I missed your sarcasm and I do not have GWB pom-poms. I have remained open minded on this, merely stating that on its face it stinks. I am waiting to hear from President Bush and from all other factual sources.
I will not jump aboard the hysteria train. It's full anyway...lol.
From strictly a PR point of view, it is amazing how deaf, dumb, and blind GWB is on most issues.
Although PR should not dictate actions, things such as this seem a no-brainer as far as the probable reaction.
LOL! My feelings, too. But I think Bush should explain this to us. Actually, IIRC, all of these businesses were American-owned, and Bill Clinton was the first one to permit the sale of sensitive businesses to foreigners (with the first sale of the port business to the Brits).
Also, ports, airlines, etc. are very international businesses - many of our major airports are managed by British companies. So I doubt that this is going to have any day to day impact. Furthermore, there are many ME countries and nationals that own lots of things in the US - I believe the Bin Laden family owns some buildings in NYC.
That said, I don't think it's a bad thing for ME countries to see that Americans are less than enthusiastic about them. The UAE has been more or less supportive of the US, but like any Islamic country, their government itself is under the gun from AQ and similar forces, so I think it's good to be wary. But I think the hysteria is politically motivated and whipped up by Dems, which is a laugh, since the Dem party is the greatest Fifth Column ever seen.