Mar 09 2006
Neck Deep In Chicken Hawk Droppings
** Major Update Below **
Dubai Ports World did what they had to in order to retain the maxium value of their business acquisition – they turned their backs on the US as partners, gave up on us a confident people of honor in the world, and sold off the problem terminal operations to a company which will probably be listed on a lot of congressman’s political donations listings.
The Chicken Hawks are all out strutting in clucking that they defeated their demeons. What they did was expose a part of America most of us thought long dead and gone. We are no longer the shining city on the hill, the city has collapsed in a pile of putrid fear.
Update: As expected The UAE, after taking a lot of risks for us in the Middle East – where all the REAL danger is, is not happy with our spinless republican Chicken Hawks:
Dubai is threatening retaliation against American strategic and commercial interests if Washington blocks its $6.8 billion takeover of operations at several U.S. ports.
As the House Appropriations Committee yesterday marked up legislation to kill Dubai Ports World’s acquisition of Britain’s Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation (P&O), the emirate let it be known that it is preparing to hit back hard if necessary.
A source close to the deal said members of Dubai’s royal family are furious at the hostility both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have shown toward the deal.
“They’re saying, ‘All we’ve done for you guys, all our purchases, we’ll stop it, we’ll just yank it,’†the source said.
Retaliation from the emirate could come against lucrative deals with aircraft maker Boeing and by curtailing the docking of hundreds of American ships, including U.S. Navy ships, each year at its port in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the source added.
Can anyone wipe the Chicken Hawk droppings off America’s face? Where the votes this fall worth losing our reputation and credibility that was so hard fought for going on over 200+ years?
End update
I now predict a mass exodus of people from both political parties. Those of us in the middle who want calm, reasoned, mature debate to our pressing issues are totally fed up with wingnuts from both sides. I see lots of people leaving the reps and going independent. I am glad I delayed my decision one more year to join the reps. Now I know I will be much happier here in the middle away from the fear mongers. I’ll let The Anchoress represent the thinking of the moderate middle, but check out the comments on the previous post for lots and lots of links coming from the newly disenfranchised.
We were better than this, we should be better than this. And we will be better than this. Americans are ready to eject a lot of noisy flotsam. We have the leftwing nuts drooling mad at Bush calling for impeachment, and we now have the rightwing nuts drooling mad at Ayrabs and calling for us to close up our part of the planet.
So, I stand here and ex-democrat, independent conservative who wants to let those fed up with left and right know that living in the middle is just fine. We are not moderate – because we are not complacent. We simply are not extreme and we do not run on out of control emotion. I do not need Michael Savage or Michael Moore – no one does.
The Chicken Hawks fouled the nest with their fear. They can keep their nest, we will build a new shining city on the Hill.
AJ, how can those in the Terrorism camp trust those in the Globalization camp when a globalization guru says something like this (Thomas PM Barnett)?
“Where is the history of states acquiring the bomb and then using it irrationally? History has consistently proven just the opposite, even with Islamist regimes like Pakistan and quasi-theocracies like Israel. This is just another example of the sad American tendency to demonize all potential foes as irrational. You take down a country on either side of Iran and they reach for the bomb: who’s being irrational or naive on that one?”
(See also Mark Safranski’s response)
Yes, connectedness is the key to defeating political Islam, but when a globalization big-thinker advocates nukes for Iran, can you really blame the Terrorism camp for its protectionist posture?
Many are missing a few points on the sunken DPW deal.
The CFIUS committee and the Administration was precluded by law from consulting with Congress until they had completed their review. Furthermore, as to tone-deafness, Dubai and Saudi owned companies have been operating both marine and airPORT terminals in the US for many years. As an indirect investor in P&O, I’ve been aware of this story since early November. I consider myself politically sensitive but, as I knew the majority of terminal operations were in the hands of foreign operators including Ayrabs, I had no clue of the coming firestorm. Obviously the entire Administration, at the Asst Secretary level, didn’t either. For gods’ sake, we’ve been selling the UAE F-16s for over 9 years. We’re supposed to be worried about a flocking stevedoring company with absentee falconeers as coupon-clippers?
