are still enough yellow dog bush voters to pick up 51% again...

 

[brewer12345]

Interesting to see McCains recent strategy of hugging up to Bush.  Last time he ran he went as a republican 'outsider' and lost.  This time when that strategy might work for him, he's going the opposite direction...

Maybe his advisors think there are still enough yellow dog bush voters to pick up 51% again...

I can't figure that one out. McC has been posturing as a dissident republican for a while and all of a sudden he is rubbing up against bush like a cat in heat while EVERYONE else in that party is running the other way.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Look at it from the polls perspective...while his ratings are pretty dismal in the mid 30's, that sounds like a chunk of people that are definitely going to vote a certain way...and probably not for someone like the type of candidate mccain has projected in the past.

 

[brewer12345]

Look at it from the polls perspective...while his ratings are pretty dismal in the mid 30's, that sounds like a chunk of people that are definitely going to vote a certain way...and probably not for someone like the type of candidate mccain has projected in the past.

Either that, or McC isn't up for re-election so he'd like to have someone owe him some favors when the presidential race rolls around.

Who are these 30-something percent that still llike this bozo?

 

[Cool Dood]

I think that if you worry about Bush in even the slightest way in regards to the 2006/08 elections, you have at least a mild case of Bush Derrangement Syndrome/Bush Dementia (BDS/BD).........

He will be cozied up in his shawl by the fireplace in Crawford, watching reruns on HGTV, or playing Risk...

 

[laurence]

Isn't that what they said about his Dad? He'll still be a powerful figure in the party, his brother is always a threat to run, and agian, people said no more of Bush back in '92, so don't think people won't forget again. McCain needs Bush's party machine, his connections, his loyalists. The 30-something percent who still support Bush are the same 30-something percent that still supported Nixon days before he resigned. Their mirror image exists on the Democrats' side. Candidates have to run to the right/left and pander to this 30% for the primaries, then run to the middle as fast as they can as soon as they lock up the nomination.

Heck, even Philis Schlafley (sic but I could care less) has a permanent seat at the Republican convention. Once you are in, it's hard to become totally irrelavent, heck, Newt is considering a run!

Short on topic point: Should have never been given the green light in the first place, but once it was, we shouldn't have reversed the deal. Total disaster, we look like total xenophobes now.

 

[SLC Tortfeasor]

This has the allegorical flavor of letting your kids day care with the brother of the guy that was just sent to jail for child molestation.  Just because the jailed brother was a bad person doesnt make the potential day care brother a risk.  But surely somebody else would be a better choice to consider, just the same?  While you might become more saintly by putting aside thin predjudices, perhaps when something serious is on the line you just go the way of full prudence?

Point taken, but your metaphor is a little off.  There are really no negative consequences to picking one day care provider over another.  In this case, we have sent the message to the world that we don't want foreign investment from the arab world, even if an arab government has been pretty cooperative in helping us fight terrorism.  This is horrible PR.  The worse our international reputation is, the more terrorists we'll have to contend with. 

This is to say nothing of the economic impact, which I don't think anyone can quantify, but will certainly be significant, particularly at a time when our economic hegemony is in a long, slow decline.  And as our economic power declines, so will our ability to influence world affairs to further American interests.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

when you cry wolf enough, people see wolves, especially when you have put forth so much effort to herd people like cows. so much for american independence.