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Bush Worried About Failed Port Deal

On Wednesday, the Appropriations Committee shot down an approved deal that would allow a United Arab Emirates-owned company to control port operations at several of America’s largest ports. Why was this a problem? The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was strongly tied to many of the 9/11 terrorists, acting as a stopover during their travel to the United States and helping to launder their money.

How was the deal approved in the first place then? President Bush and his administration reviewed the proposed sale of port operations to this UAE-owned company privately and deemed it a good deal for all involved. No checks and balances or oversight were involved. The American public was scared, for obvious reasons. The Appropriations Committee vote was 62-2 against the deal, a pretty solid statement that many people wanted no part of this proposed sale.

Now, President Bush is understandably upset. He championed this deal from the get-go. His approval ratings are plummeting, and this whole debate has opened quite a rift in Congress between the president and his Republican allies. The president has spoken today about the failed deal, and he said something with which I whole-heartedly agree:

“In order to win the war on terror, we’ve got to strengthen our relationships and friendships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East,” Bush told a meeting of the National Newspaper Association in Washington.

I think he’s right here. It is definitely paramount to engage foreign countries amicably on almost all levels, to help repair or build anew relationships that were damaged or destroyed when we dismissed the world’s advice to march into Iraq. It will be very hard to defeat the terrorists if countries with majority Muslim populations think that we’re always out to screw them.

However, I don’t think selling our nation’s major port operations to a Middle Eastern government-owned company, particularly a UAE-owned company, is the way to strengthen relationships. It doesn’t have to be about a lack of trust or an implicit attack on the character of that country’s leadership. It’s just a matter of diligence. There are plenty of other ways to forge strong bonds with foreign governments than to give them access to some of our most sensitive infrastructure.