bob novak!
"The one bugging me right now is the outcries about a UAE company acquiring control of a British company that runs some of our ports. Has anyone heard that this is a British company, using American employees, which is selling a controlling interest to a UAE company? I hadn’t. By the outcry I thought UAE Muslims were taking complete control of the ports (which, by the way, are also run by the US Coast Guard) and would be smuggling nuclear bombs through them any day now. That is the fear being alluded to that is driving us to create the ‘them’ and ‘us’. The UAE is one of the most western Middle East countries and they have a lot of commercial ties to the West because they have been investing their oil monies to modernize the region. The UAE has purchased high end commercial satellites for their Thuraya Network which serves (and therefore links) Europe and the Middle East. They are technically very capable and are looking to participate in mankind’s greatest exploration - the exploration of space. Looking down the road to what we want to see in the future I see a democratic Middle East with successful growing economies living peacefully (but competing commercially) with the western nations. I see future Japans and Germanys leading the Arab nations out of their current despotism. And nations like the UAE and Kuwait and Qatar are pathfinders for this knew, peaceful future. And because of fear we are about to do Al Qaeda’s bidding and nip this opportunity in the bud. Because an ‘Arab’ country of ‘Muslims’ is continuing to work its way into the Western economic picture - we are up in arms. The UAE and the British have been working together for decades. The fact the UAE is getting permission from the British to integrate these two companies provides me plenty of confidence this is not some Al Qaeda front. We are playing to our worst reflexes. Unless someone has hard, irrefutable evidence of Al Qaeda running this company, and they are able to order the US and British employees to violate our inspection processes to get dangerous materials past our borders, I suggest people calm down and think this out."