Feb 282006
In their opposition to the Dubai ports deal, a lot of progressive bloggers are indulging in xenophobic demagoguery, leaving me disappointed and despairing for any possibility of reasonable political discourse on the topic. The claims that this Arab company’s ownership of a few American ports could jeopardize our national security is, quite frankly, hysterical bullshit. Our ports are certainly inviting targets for potential terrorists, but it’s not like Dubai Ports World is going to paint enormous bullseyes on the docks. Our ports were vulnerable before this deal and they will continue to be vulnerable until our own government recognizes that promoting national security takes more than empty rhetoric and a few thousand illegal wiretaps.
I don’t dispute the U.A.E.’s problematic human rights record, but it’s not a demonstrably worse offender than China. And I’m willing to bet that a few of those bloggers own Chinese-made goods. I’m as eager as any good progressive to discredit and weaken this president and his administration, but let’s not use fear and innuendo as our tools. It cheapens us and our cause. It makes us look like Republicans.
I don’t think their human rights record is at issue so much as the links between the royal family (who ultimately control DPW) and Al Qeada, the fact that two of the 9/11 hijackers came from there, and the fact that we have to hand over the Coast Guard’s plans for defending these ports to DPW. I’d have no problem with them owning a manufacturing company, or pretty much any other business, but just because we do a bad job of defending the ports at the moment doesn’t make yet another security hole acceptable.