There are basically two arguments employed against selling the administration of terminals in American ports to Dubai. The first is that we will be less secure if we give Arabs easier access to our ports. This argument, when made by Democrats, causes us to double up in a giggle fit. The Dems, who had to look up the word "security" in the dictionary to see how it was spelled, have absolutely no credibility on this matter at all. They scoff at reports that Saddam did in fact have WMD, they've opposed the Patriot Act, they've opposed profiling airline travellers, and they have fought the administration on whether it has the right to listen in on phone calls made by foreign terrorists to this country. Now they expect us to believe that suddenly they've travelled the Damascus Road, had the scales fall from their eyes, and are all for treating Arabs like pariahs.
In any event, the argumentum ad security doesn't seem to be holding up to scrutiny since it appears that whatever security there is now, as minimal as it apparently is, will not be affected no matter who manages the terminals.
The second argument is a bit more compelling, and that is that we should not be entering into business agreements with nations which supported the Taliban and Hamas and boycott Israel. With this it is hard to disagree. We wonder, though, what, if anything, the quid pro quo is. Does the U.A.E. provide us with important military assets in the Straits of Hormuz that would be absolutely essential if war comes with Iran? If so, even the Israelis would probably prefer that we do the ports deal rather than be hamstrung in a conflict with the country that threatens to incinerate them in a nuclear fireball.
The problem is that we just don't know what's in the details. Thus it comes down to a question of whether we trust the President to do the right thing for the security of both the U.S. and Israel. His track record suggests that on this he deserves the benefit of the doubt. We're leery, given his fecklessness regarding immigration, about his willingness to be loosey goosey with who has access to our ports, but we're also encouraged by his almost preternatural resolve in the war on terrorists.
It's not an easy call, but, heck, anything that has so many lefties squealing like pigs in a barn fire can't be an altogether bad idea.
