-What this boils down to is that for some reason you choose to believe -Menendez truly feels that US ports are somehow less safe under -the ownership of Dubai Ports than another firm. For many reasons I choose -not to believe this. I think he is pandering to racists for political reasons. -If I thought the Dems would really use this issue to make political gains -I would probably very hesitantly support it. It really seems more like a -jab at Bush than anything else. Not exactly a greater good that defends the use of pandering to racists. -Why do you feel US ports would be less safe under this owner vs. another?
Well, on the merits, if we want to have that actual discussion, this is a situation of a foreign government owning key port property, not just any old multinational corporation. So you have a government, which was one of only THREE COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD that recognized the Taliban regime, owning it. That is exactly the issue that those opposing the deal have emphasized, not just that the company is registered in some other country. And as I posted, Dems have been highlighting tougher port security for many years and have specifically attacked outsourcing at airports and ports, partly for security reasons and partly as a pro-labor position to keep low-wage employers out of those institutions.
As for the politics, it has clearly gotten Democrats big political points. Now, is all distrust of foreign government control of US institutions automatically racist? Is may be nationalistic and a bit hawkish, but reducing it to racism debases the word, since foreign ownership by British or German companies have been attacked during times of conflict with those nations in the past.
What's interesting about the UAE is the Syriana-Michael Moore point that these big oil wells masquerading as countries are tight allies with US corporate elites represented by Bush, but are the enemies of many of their people, including imported laborers denied participation in the oil bounty, and of most core US interests.
So attacks on UAE are also about a fault line of global political alliances tied to global oil wealth. I hate the UAE as one of the abominations of global inequality, as do many people in the Middle East. The reason Palestinians and others applauded Hussein's invasion of Kuwait back in 1990 was precisely because of this resentment.
So no, I have no desire to further close relationships between the US and the UAE, including the free trade agreement that Bush is negotiating with the UAE. Hopefully, the port conflict blows up that trade deal and strains that global corporate oil alliance.
What continues to amaze me is that folks treat attacks on the UAE of even the same galaxy of phenomena as actual racism against those without power. I somewhat agree with Charles that talking about "racism" against targets with massive power of their own to deploy just confuses the word beyond recognition.
-- Nathan Newman