The argument that access to port security and disaster recovery plans by DPW endangers national security is hollow. DPW is a global stevedoring company (aka marine terminal operator). They manage terminal operations world wide.
I have several close friends who have spent their careers in global inter-modal transportation. They tell me there is virtually no difference in port security and disaster recovery plans worldwide. If you know one you know them all.
What companies like DPW or the ocean carriers don’t have is access to our cargo tracking, intelligence, and risk assessment systems which are used to evaluate high risk cargo containers as well as bulk and break-bulk cargo.
This whole fiasco has little to do with national security. It did have an awful lot to do with the hubristic howling and cackling of Chicken Little’s cousins the chickenhawks and the cowardly collectivist clutch. Both flocks were running in circles in fear of falconeering camel jockeys. They still are.
A truly sad day for America and our attempt to defeat totalitarianism and construct a peaceful pluralistic planet. I believe this will be marked as a significant and possibly catastrophic setback in The Long War, Ver. 2.0. Only time will truly tell but I believe our chicken-herder-in-chief and his clutch had this one right.
Both chicken flocks flocked this one up. An avian pox on both their coops.
I’ve linked from UAE firm to transfer port operations to "U.S. entity".The more time I have to think about what happened the angrier I get. Iran has been at war with the U.S. since 1979 and we’re going to have to admit sometime soon that it’s time to start fighting back. When that time comes, we are going to *need* access to the ports and airbases the UAE has, up to this time, been allowing us to use. I hope if we no longer have access to them all of the "strong on security" types will be extremely proud of themselves.
Good points all folks, and it is nice to know those of us unhappy with this mess are not small in number.
River Rat – thanks for the background. The more we learn the sadder this mess is.
Rober Stevens – the idiot who cannot discern Israel or India with a nuke and some mad mullah from Iran is no excuse for us to not be able to discern The UAW from Iran. To put it simple: just because Johnny has a labatomy does that mean you have to have one as well? (just kidding – I like to twist old sayings). The fact is we needed The UAE on our side and vague fear took over. We whimped out and it is ugly.
Pierre,
The things you site are marginal imperfections that are not important in the over deal. We do business with The UAE – we have for years. QED your points are irrelevant. And I am labeling those who reacted out of irrational fear what they are. Notice that you have had to backed the troops dying in Iraq and then cowered when THEIR ally was all of a sudden in the news doing business here (as they have already).
What is terrible about what happened on the right is Chicken Hawk is the perfect label. These people are all full of bluster and bravado telling our soldiers to work side by side the Muslim Arabs and risk their lives, but we cannot handle a stock buy out because we are scared?
Pierre – the label hurts because we all know I am right. And there is no amount of rationalization that will change that. Your points were of a different nature, albeit I still disagree with them. But I do not see you as the type who would send someone to do something you wouldn’t do yourself if possible.
The troops are looking at this country and wondering what in the world did they all that fighting and dying for. And that is more important than any labels I use.
Marginal imperfections? Funding HAMAS is a marginal imperfection? Funding Palestinian Islamic Jihad a marginal imperfection? Boycotting the most reliable ally we have in the ME a marginal imperfection? Exactly where did all of those supplies we gathered up prior to March 2003 get stored? In the UAE or in Israel?
I pride myself on not using names…my arguments suffice.
Pierre Legrand
Pierre,
Your prideful moral absolutism in admirable. Let me remind you of Soviet Lend/Lease in WW2. There is pretty good evidence that had not Roosevelt and Churchill been more pragmatic than you we’d all be speaking German or Japanese.
Taken to it’s logical conclusion, your moral absolutism would require our foregoing all Gulf and Venezulan oil. I suspect the result of such a decision would be extremely painful for you and your family as well as 300 million other Americans.
To paraphrase a great leader; tell them where we stand, where we want them to go, how far we’ll go to help them progress, and then we’ll offer some trust but we’ll verify.
You may want to consider how well those two decisions worked out. Seems to me won WW2 and the Long (lukewarm) War, Ver. 1.o by the judicious application of a little pragmatism.