Well, If Jimmy Carter Likes It...

Well, the tin-foil hat is back on the hat-rack, for now, and I have had some time to think about this whole Port Deal a little more. (I expect the hat-rack to have a nervous breakdown any minute...)

I have a question for all of you, and I want you to consider your answer very carefully...

Are there any GOOD Muslims in the world? Are there any GOOD Arabs?

Or are they ALL Terrorists?

If there are any good Arab Muslims, Isn't it in our best interests, as a nation that has been attacked by Terrorists and are currently conducting a War on Terror, to make friends with the good ones?

If they are ALL Terrorists, then why aren't we all clammoring for the Government to round them all up, or deport them, and get them from among us, in the name of National Security?

We can't single them out for searches at Airports because THAT would be Racial Profiling, but when they win a contract to manage some of our ports, THEN we all have a fit?

Isn't that Racism?

If it's not, then why isn't it?

I have learned a little more about the deal since I wrote my post last night, and I am not nearly as nervous about it as I was then.

First of all, what has really happened is that a British Corporation has sold their contract to a Corporation based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Great Britain is one of our strongest allies in the War on Terror.

So is the UAE.

The UAE Corporation already controls most of the ports on the other end, where the freight coming to America is loaded.

There is no American Corporation that is interested in assuming this contract. Not ONE.

From what I have been able to discover, there are only three Corporations in the World that DO do this type of work now. One in Hong Kong, (that's China...) one in Singapore, and the UAE Firm that won the bid. (The British have gotten out of the port-managing business, which is why the contract was up for bids in the first place.) (And Halliburton doesn't do this kind of work.)

Here is another factor at play in all of this. The News Media is taking every opportunity to mischaracterize this situation, to the point that it is very difficult to get any real information about it. The News man at my local Radio Station announced several times today that "Both Republican and Democrat Lawmakers in Washington are Questioning the Bush Administration's decision to turn over Security at several U.S. Ports to a Dubai based firm in the United Arab Emirates."

Did you catch that?

Nobody is turning the SECURITY of anything over to anybody. That statement is a misrepresentation of the facts.

So how do I feel NOW about the deal?

I'm not sure. It bothers me still that at this particular point in History, when every Republican needs to be on their absolute best behavior, for the good of America, we have to defend something that is as much of a political Turkey as this deal is.

But here is something else that I know.

The President has access to a lot more information than I do. And he gets the raw feed. I have to settle for what I can decipher from what the Media feeds me, and try to reconstruct the real truth from the tidbits that make it through the filters that the Leftist Press have put into place.

I also believe that the President wants to do things that will make America safer, no matter if it is politically popular or not, as evidenced by the NSA scandal that his Administration has recently weathered (successfully).

I trust President George W. Bush.