Ports! Ports! An Emirate for my Ports!
Brough-ha-ha. That is to say, we are in the middle of one this week regarding the lease on 6 of the largest shipping ports on the Eastern Seaboard. Dubai Ports World, a company essentially owned the state of United Arab Emirates, purchased the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company of Britain for US$ 6.85 billion, thereby acquiring the administrative rights to the US ports. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have condemned the Bush administration’s quick approval of the deal, citing issues of national security (2 of the 9/11 highjackers were from the UAE) and lack of oversight. In response, the President has threatened to exercise the first presidential veto of his 5 year tenure.
The Bushies are approaching this all wrong. Where is the famed Rove message machine? ‘Member the Clear Skies and Healthy Forest Initiatives, Karl? ‘Member those? Rather than approach this situation from a wishy-washy line, Rove and co. need to use one of their two, hitherto successful modes of speech, incredulous optimism or dire fear. It is my belief, seeing as Arabs are involved, optimism maybe a better way to go.
I think the administration would be well served by tying this port deal to their concept of The Ownership Society. If we give the UAE a stake in our ports, the Emirs would be far less inclined to tolerate their destruction. Think about it. The Saudis may have tolerated the destruction of the WTC and the Pentagon, but they had no stake in these institutions. On the other hand, the Saudis own roughly 8% of our Treasury, and both the Federal Reserve and Fort Knox remained untouched on September 11th. If Bush were to explain, in the simple terms at which he excels, the basic principle that ownership=not destroying one’s own property wantonly, I think that the American people and most members of Congress would be persuaded to his position.
Yes, I do believe we can all agree on The Safer Harbors Initiative. Because what is this deal really, but a devious strategy to secure our ports without the terrorists realizing how we are fooling them? Now, with their own people and profits in mind, they will drop their focus on the places where we are most vulnerable, and try and hit targets that are marginally more secure, like our chemical plants .
