I agree
It’s rare that I find myself agreeing with spokespeople for President Bush, but this huge controversy that’s erupted because an Arab company is taking over operations at several American port terminals… Well, I can see how Arabs taking over our ports sounds like a bad thing, if one assumes all Arabs are a security risk, and if one thought all American ports were run by Americans until today.
And I can also see how this is an appealing controversy for Democrats, who are desperate to put a chink in the Republicans’ “We defend America best” armor.
But, uh….
The White House appeared stunned by the uprising, over a transaction that they considered routine — especially since China’s biggest state-owned shipper runs major ports in the United States, as do a host of other foreign companies. Mr. Bush’s aides defended their decision, saying the company, Dubai Ports World, which is owned by the United Arab Emirates, would have no control over security issues.Some administration officials, refusing to be quoted by name, suggested that there was a whiff of racism in the objections to an Arab owner taking over the terminals. The current operator of the six American terminals, P&O Port, is owned by the British company that Dubai Ports World is acquiring. The ports include those in New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia, as well as New York…
Opposition to the deal drew a similarly intense expression of befuddlement by shipping industry and port experts.
The shipping business, they said, went global more than a decade ago and across the United States, foreign-based companies already control more than 30 percent of the port terminals.
That inventory includes APL Limited, which is controlled by the government of Singapore, and which operates terminals in Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, and Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Globally, 24 of the top 25 ship terminal operators are foreign-based, meaning most of the containers sent to the United States leave terminals around the world that are operated by foreign government or foreign-based companies.
“This kind of reaction is totally illogical,” said Philip Damas, research director at Drewry Shipping Consultants of London. “The location of the headquarters of a company in the age of globalism is irrelevant.”
It's more than a whiff of racism. Clinton and Schumer ought to be ashamed.
And it's yet another example of how, at the core, Bush 43 is just like Bush 41 (globalist, pro-free-trade, anti-isolationism), no matter how much he tries to obscure it with the homeland security or God talk.