Friday, February 24, 2006

Any Port in a Storm

If you haven't figured it out from reading this blog, although my actual political beliefs lean towards the Libertarian, I'm a registered Republican who not only voted for Bush, but volunteered on his campaign in 2004, and I still support him to this day.

Mostly.

I've defended his intelligence--although not his speaking skills--against ridiculous accusations of stupidity from the left...but if he can't get his mind around why it might be bad to hand control of American ports over to an Arab nation--or any foreign power, for that matter--then maybe I've been wrong all along.

Those who read my update on Tuesday may think I'm being a bit hypocritical--after all, it's not the country itself who will control the ports, but a corporation based in that country. And after all, aren't the UAE our friends? Sure they are--for now. And as long as the UAE remains friendly toward us (just as we remain friendly toward China), they will be a pleasant and gracious guest (just as Google is).

The trouble comes when relations sour, and diplomacy breaks down. When that happens, the individuals who direct these corporations become citizens of their own countries, first and foremost...or at least so their nations hope. To hammer yet again on the Google example, they could be an excellent tool for spreading propaganda friendly to the U.S. agenda in any sort of conflict. Now imagine that the U.S. and the UAE come into some sort of covert conflict as part of the ongoing fight against terrorism. With the ports under control of their companies, the UAE would have an open door to American soil. Alliances in the Middle East are a hell of a lot less stable than those in Asia--that's just a fact, and it scares the hell out of me.

The fact of the matter is that ports are just borders that we share with the ocean rather than another nation. We don't outsource the Border Patrol in the south to other nations. We'd be foolish to treat our ports any differently.

2 comments:

  1. No matter what anyone says, I still think we are better off with GW instead of that scumbag Kerry.
    I know, that's not saying much.

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  2. No disagreements here! I can't imagine what a mess the Iraq situation alone would be if ol' Liveshot had won the '04 election.

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