The outright amateurism of the Bush Administration on the Dubai port deal has been breathtaking and painfully familiar.
Yes, the President is correct in defending the sale of management services at six U.S. ports to a Dubai company. After all, aren’t we supposed to be living in a global economy?
- Haven’t the Emirates long distinguished themselves in this business?
- Has anybody found one knowledgeable person in this business who thinks the deal poses an actual security risk?
- Do opponents understand that the chances of a terrorist incident occurring under the watch of a Dubai company, which manages port services around the world, is any higher than that under a British, German or Singaporean firm?
- Has anyone told the critics that the U.S. essentially vacated port-service businesses years ago? We simply don't have companies up to this task.
- Do they know that the Dubai company would hire Americans?
- Do they understand that the national religion of the Emirates is as much making money as it is Islam? Any real or perceived terrorist activity would undermine Dubai’s commercial interests, which they would avoid at all cost.
- And is the craven reaction to the deal by members of Congress in an election year based on concern that Dubai is Arab? Is their issue with Arab or Islamic interests? Do they understand the difference? What if the port deal was signed with Indonesia or India, the world’s largest and second-largest Islamic countries?
- Finally, do the opponents realize that a spurned Dubai may now choose Airbus for its new fleet of commercial aircraft over Boeing? We will have shown Dubai and the Arab world needless disrespect and indignity while, in the process, potentially transferring Boeing jobs to Europe.
Still, the Bush Administration has nobody to blame but itself. The President long ago chose to use fear and ignorance as tools for consolidating political and commercial power. The White House believes it is useful for us to imagine terrorists at every turn and has consistently sought to cultivate a polarized, ignorant environment in which anything associated with Arab culture and Islamic faith is suspect.
Remember that George Bush never traveled much outside the United States prior to his Presidency. He couldn’t find countries on a map and didn’t know the names of leaders of key nations. He has reveled in anti-intellectualism and once proudly proclaimed in a nuanced world at a nuanced moment that, “I don’t do nuance.”
Mr. President, you are right about the Dubai deal and yet dreadfully wrong in its development and announcement. The real tragedy, however, is that you have shaped a fearful, unintelligent and xenophobic environment in which reckless and uninformed pandering that makes no effort to discern among peoples and places now substitutes for intelligent discussion about truly complex issues.
We have much work to do.
Yes, the President is correct in defending the sale of management services at six U.S. ports to a Dubai company. After all, aren’t we supposed to be living in a global economy?
- Haven’t the Emirates long distinguished themselves in this business?
- Has anybody found one knowledgeable person in this business who thinks the deal poses an actual security risk?
- Do opponents understand that the chances of a terrorist incident occurring under the watch of a Dubai company, which manages port services around the world, is any higher than that under a British, German or Singaporean firm?
- Has anyone told the critics that the U.S. essentially vacated port-service businesses years ago? We simply don't have companies up to this task.
- Do they know that the Dubai company would hire Americans?
- Do they understand that the national religion of the Emirates is as much making money as it is Islam? Any real or perceived terrorist activity would undermine Dubai’s commercial interests, which they would avoid at all cost.
- And is the craven reaction to the deal by members of Congress in an election year based on concern that Dubai is Arab? Is their issue with Arab or Islamic interests? Do they understand the difference? What if the port deal was signed with Indonesia or India, the world’s largest and second-largest Islamic countries?
- Finally, do the opponents realize that a spurned Dubai may now choose Airbus for its new fleet of commercial aircraft over Boeing? We will have shown Dubai and the Arab world needless disrespect and indignity while, in the process, potentially transferring Boeing jobs to Europe.
Still, the Bush Administration has nobody to blame but itself. The President long ago chose to use fear and ignorance as tools for consolidating political and commercial power. The White House believes it is useful for us to imagine terrorists at every turn and has consistently sought to cultivate a polarized, ignorant environment in which anything associated with Arab culture and Islamic faith is suspect.
Remember that George Bush never traveled much outside the United States prior to his Presidency. He couldn’t find countries on a map and didn’t know the names of leaders of key nations. He has reveled in anti-intellectualism and once proudly proclaimed in a nuanced world at a nuanced moment that, “I don’t do nuance.”
Mr. President, you are right about the Dubai deal and yet dreadfully wrong in its development and announcement. The real tragedy, however, is that you have shaped a fearful, unintelligent and xenophobic environment in which reckless and uninformed pandering that makes no effort to discern among peoples and places now substitutes for intelligent discussion about truly complex issues.
We have much work to do.