Birdblog: Any Port in a Storm

Friday, March 10, 2006

Any Port in a Storm

John Tabin weighs in on the Ports fiasco in which he (rightly) lays blame for the bungle on all parties concerned.

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...: What he doesn't address is the fact that old revenues ARE funding Iran's nuclear program, including expensive underground facilities. Iran would not be able to afford such a program without all its oil revenue. And sorry, but Bin Laden's original family fortune, valued in the hundreds of millions, which he used to start Al Queda DID come from oil wealth. So I don't buy his argument.; 4:54 PM
Anonymous said...: There's been a lot of hysteria over this, with both Republicans and Democrats falling over each other to demonstrate how zealous they are for our security.

Wonder if the good Congressmen knew that UAE had given us rights to their air space and also air bases on their very strategic soil. Now what will happen to that since we have shown them that our relationship with them is a one-way street? It looks like colonialism to them rather than a partnership. So, will we have to build the more costly aircraft carriers to replace the air bases we may lose?

It makes no sense to alienate and, in effect, go to war with the whole muslim world. Should we fight a war against a billion muslims or pick our opponents and fight against those who really are anti-American? Not all muslims are anti-American. That is the problem I see with much of the anti-muslim talk I see on blog sites these days--it paints them all with the same brush, which in turn, hysterically stampedes our Congressmen to cater to our often uninformed fears. It isn't a smart strategy in the long run when we need allies in that region of the world.

But with the failure of this port deal, all muslims everywhere will now know that we regard ALL of them as enemies. Think what a propaganda tool we have now handed Bin Laden and his ilk. We may have smart bombs, but we can't make smart moves.
scribe | 03.10.06 - 6:10 pm |; 3:07 PM
Timothy Birdnow said...: Hi, Anonymous!

It`s true; oil has financed Bin Laden and Iran. We aren`t, however, the only oil purchasers, and China could well take up the slack if we stopped buying Iranian oil. As the former Shah of Iran pointed out, oil is too valuable a commodity to burn.

Bin Laden`s family made most of their money in construction, as did Bin Laden himself, and Al Quaida finances their enterprises through drug trafficking and other illegal enterprises. I suspect we would have the same problems with them regardless.

Oil has, indeed, made the Middle East the powder keg it has become by enriching a bunch of 7th century princes.

Hi Scribe!

I appreciate your points, and the whole ports business has been subject to over-the-top rhetoric from both sides. I have straddled the fence somewhat, although my gut instinct is to oppose the deal. I have to disagree with you on the matter of how the arab world will view this; I suspect our continued strategy of ``winning hearts and minds`` is a foolish one-while we see this as a sensible strategy, the Islamic world often sees such things as evidence of our weakness. They see us as bribing them with financial goodies. Moslems respect, first and foremost, strength. This is true of most Moslems (I work with a number of Bosnians and Albanians, and they certainly think this way.) This view comes from the Koran and the history of Islam, and, as a result, is deeply ingrained. They will, of course, SAY this is colonialism and mistreatment, but I suspect they will respect America for having the guts to say no.

A large part of our problem in the Arab world has been this perception of weakness. Bin Laden, for example, accused us of weakness for our failure to follow up on the numerous attacks against us through the years (such as in Mogodishu.) I don`t think we can win this war without making it clear that we mean what we say-and the UAE has certainly been against us in some important ways. They have supported terrorism, embargo Israel, etc. Furthermore, they do not allow companies to operate on their soil which are not at least 51% UAE owned, so they can`t complain about our unfairness.

Finally, they really need us more than we need them. America is the key to their continued survival as a nation, because we are providing their defense.

Of course, this whole issue has been demagogued terribly. Furthermore, we certainly don`t need to antagonize everyone. Still, this was an unwise move politically, and the White House should have anticipated this reaction. That they handed their enemies a club with which to beat them is less then encouraging.

You made some great points, and I`m not saying you`re wrong. As I said, I`m straddling the fence somewhat on this. I think it was grossly mishandled by all parties concerned.; 3:34 PM

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Friday, March 10, 2006

Any Port in a Storm

3 Comments: