One of the reasons that I have been so supportive of President Bush is because of his “err on the side of caution” and pro-active approach to fighting terrorism — both at home and abroad.
Now, President Bush is threatening to veto any bill that delay the deal to let an Arab company to take over the operation of seaports in the US.
And I think he’s wrong. Without any polling data to back this up—just a gut feeling, if you would—I believe that most American citizens would rather the President err on the side of caution in this situation, and not entrust any part of our US port operations to the Arab world.
I agree with this from Hugh Hewitt:
The idea that an Arab country with an active al Qaeda organization, even when that country is a strong ally of the US as the UAE is, can be trusted to operate a border facility of enormous complexity and thus vulnerability cannot be sold to the public or defended as a thoroughly vetted for security concerns. Dubai POrts World, if successful int he acquisition, would instantly become a focus of terrorist ambition and attempted infiltration.
It is a long war, and even our allies in the Muslim world have to understand that homeland security will interfere with the otherwise ordinary flows of commerce.
The Bush Adminsitration needs to back away from this deal as quickly as possible.
Yep.
***
The one positive out of this is watching Democrats finally taking a position that indicates Muslims might be potential terrorists. (They can’t be just now raising their voices in opposition to foreign control of the ports, since they are already controlled by the British…so, I guess it has something more to do with the religion of the potential new controlling country).





I think it has to do with the record of the UAE with regard to terrorism.
Left by Preston on February 22nd, 2006 at 10:57 am