Outside the US evrybody is thinking ‘Who gives a fuck who owns the ports as long as the government are in charge of security.’ If they flogged the CIA or the FBI to the Saudi’s then I think you might have a point, but this whole ports business is pathetic. I thought the US congress was for free trade etc. Seems they are only interested hyping illogical fears about non existant threats. :loco:
Outside the US evrybody is thinking ‘Who gives a fuck who owns the ports as long as the government are in charge of security.’ If they flogged the CIA or the FBI to the Saudi’s then I think you might have a point, but this whole ports business is pathetic. I thought the US congress was for free trade etc. Seems they are only interested hyping illogical fears about non existant threats. :loco:[/quote]
I agree that there was little reason not to give the contract to Dubai. But I also agree that it was inexplicable how the president and staff did not anticipate or prepare for a storm from the revelation that ports were going to be run by Arabs.
Public relations gaffs count against a leader as they show him to be either arrogant, ill-informed, or out of touch. All of which are worrying.
i am not diametrically opposed to a foriegn entity having a controlling interest in our ports, but selling our ports (where wide-spread security issues exist) to a country with explicit ties to the 9/11 attackers is probably not the smoothest move.
i just can’t imagine a sillier move considering the tensions that exist.
I still don’t understand why everyone got so upset over this. The US had more involvement with the 911 terrorists than Dubai (UAE) did. At least the Dubai company would have been willing to spend the money that it is going to take to make the ports secure. Good luck finding another company willing to do that.
Which is the bigger blunder, failing to properly inform the public of the upside of the deal, or pissing off all of our Arab friends by blocking the deal just because we’re afraid of them?
[quote=“JMcNeill”]I still don’t understand why everyone got so upset over this. The US had more involvement with the 911 terrorists than Dubai (UAE) did. At least the Dubai company would have been willing to spend the money that it is going to take to make the ports secure. Good luck finding another company willing to do that.
Which is the bigger blunder, failing to properly inform the public of the upside of the deal, or pissing off all of our Arab friends by blocking the deal just because we’re afraid of them?[/quote]
Racism, pure and simple. Look at the statement above “selling our ports to the Arabs”. How much more ignorant can you get.
First, it’s a UAE company, not Syria or Iran or Saudi Arabia. Secondly, the company is a US subsidiary of this port company. The middle east has a lot of equity in many US and non-US companies. Is there paranoia there? It’s like the Japs coming to the US to sell their cars or buying entertainment companies. THe previous company P&O was also a foreign company too.
[quote=“Jack Burton”][quote=“JMcNeill”]I still don’t understand why everyone got so upset over this. The US had more involvement with the 911 terrorists than Dubai (UAE) did. At least the Dubai company would have been willing to spend the money that it is going to take to make the ports secure. Good luck finding another company willing to do that.
Which is the bigger blunder, failing to properly inform the public of the upside of the deal, or pissing off all of our Arab friends by blocking the deal just because we’re afraid of them?[/quote]
Racism, pure and simple. Look at the statement above “selling our ports to the Arabs”. How much more ignorant can you get.
First, it’s a UAE company, not Syria or Iran or Saudi Arabia. Secondly, the company is a US subsidiary of this port company. The middle east has a lot of equity in many US and non-US companies. Is there paranoia there? It’s like the Japs coming to the US to sell their cars or buying entertainment companies. THe previous company P&O was also a foreign company too.[/quote]
I would say it was fear mostly, played up by name seeking politicians, with a dab of racism. It was a stupid thing to have happen, but the UAE handled it very well. Good on them.
They are your ally in the war on terror fer fucksake, what’s the problem?
HG[/quote]
Hmm, maybe, but so is Saudi Arabia, and they hurt as much as they help. Yeah, there is some painting with the same brush going on here. But remember, Bush wanted the deal to go through.
but thats not my point. the reason i included it is because of its remarkably bad timing and the irony…
every day we see news of folks in that area of the world speaking out or acting out against our actions in the mid-east, not necessarily in the UAE, but most folks aren’t going to take the time to figure out who likes us and who doesn’t. so it’s just incredibly crazy to introduce the sale of part of the US to an arab entity. perhaps the UAE is friendly to the US, but to the average american, they are just another islamic state.
also, bush has spent the past 5 years demonizing the arab world, now he wants to hand over a major piece of the american commercial sector to them??? something smells funny??
I don’t claim to be as intelligent as most of you guys. I’m getting a bit lost in all of this. You seem to be putting all of the arab nations into one group and called “them”.
Half the time your lambasting Bush for being friends with them and the other half your slamming him for demonizing them.
A little consistency in your Bush Bashing would be greatly appreciated.
I’d agree, but go further. There are not only different Arab nations in question: there are different people and sectors in play. A more fine-grained analysis would do everyone some good. Do I support the elites? Which ones? Do I support the people? Which ones? Religious leaders? Again…
I specifically give Bush shit for ramping up rhetoric that leads to the demonization of Arabs, then soft peddling the message that the problem is a small subset of the population, then being surprised when people follow his lead.
[quote=“Jaboney”]
I specifically give Bush shit for ramping up rhetoric that leads to the demonization of Arabs, then soft peddling the message that the problem is a small subset of the population, then being surprised when people follow his lead.[/quote]
Which rhetoric are you mentioning. I can only think of Bush mentioning specific countries and or leaders. If that leads to the demonization of all Arabs then his talk about N. Korea should also be leading towards the demonization of all asians. I don’t see this happening.
[quote=“JMcNeill”]Which rhetoric are you mentioning. I can only think of Bush mentioning specific countries and or leaders. If that leads to the demonization of all Arabs then his talk about N. Korea should also be leading towards the demonization of all Asians. I don’t see this happening.[/quote] Look back. During WWII, Asians generally suffered for what would have been properly pinned on Japan.
