Friday, February 17, 2006

We interrupt this otherwise lovely Friday for ...

... some news that'll curl your hair: For once, I agree with Chuck Schumer.

When I first read about the deal to put control of six major ports under the authority of a state-owned company based in Dubai, my first reaction was a big ol' Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Then I read Scott McClellan's assurance that the deal had been thoroughly vetted by all relevant national security review processes, and I felt better for about nine nanoseconds.

Then my reaction was back to: WTF???????

Apparently, Chuckie had the same reaction, along with other lawmakers from both parties, nearly the entire blogosphere and, I'd guess, my two-year-old niece if she could understand international relations and Elmo were involved.

This. Makes. No. Sense. Whatsoever.

Michelle Malkin has much more detail than I could elaborate on here. But suffice it to say that I think the White House is smoking crack.

1 comment:

El Jefe Maximo said...

I generally agree with you, but not so sure in this case.

"Not sure" is the key here. I'm okay with this ports deal as long as the relevant security agencies sign off on it -- and their sign off is not a product of political considerations. If we cannot do business with firms and concerns in the Arab/Muslim world that want to play by the rules, and acknowledge our security issues, we have a real problem. If we say no to a deal that's on the up and up security wise, why should people there participate in the international system, and play ball with us ?

Foreign ownership of important American assets, as David Ignatius wrote recently in the Washington Post, is going to become more and more common -- look at the amount of US debt held by foreign interests. I'm not saying this is good, but it is a fact. As an aside: of we want to change it, we. as a country, need to give up Toyotas, stop spending money on foreign goods like drunken sailors and quit living on debt.

If there are holes in this deal from a security point of view, then by all means lets ditch it. But I want to see more before lining up against it.