printAs you know, those who furiously plugged the Dubai Ports deal were equally energetic about cussing Americans for their alleged racism. These Kudlow-and-company types must also think Americans are all liars. When polled people claimed to be concerned with national security. Their detractors, however, assert they were concealing rank racism and Islamophobia.
Indeed, the Dubai debacle has served as the all-time low-life litmus test—in their self-righteous haste to substitute ad hominem arguments for substantive debate, neoconservatives and their left-libertarian allies in this affair truly showed their skunk appeal.
Needless to say, Americans are not a bigoted lot. To them the deal was so obviously dicey—most of the Bush administration’s schemes are. Even if DP World were the most apolitical, service and safety-oriented franchise in the world, unheard of in a government-owned entity, the deal would still raise serious security reservations.
Rather than lose face, President Bush, a scheming and antagonistic character, has shifted from the eff-off position to the I’m-right-so-eff-you posture. He said “the collapse of the Dubai ports deal sends the wrong message to American allies in the Middle East.”
That’s vintage Bush logic for you. It’s a lot like his, “We are fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” asininity. As though the mess in Mesopotamia and terrorism in the US were mutually exclusive occurrences.
By logical extension, close relationships with our Arab allies do not necessarily require extreme displays of faith and confidence. Building trust can be a gradual and slow process. The fact that we have not let DP World have the run of the ports is not a rejection of friendship; it’s merely an exercise of choice. The one doesn’t preclude the other. Only in Bush’s simplistic and manipulative mind could the people’s will (anathema to him) be framed in this way.
Besides, if Bush is so concerned about how the Arab world views us, he should not have invaded a sovereign Arab country, killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians, and propelled the place into a bloody civil war.