Taste of the Future - David Ignatius

[MISSDem]

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." The acidulous wisdom of Mark Twain speaks to us across the ages, and never more than this week during the great congressional mobilization to save America's ports from the dreaded hand of Dubai.

The furor over Dubai is misplaced on so many levels, but let's start with the supposed terrorist threat. Military and CIA officials will tell you privately that the United Arab Emirates is among the most effective intelligence partners the United States has today in the Arab world. Its operatives are risking their lives to help gather information about al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. They don't advertise it, and when an operation goes bad -- such as the U-2 spy plane that crashed last June returning from Afghanistan to al-Dhafra air base -- they keep their mouths shut

Maybe all of the uproar is much ado about nothing - unless we are willing to really do something about it. Very interesting read.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Regardless of the reality of the situation,

this story is really scuttling the Puggies on national defense.

Rasmussen is now polling Dems ahead of Puggies on national defense.

Maybe it doesn't matter that a company owned by friends of Bin Laden now runs our port security. Maybe it doesn't matter that the Bushies sold us out to their Gulf friends.

Maybe the Emirs of Dubai really have our best interests at heart.

Even if all that were true, you're never gonna convince Joe Sixpack of it, and Bush and Rush the Tush are gonna go down because they've spent five years demonizing Arabs & now they're giving control of the orifices in our national body to people who hang out with Bin Laden. In case you missed it, back in about 1999 an airstrike against B-L was called off because the Royal Family of Dubai was visiting him.

If I were a Dem, I would see that there is no upside for us to meekly accepting this takeover--but it's all upside if we keep pointing out the Bush-Harken-Snow-Arab-Carlyle etc. connections.

I don't care if, in some idealistic sense, this is the wrong cause for us to win on. It's pragmatically a cause we CAN win on, so I say GO FOR IT!!

[yurbud]

2. Link?