US Ports and the Village Idiot Files

Before I get into the meat of this posting let me first say I could care less if a company from Dubai operates U. S. ports. The six ports in question are currently operated by a London-based company. The only disturbing fact about foreign operation of our ports that troubles me is that there is no American company willing or able to step up. As to security, tomorrow as today port security remains the responsibility of the Coast Guard. We now have two factions in Congress opposing the deal. Republicans want to make political hay based on Islamophobia and Democrats want a tough-on-terror photo op. Both are wrong. The company from Dubai has more interest in preventing terrorists from using our ports than the Londoners precisely due to Islamophobia. We would see an attack on a port operated by an Arab company as an inside job regardless of their precautions. Besides, the economic interests of the company don't lie with terrorists.

What disturbs me is that Crawford's expatriate village idiot didn't know anything about the deal his administration had brokered, not even its existence.

You could call it a case of lassiez-faire leadership taken to its ludicrous extreme. Neither Bush nor Treasury Secretary John Snow claimed knowledge of the deal until they read about it in the papers. Now I rather doubt that in the boardroom-tight environment of the current White House that some loose cannon just went off and the shot landed in Dubai. Dubai is an Arab country, even though it is an ally of ours. Two of the 9/11 hijackers were from there. Port security is a major political hot potato and security is Bush's claim to greatness. I simply refuse to believe that this Administration, with its continual emphasis on appearance over substance, failed to connect the dots and inform the Big Guys of their negotiations and their decisions vis-a-vis an Arab country operating major U. S. ports. I would readily believe that Bush and Snow are using feigned (or not) ignorance as political cover for a favor returned to one of the few remaining U. S. supporters in the Persian Gulf area, the United Arab Emirates.

Bush is defending the sale vigorously, even threatening to veto his first legislation since becoming Republican Yes-Man in Chief. Someone dropped the ball badly or Crawford's village idiot is hiding behind a claim of ignorance. Or more disturbing, the Administration has decided it can function without its titular head.

I have to admit it will be fun to watch the Shrub finally fall from grace among his own. The thing to remember as the Republicans finally form a circular firing squad is that the sale of the ports itself is immaterial. It's the reaction to the sale of the ports that is fun and it's the President's ignorance, feigned or real, that is the issue.