The winds of insecurity

[FBBulldog]

If the biggest political challenge facing the modern world is to ensure that the United States again forms part of an effective international consensus on issues like the Middle East, global warming and the rule of law - and it is - then it follows that anything which weakens the architect of US unilateralism ought to be good news. The current ferment on Capitol Hill over the sale of American ports to a state-run company from Dubai has certainly weakened George Bush. So does it follow that the president's likely defeat on the issue is an event to celebrate? Unfortunately, life is not so simple.

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The good news for Mr Bush's opponents is that the go-it-alone president has rarely been weaker domestically than he is today. A combination of continuing grim news from Iraq, repeated reminders of the administration's failings after hurricane Katrina (Mr Bush was back in Louisiana yesterday) and worries about the federal deficit and national security have driven the president's ratings down to record lows - as low as 34% approval in one recent poll. In those circumstances, the White House's backing for the Dubai-based DP World's takeover of a number of east coast US ports from the British company P&O has proved toxic. Fuelled by conservative talk radio, US public opinion has recoiled from the idea that in post-9/11 America an Arab government should have control of installations that are depicted as vital to national security. For congressmen of all parties looking for re-election in November, the issue is a no-brainer - they want to stop the sale if they are to survive at the polls. Republican congressman Don Manzullo of Illinois, who represents a Bush heartland district, put it succinctly this week: "This duck is dead. Either the president finds a way to kill it or we'll have to ourselves. There is no out on this."

It now looks probable that Congress will scuttle the DP World deal next week. That would be another humiliation for an increasingly weakened president. But there is an awkward truth at the heart of this angry Washington storm. That truth is that Mr Bush, not Congress, is right about the takeover. Dubai is a wealthy, stable and autocratic sheikhdom, a Singapore of the Gulf. The threat to American security from its takeover of a few US ports is negligible. The forces driving the resistance to DP World are ugly and will not help the cause of reintegrating the US with the global consensus. But, as Edwardian Britain found out, the biggest beneficiary of global free trade can also turn into a ferocious protectionist when the winds of insecurity start to blow.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,1726473,00.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. See also Juan Cole

The subtext of bigotry and racism is what has blindsided the Bush administration with regard to the port deal for a company based in Dubai. Dubai is like the Fifth Avenue of the Middle East-- the place with the pricey shopping and the tall skyscrapers and the extravagant fashions. Dubai businessmen are no more likely to take over US ports and allow them to come to harm than US businessmen are. They want the deal in order to make money. Bush knows this very well. But since he has spent so much time fulminating against shadowy and sinister forces over there somewhere, he has spooked the American public and members of his own party.

The Big Lie eventually catches up with you.

The hatemongers are well known. Rupert Murdoch's Fox Cable News, Rush Limbaugh's radio program and its many clones, telebimbos like Ann Coulter, Evangelical leaders like Franklin Graham, Congressmen like Tom Tancredo, and a slew of far rightwing Zionists who would vote for Netanyahu (or Kach) if they lived in Israel-- Frank Gaffney, Daniel Pipes, Michael Rubin, David Horowitz, etc., etc. And finally, there are many Muslims who have an interest in whipping up anti-Islamic feeling. Ahmad Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress helped maneuver the US into a war against Iraq with lies about a Saddam-al-Qaeda connection and illusory WMD. The dissident Islamic Marxist group, the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) is now placing equally false stories about Iran in the Western press and retailing them to Congress and the Pentagon.

The hatemongers think that the American public is sort of like a big stupid dog, and you can fairly easily "sic" it on whoever you like. Just tell them that X people are intrinsically evil and that the US needs to go to war to protect itself from them. Then they turn around and blame those of us who don't want our country reduced to footsoldiers in someone else's greedy crusade for being "unpatriotic."

http://www.juancole.com/2006/03/bigotry-toward-muslims-and-anti-arab.html

[lyonn]

2. Bush's big lie concerning Arabs and terrorism

After 9-11 the Arab world probably didn't have an agenda against the U.S. Well, some did, Osama... Now, after what has occured in Iraq and bush's irrational statements about terrorism, and we know who he is referring to, sure enough there are so many more Arabs ready to fight us. Therefore, we shouldn't conclude that Dubai (UAE) are our buddies and that we should turn ports over to them to run.

Sure Dubai has a swell port operation according to many accounts. Then why doesn't the U.S. spend money improving our ports. Dubai is protecting their interest better than our govt. is protecting ours. Proof is in the lack of money spent on our infrastructure. Tanks and bombs cost lots and lots of $$$, invading countries is our way of protection.

[mom cat]

3. Great read. Thanks.