I'm glad that the recent controversy about turning American port operations over to the United Arab Emirates has spurred greater concern for the security of our seaports. Regardless of who operates them, we need to be inspecting far more than the current 6% of containers. As for the controversy itself, I'm surprised that President Bush and his political advisors didn't see this bulldozer coming. Why give the Democrats an easily-won national security issue? The President should have recognized that putting a terrorist-harboring nation in charge of our ports is a Bad Idea -- that's a no brainer. It seems inevitable that Congress will block the move and the President will have to change positions, so he'll end up looking weak and foolish. Oh well, everyone makes mistakes, but this seems to be a particularly dumb one.
Get your Tim Geithner TAX CHEAT! stamps!
2 Comments
Leave a comment
The comment login system is acting strange. If you get an error message saying you aren't logged in when you are, just reload the comment page and try again. I'm trying to track this bug down, but it's not easy.
I very much agree with you that this was a huge mistake. Probably why Chuck Schumer (to his credit) jumped at the chance to make it more public. Regardless, it's good to see this security issue get some legs in the news and maybe something actually will happen to stop this port deal from happening. Else if nothing does come of it, then we'll know that the politicians were doing nothing but making a public appearance.
On a related note, i have to wonder why G.W. isn't moving on the Mexico border issue. Is he leaving that as an issue for the next GOP candidate to take up? if so, that pretty much leaves it up for grabs for either political party.
TF: I don't think Bush wants to seal the border, for a fwe reasons. 1, despite his history in Texas most East-coasters don't see illegal immigration as a big problem. 2, he thinks it would alienate Hispanics. 3, big business wants cheap labor.