Posted on 02/23/2006 5:32:52 AM PST by knowseverything
With the recent news of six major US ports soon to be under Arab management, I am somewhat amazed at the uproar. Senators on BOTH sides of the isle are uniting against the White House in an effort to stop this impending tragedy. On the other hand the White House has quite insanely vowed a fight to the death to keep the deal on track.
Why my surprise at these unfolding events, you ask yourself? Well, for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that any Senator on either side of the isle actually gives a crap about the security of our country. As we all know, only a minimal number of cargo containers brought into our ports are searched, and our borders (North and South) might as well not exist. These terrifying FACTS are certainly not new developments. Yet some new management comes into play at a few of our ports and suddenly every politician from far left to far right is scared for our country. Hhhmmm.....
My second cause for surprise over this situation is the simple lack of logic in the entire debate. Like I said above, fewer than 2% of the 40 foot long cargo containers at US ports are actually opened up and searched. With odds like these, a blind terrorist carrying a 30 foot nuke will make it into the US 98 times out of 100. Its hard to imagine how this could get any worse for us no matter who the new management is.
Even if we cracked down on the ports like everyone suddenly wants to do this week,(yeah right) what is the point since our borders are wide open to anyone, anytime. This is not a game in which we are 50% safer if we tighten 50% of our borders and ports. Its an all or nothing deal. All the crazies have to do is succeed ONCE to win. And they will always find the weakest link in the chain to use. Whether that is US land borders, or US sea ports, at this point we don't even have a chain. Every politician in the country is acting as they have uncovered a massive security breach in a flawless system. Yet they have known about the overall border and port problems for years and have done nothing. Its not like these problems aren't fixable. However no one will build a fence to fix the borders or do anything to increase security coverage at the ports.
The fence solution was shot down because it will ultimately offend people and the politician who dares build it will be labeled racist, or at least anti-immigrant. The continued existence of port problem is less understandable, because a 40 foot cargo container certainly won't get offended if it is searched. I think it is a simple time and money issue here. And with all of our technology, along with the money we could save the public coffers with the border fence and reduction of illegal aliens, we just solved that problem. Yet none of it will ever happen. Why?
So when all of our elected leaders throw fits over something that happened to catch the public eye over the last week, yet have completely ignored these security issues for years, excuse me for being a bit suspicious.
One might argue that we should not make it worse by selling our port management to terrorist supporting countries. My answer to that is simply; how can it get worse? Stopping this company from taking control would be the equivalent of fixing the hull on the Titanic with a champagne cork.
My main annoyance I suppose is that all of our politicians apparently think we are all idiots and do not see through the “See! We really do give a damn!” show they are putting on for us this week. The whole thing makes me wish Dick Cheney would shoot someone else so I wouldn't have to listen to it anymore.
-knowseverything
Who cares?
The liberals who are trying to regain lost ground in issues of national security.
They can't be for the war anymore thanks to Kerry and are now using this "strawman" to champion themseloves as tough on national security.
Red6
agree
Why are some people in favor of governments, such as the UAE, owning businesses? Government ownership of business is communism not free market capitalism.
Yes, it is just time and money, but how much? My husband has brought some stuff from Japan, anytime a container is open you can count on a 2-3 week delay (paying the shipping company $100 a day in "storage" charges) and a $500 to $1000 bill from the port for moving the container to a designated area, opening the container and closing it. I dreaded the day they decided to unload it for searching! Bottom line, we don't buy from Japan any longer, we've lost our customers and our business. I agree that containers should be searched, all of them, but I'm at a loss as to how to do it whithout hurting the little man!
What would be the effect of a 2-3 week delay on Chilean fruit?
I agree with the general point of your post, but this point is incorrect. While fewer than 2% of the 40-foot cargo containers (actually they come in standard 40-foot and 20-foot sizes, with a small number of 48-foot units that were introduced a few years ago but never caught on) are opened and inspected, a much larger number of them (eventually this will be 100%, from what I understand) are screened for radiological, biological and chemical agents.
