The Ports In the Storm

Due to a combination of a crazy work week and general ignorance over matters of port security, I decided to hold my fire on the UAE port deal until I could spend enough time thinking about the issue and talking to people more experienced with this sort of stuff than I am before making a call. Well, here goes.

Call me crazy, but whenever I hear Hillary Clinton or Chuck Schumer railing against a particular idea, I’m convinced it’s a good one.

Well, until I find out that Jimmy Carter actually endorses it.

Oh boy.

I think this is one of those issues that campaigns are made for, though it seems there’s still much more to this story than any of us really know at this point.

Taking in stride what we've learned from the media so far, those on the left have sounded the usual refrain that Bush has once again demonstrated his incompetence and desire to line his own pockets at the expense of national security, while the right is scratching its collective head wondering how a country that has trouble securing its own ports could be trusted to do so with ours.

Many conservatives like Michelle Malkin, whose work I greatly admire, fiercely oppose the deal on the grounds that the UAE has a spotty record of fighting terrorist plots; though, as Michelle points out in her latest column, it’s a tad ironic that liberals suddenly support profiling.

Well-known conservative supply-sider Larry Kudlow, for whom I also have a great deal of respect, has attributed this dissent by both liberals and conservatives to "Islamophobia." From what I've read so far, Kudlow has correctly dispelled the notion that Dubai Ports World will handle port security -- apparently, the company will only act as a commercial administrator, while the U.S. Coast Guard and Customs officials will secure the ports. However, I’m not sure that it’s altogether accurate to jump to the conclusion that critics of the deal are "Islamophobic" when we’re in the midst of a war with Islamofascists.

I’m also not sure this deal was necessarily "secretive" just because it wasn’t divulged to the New York Times a week before it was closed. This doesn’t mean that business transactions potentially involving issues of national security shouldn’t be disclosed to the public while they're in work, but I couldn’t even wager a guess as to how many undertakings go on at the federal level absent our knowledge and request for consent.

And while the Wall Street Journal editorial page has taken a beating from both sides, it is correct to point out that the emirates have been a strategic ally in the war on terror.

Critics also forget, or conveniently ignore, that the UAE government has been among the most helpful Arab countries in the war on terror. It was one of the first countries to join the U.S. container security initiative, which seeks to inspect cargo in foreign ports. The UAE has assisted in training security forces in Iraq, and at home it has worked hard to stem terrorist financing and WMD proliferation. UAE leaders are as much an al Qaeda target as Tony Blair.

As the Free Muslim Coalition, which formed after 9/11 to condemn extremist Islam and its adherents and to encourage moderate Muslims to denounce terrorism, explained in its latest press release, giving the impression that the U.S. will not do business with Arabs because they're Arab would give the extremists exactly what they want: more excuses to conduct terrorist attacks against our troops and our allies.

I’m no expert in foreign policy, but even though war is sometimes an inevitable component, so also are international finance, trade, and public diplomacy. And in the long term, collective prosperity gained as a result of multinational trade and the freedom that accompanies it does far more to account for positive international relations than war usually does. After all, how many Muslims in the United States have wreaked havoc in the name of the Cartoon Jihad? I would guess that most Muslims in America -- at least today -- generally view themselves as Americans first and Muslims second, where Islam may drive their religion, but not necessarily their political viewpoints.

Much of the concern over the port deal is perfectly warranted. But I’m perfectly comfortable admitting I don’t really know whether this move was the right thing to do or not. One thing I would remind everyone, however, is that a lot of the people criticizing the administration seem to have forgotten that the 9/11 terrorists attended flight school here in the U.S.; obtained driver’s licenses here in the U.S.; coordinated and made financial arrangements here in the U.S.; and exploited lax visa policies and walked through all sorts of "secure" locations, right here in the U.S.

The UAE may indeed need to bolster its own border security. But regardless of who wins contracts to perform services in this country, we too still have a lot of work to do ourselves.