For once I have to side with George Bush, hard as it sometimes is. The deal allowing Dubai to run U.S. ports isn’t a threat to security. The controversy is nothing more than a few idiot Congressmembers grandstanding to the media in an effort to show they’re tough on security.
I visited Dubai during one of my naval deployments. It is the Las Vegas of the Middle East: a Westerner could feel right at home there. Dubai knows its future depends on doing business with the West.
I’d say it’s more than grandstanding – it’s Bush’s culture of “post-9/11” fear coming back to bite him on the ass. Years of “OH MY GOD THE ARABS ARE COMING TO KILL US ALL” have served him well, but now that he wants to reward his business buddies, he’s finding that, surprise surprise, people don’t want to give up anything to “The Arabs”
Live by the fear, die by the fear.
See my recent post about this referencing Defective Yeti’s take on it.
Any resemblance to the real Master Control Program is purely coincidental, of course… 😛