With all this talk of security, some peole have missed an obvious point. He who controls the port, controls the scheduling of the ships. That is what ship gets dock space and when. Our economy could be disrupted by a "mix up " of the schedules. All the "non vital" ships would get into port and stay there longer than needed while the ones containing vital supplies are still stuck out in the ocean awaiting permission to come in.
What's sad with this story is that these jerks are undermining us in the Arab world as egalitarian and are painting us as racists, they are alienating an ally in the Middle East, and are showing the world that we discard concepts like "free trade" whenever some whimsical politician feels he can profiteer off such an issue.
Bad politics by the peanut gallery within Washington. By now I’m sure some damage is already done!
Our only "ally" in the Middle East is ...... Israel.
Reprise from Cheney to the tune of "I shot the sheriff: "I shot a lawyer, and I'd like to shoot Dick Gregory."
Thank you for posting a very well written article. But, I'm wondering, is there a more than a dime's worth of difference between a terrorist attack and a union strike on the docks?
Aside from all the dead people.....probably not.
We don't get to tell other countries how they manage their own businesses. And, we can't stop DPW from buying P&O. All we can do is pull the leases.
America is humiliating a country that has helped us in the WOT. Who the hell is going to want to cooperate with us in the future when the brain-dead, opportunistic Congress and the lemming-like American public is essentially labeling all Arabs as terrorists?
It's the Democrats trying to make the President look bad. Apparantly, the deal has already been examined by several gov't agencies and approved and analyzed from a security standpoint and these types of agreements are nothing new, and we've had such agreements with foreigners before. Much ado about trying to make the President look bad.
I agree in that some countries can be relied on more than others.
Israel is a true democracy. Israel's national interests are 100% parallel with ours and Europe's.
But nonetheless, UAE are our allies. UAE fulfills defense security requirements which allow them to purchase some of our most advanced weapons we have. They are buying the F16/60 which is a more advanced fighter than our own USAF uses F16/50. Some of the technology on board (ECM/ECCM/SAR radar) we don't want exported to say China or even Russia. For us to make certain agreements UAE has to fulfill certain requirements.
The whole port debate is based on “IGNORANCE”.
Most people lump the whole Middle East into one basket. Based on the publics wide spread ignorance and an urge for some liberals to champion themselves as “tough” on security matters. Something they feel the urge to do after 9-11, the peace dividend, their anti-war position in Iraq (Which all paints them as anti-defense, anti military and weak on security) they picked this issue to score some cheap political points within the public opinion. Let me reiterate “cheap political shots”, since these actions are NOT about inclusiveness, egalitarian, free trade, sensitive to other cultures or anything else the liberal likes to talk about.
Today, I can’t read the future and 20 years ago don’t concern me much. Today the UAE is a good trading partner of the US, a reliable oil supplier, a moderate Islamic state, an “ally” in the GWOT, allows are troops to be stationed there, fulfills some of the strictest security requirements of the DoD to allow arms exports……. The liberals who preach “inclusiveness” and about how the world is all about “shades of grey” are demonizing an ally here.
This is near ironic and reminiscent of the German politicians who stuck a knife in our back in 2002-2003 and exploited the Iraq war for their political advantage. This is low-brow political maneuvering that is counterproductive to a healthy relationship with an allied nation within the Middle East.
Just my 10 cents.
I must have missed something. This is the first I've heard that Frist and Hastert jumped ship to the Dims.
When I see a riot in the Arab world condemning acts of terrorism against Westerners or against be-headings I'll start believing there is such thing as a "moderate" Muslim. Until then, I'm fairly comfortable believing all Muslims are terrorists or terrorist sympathizers. None of them became significant players in the WOT until their own governments became terrorist targets.
Maybe it can't get any worse but that doesn't mean we should contribute to the mess.It's too bad that our government is made up of two worthless political parties.They bring shame on the founding fathers of this country.
The reason both parties of Congress are making hay about this is because they know that stoking fears and acting like America is one step away from instituting Sharia is an easy way to get re-elected.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.