Ever since the story broke about the turnover of control of several east coast ports to Dubai Ports World, I have been doing my due diligence to better understand the whole affair. After all I do support President Bush and it is only fair that I give the man the benefit of the doubt since he so strongly supports this merger. Before I get into my philosophical views on this, I'd like to get some facts out. For one, Dubai Ports World would take over management of the ports. Port security would remain the responsibility of the U.S. This is important because whenever I hear criticism of this merger, one of the points of contention is we cannot turnover security of our ports to the UAE. The UAE was one of only 3 countries in the world to recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Another little known fact is that China already manages several of our ports on the west coast of the U.S. Where was all the opposition when that deal went through? I would think that a known Communist country taking over control of our ports should have raised a few eye brows, but then again Clinton was President then and the MSM did not go after him like they do Bush. I have learned that while there is objection to this from both Republicans and Democrats on the hill, there are also many people who I respect who do not see a problem with this merger going through. And as far as the objections go, I do want to make clear that I believe most of the opposition from the Democrats is politically motivated and simply an opportunity for them to try and paint themselves as "tough on terror". I listen to Rush Limbaugh on occasion and I was tuned into his show the other day and while he does not come out and openly support the merger he does feel that it warrants some serious consideration. While I don't always agree with Bill O'Reilly, I do think he tries to present a "fair and balanced" view of issues and he is in support of this deal. Condoleezza Rice has also come out and publicly supports this deal. Obviously she would not come out and publicly oppose the President, but like President Bush I believe very strongly that she would not approve of something that could bring harm to America. I watched Hannity & Colmes last night and General Tommy Franks was one of their guests and he weighed in on the deal. Now here's a man who knows the real deal about what is going on in the Middle East and he considers the UAE one of our strongest allies in the region. He also made a point to mention that the UAE has the largest ports in the Persian Gulf region and that they are very efficient at moving large amounts of product through their ports. When I served in the U.S. Navy I was on a ship that participated in Desert Storm in 1991. We pulled into Dubai and Jebel Ali several times for repairs to take on supplies and I can attest to the efficiency of their port operations. I want to take the President at his word and trust that he and his administration are doing what they believe is best for this country, but I can't seem to get past my distrust of Muslims. My Dad is a wealth of common sense and when I was growing up he would occasionally impart words of wisdom onto me which I continue to use in my everyday life. One of his favorite phrases is "actions speak louder than words". And my distrust of Muslims centers around the fact that their inaction is speaking volumes about their attitude towards the terrorists and us who are fighting them.
Drudge Report had a link to a story yesterday titled
ISLAMOPHOBIA? It came from the anti-American news service Reuters so I didn't place much credence in it. But it does go into an issue I find interesting and that is several analysts and security experts in the UAE region interpret our opposition to this ports merger as an "Arab phobia" and that opponents of the deal "are reopening 9/11 wounds, turning this into an Arab-Muslim conspiracy to control the lives of Americans." The vast majority of Americans are good people, we all know that. All many of us want to do is to come home from work everyday, watch some TV, have a beer, spend time with the family, have cookouts on the weekends, watch sports and be left alone to live our lives. That's the American way. We want to connect with other cultures, we want to help other people. That's why so many people around the world want to come here and live. These people attacked us on Sep 11, 2001 and killed over 3,000 innocent people. For me, the wounds can't be reopened because they've never healed. And one reason they've not healed for me personally is because I have not seen a single so called "moderate Muslim" stand up and say that they support the U.S. in our efforts to rid the world of Islamofacism. I did not see one single protest or march of Muslim Americans standing in solidarity against the terrorists after the attacks of 9/11. Instead it seems like the only time we hear anything out of the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is when our political correctness runs amok and we're accused of racially profiling Muslims. If the UAE is such a staunch ally of the U.S. why aren't they speaking out publicly about their support of us and our efforts in the Middle East. I believe it's because "blood is thicker than water". They refuse to acknowledge that a radical segment of their faith is interpreting their holy book, the Qur'an to meet their objective of world domination and violence against innocent people who don't happen to believe in Allah. We've recently had the opportunity the see Muslim tolerance of other peoples and faiths play out on the world stage in the form of death and destruction over a few cartoons. Again "actions speak louder than words". Where are the moderate Muslims speaking out against this intolerance? Until I see Muslims standing with us against the tyranny of Islamofacism, I cannot and will not trust them. And I think there are many Americans who feel the same way I do. I understand that President Bush would like to mend ties with the Persian Gulf states by promoting this merger as a step forward, but the American people must be behind him on this or he will appear like he is simply going after his own agenda and I believe that would spell doom for Republicans.
