The UAE thing
Right now, George W. Bush is taking a lot of heat down south for not caving into baseless, nonsensical and essentially racist demands that he rescind the sale of commercial authority over 6 American ports to a company owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates.
Here's a comment I posted on Occam's Carbuncle:
The UAE are more an ally against Muslim extremists than an enemy, by far. They provide a base for American planes and they also provide important intelligence.
My problem with the sale is that the UAE are still an undemocratic country, but that still seems besides the point in the eyes of the administration, since they are still one of the more moderate nations, both in terms of their government, but also in terms of the people. (The objections don't have to do with this point anyway.)
Right now, the only objection appears to be that the UAE is an Arab country. Terrorists can infiltrate any port company... whether the company is owned by the British or the UAE is unimportant. And port companies don't DO much that's important anyway. They act as the bureaucracy at the port - they don't deal with security.
None of the objections appear to have substance, especially since the UAE have a fairly strong record since September 11, even helping with the training of Iraqi security forces. The rejection of this deal will make the United States look racist throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East. Their relationship with the UAE would be seriously strained since there doesn't appear to be any principled objection to the sale. This decision, more than any other, would hurt America's ability to work multilaterally in the Middle East.
The opposition (which consists of basically all Democrats and most Republicans) seems to base their decision to oppose the deal almost exclusively on a xenophobic attempt to score political points by seeming tough because the company is owned by the UAE, an Arab country.
Fortunately, Bush is more mature than that. Congress rarely is, and I often fear that the next President (in 2009) won't be nearly as restrained as Bush (when it comes to making unprincipled decisions based on xenophobia just for political gain).
Here's a comment I posted on Occam's Carbuncle:
The UAE are more an ally against Muslim extremists than an enemy, by far. They provide a base for American planes and they also provide important intelligence.
My problem with the sale is that the UAE are still an undemocratic country, but that still seems besides the point in the eyes of the administration, since they are still one of the more moderate nations, both in terms of their government, but also in terms of the people. (The objections don't have to do with this point anyway.)
Right now, the only objection appears to be that the UAE is an Arab country. Terrorists can infiltrate any port company... whether the company is owned by the British or the UAE is unimportant. And port companies don't DO much that's important anyway. They act as the bureaucracy at the port - they don't deal with security.
None of the objections appear to have substance, especially since the UAE have a fairly strong record since September 11, even helping with the training of Iraqi security forces. The rejection of this deal will make the United States look racist throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East. Their relationship with the UAE would be seriously strained since there doesn't appear to be any principled objection to the sale. This decision, more than any other, would hurt America's ability to work multilaterally in the Middle East.
The opposition (which consists of basically all Democrats and most Republicans) seems to base their decision to oppose the deal almost exclusively on a xenophobic attempt to score political points by seeming tough because the company is owned by the UAE, an Arab country.
Fortunately, Bush is more mature than that. Congress rarely is, and I often fear that the next President (in 2009) won't be nearly as restrained as Bush (when it comes to making unprincipled decisions based on xenophobia just for political gain).
posted by Japnaam Singh at
2:06 PM
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