By Ezra
Sorry, but I just love this. It's so prototypically Nation. John Nichols, over at their new blog The Notion, writes:
The problem with the Bush administration's support for a move by a United Arab Emirates-based firm to take over operation of six major American ports -- as well as the shipment of military equipment through two additional ports -- is not that the corporation in question is Arab owned.
The problem is that Dubai Ports World is a corporation.
The problem with the port sale is capitalism, not geopolitics. And now, if The New Republic would just explain the many ways in which this is bad for the Jews, we could all go home happy.
Joking aside, Nichols is right, at least theoretically. But the Bush administration hasn't proven itself a competent steward of anything, and they get particularly low marks on homeland security, so it's not clear that corporate control could possibly be less efficient and effective than the tender loving care of, say, Andrew Card's high school bandmate's brother.
As for the geopolitics, I've less a policy opinion than a sort of political astonishment at the sheer gall. That the 9/11 President is threatening to use his very first veto to ensure an opaque Arab dictatorship controls our country's most vulnerable access points really says it all. It's sort of a trite response, but can you imagine the hellfire and brimstone if Clinton had tried this?
