Dubai Ports Bid: Political Gift, Pointless Debate

I’m gonna start out by saying that this is one of the very rare cases where I support President Bush’s argument that Dubai Ports World poses no more significant threat to US National Security than any other foreign company. This is a management company; all security is administered by the Coast Guard. The much more interesting thing about this whole deal is the political fallout of all this.

This is a classic battle between Hearts and Minds. The Bush Administration has consistently used fear as a motivator post Sept. 11, 2001. The Democrats have been forced to fight every argument using logic. This has been true in every aspect of security. One example of this is the current War on Terror. The Bush administration has vowed to kill or capture terrorists wherever they exist, and to keep doing it until they stop hating us. The logical argument would clearly show you that for every terrorist you kill, you produce three more, thus this is a logically flawed approach. This argument, however, always gets lost. This is basically because both sides are fighting to control fear, which most of the time thinks with its heart, and not with its head. Fear in this country has been inflamed and coveted by the Bush administration, and keeps the American people thinking with their hearts.

The problem came this week when the Bush Administration found themselves making a logically sound decision, but something that instinctively seems strange, mostly because of the general fear of the middle east that is pervasive in this country. The Democrats took this time to inflame that very fear that the Bush Administration has used in the past. Regardless of the logical arguments the Administration makes, the fearful beast they have created will not hear it. This is probably why most Republicans came out against this deal. It is only smart to come out against this deal at this point. Logical arguments will fail to convince a fearful society, when that logic goes against their preconceived notions of the world.

I doubt the Democrats actually believe what they are saying when they tout National Security concerns, but this has been a much needed political gift. They needed to show how they were more concerned about National Security than the Bush Administration in a language the American People now speak; fear. The Democrats have always been concerned about National Security, but they always used logic to bring their point to bear, today they have taken the fear tool from the Bush Administration and hit them with it.

The Bush Administration has two options: Find a safe way out, without seeming to give in to the Democrats, or stand their ground. If they give in to the Democrats, then they are conceded that they made an error in National Security, and the Democrats caught it. If they stand their ground, they continue to say that we have already done adequate checks so all this is pointless. This will also hurt the Bush Administration. They need a safe way to back out of the deal without giving Democrats any advantage.

Finally, to once again hit on why this whole debate is actually pointless, we need to take a look at the U.A.E.. They have no more terrorist connections than do Germany. Both countries had 9/11 hijackers living there, and more monetary transactions were done in Germany! To fear them because they are Arab is not very sensical. A “terrorist” is just as likely to be Black (Somalia), White (Chechnya), SE Asian (Thailand, Indonesia), S American (Columbia) as they are Arab. Right after 9/11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, in Pakistan, planned to have Pacific Islanders take out airliners with shoe bombs. Would racial profiling have caught that mess? I think not.