It's About The Security Stupid

It’s funny sometimes how such simple situations turn into full blow political battles. Americans stood up and took notice when it became news that a company (Dubai Ports World) owned directly by the government of the United Arab Emirates was poised to take over day to day operations at 6 major ports. The first gut reaction was “Woah! Back up the cart on this one!” by people all across the political spectrum.

Then President Bush came out and talked about how great the move would be and how if Congress moved to block the deal he would whip out his mighty veto pen – something he couldn’t bring himself to do for oh say Campaign Finance Reform! With that you had many conservatives fall in line behind the President who was backing a deal that even he and many other senior officials admitted they knew little if anything about.

Then you have people like myself – conservatives who still do not like this deal one little bit.

I’ve gotten hit with being called an “Islamophobe” and all the “racist” arguments so many times already by left wing hacks who see everything I do as anti-something that it is getting old. And I have also gotten hit with the old “You don’t know enough about this” complaint by fellow conservatives as an attempt to poo poo my virulent opposition.

Tell you what. I’ve got some “reasons” and they are simple and powerful and don’t require a PhD in Business or Islamo-American relations. And guess what? Not one of them has to do with the race OR the religion of the people involved either. They are simply facts.

Fact one:
D.P.W. is owned by a foreign government. NO, I repeat, NO foreign corporation owned by a foreign government should control U.S. land or assets. No foreign government should control major access points to American and our economy. I don’t care if it is the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, China, France or Great Britain.

Fact two:
We do not need to subsidize the socialism, communism and fascism of foreign countries. Yes, I’ve heard the arguments about how if we integrate them into our “free” market system they will eventually become the same but in the end all we are doing is integrating more socialism, communism and fascism into our own economy and bringing it down. Subsidizing these forms of government only make them linger and put off their demise.

Fact three:
The port operator DOES have a lot to do with our “security”. They control the manifesting and moving of cargo and ARE privy to security related documents and operations. Knowing that even today only a small fraction of our cargo containers entering this country are screened thoroughly how hard can it be for someone that handles the day to day movements of ships and cargo to “help” a dangerous load get past security? Answer: not hard.

Fact four:
The U.A.E has a history of not being all that helpful in combating terrorism despite some progress in the past couple years. First, they supported the Taliban. Second the refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist. Third there are credible reports that one of the attempts to get bin Laden was halted because of the presence of a representative of the government in the area with bin Laden. What else? The U.A.E. is reportedly a major access point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Lybia, Iran, and North Korea. Or how about that money to fund the 9/11 hijackers came through the U.A.E. banking and the Treasury Department reported that after 9/11 the government was not being helpful in tracking down Usama’s bank accounts?

Fact five:
Jimmy Carter thinks the deal is “ok”. This is the same man that brought us the Ayatollah Khomeini and a nuclear North Korea while trashing President Bush abroad. Would you trust this man? Ok, let me clarify that. Would you trust this man if you weren’t a raving rabid liberal moonbat?

See, not ONE of those reasons has anything to do with “race” or “religion” of the region. And I think I have demonstrated that I understand quite a bit about the situation.

And you know what? I still come to the same opinion and that is “NO” to the deal. Some people however have said to me though that Congress does not have the power to stop this deal – despite as much as they claim to be against it. I say baloney! Grab your Constitution and turn to Article I, Section 8.

It says clearly “Congress shall have Power … to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations”. And last time I looked “commerce” meant the exchange of goods and services. If managing our ports is not a “service” and hence “commerce” then I don’t know what is.

And see? I’m still not a racist, bigoted, islamophobe ignorant on the issues either.

J.J. Jackson is the owner and Editor at Large of American Conservative Politics - The Land of the Free. He is also the lead designer for The Right Things - Conservative Political T-shirts.