Those are mostly from posters who will never vote for the president again
I do realize the ones who just hate the president and those who have genuine concern about this port sale
The only thing wrong with this is the lack of PR skills on the part of the Administration. My goodness
Better PR won't get me on board .. I've read the pro's and con's ... and my gut just can't go along with this
I am a Bushbot .. proud of it too .. but I just can't go along with this .. I dead serious .. I'm so upset about this I'm shaking as I type this .. I just can't agree to this
Well, I do understand why you feel as you do. It was my first reaction as well. What I would like to see in my crystal ball is how much harm shutting out this UAE company from this deal will do on lots of levels, because there will surely be harm.
Try to wait until you can get more of the actual facts, and then start over with the analysis.
This is nothing more than a change in controlling interest in a company. Nothing changes at our ports. Nothing with security will change. UAE DP World already does our security for foreign inspection of containers. UAE works with us in the war on terror, and if that changes we can pull the leases.
We can't stop the sale of a foreign company to another company, all we can do is pull the leases, and we can do that later -- just pass a law allowing us to pull the leases if a REAL security issue comes up.
The only reason the administration said ANYTHING AT ALL about this is because the law required that they objectively analyse sales like this for security concerns. They did their job and they said it would not risk our security.
This was NOT the administration selling ports to UAE -- there is NO sale of anything by the administration. This was not a turnover of our ports to the UAE, the ports are staying here under the same control. The ports are LEASED. The companies are local. They will still be local.
The only change is that instead of the profits going to foreign investors in the O&P company, they will get 6.7 billion dollars, and the profits will instead go to the UAE DP World company. Some money will then goe to the UAE government directly, as opposed to in the U.S. where the government takes the money by taxation.
UAE was previously not a great country, but since 9/11 they have become an ally in the war on terror. Don't assume that just because they are arab, they can't be trusted at all. We should verify, and we do verify, but we need allies in the mid east, and can't stab them in the back out of ignorant fears.
Show me any evidence of a security issue, rather than xenophobia, and I'll listen. If there are real security issues, I believe the president would stop the sale, or void the leases.
Let's get congress to give him that authority, not play political games because it's easy to bash muslims and arabs.
All I know is this: A British firm is selling their assets to a firm in the UAE, and, port security as we know it today, will not change after the sale of this foreign company falls through.