Until recently (the last year or so) foreigners weren't allowed to own property in the UAE. And it you wanted to rent, all twelve months were usually paid in advance. Even the smallest apartments have rooms for live in maids (third world people - and the UAE tells you how to treat them - and how often you have to send them back to their families etc). This is a society where they understand restricting those who aren't natives. So please, let's not act like they're primitives who will be sooooooo offended if we have reservations about the deal. They're grown-ups and can handle a little conflict.
Yeah, yeah, yeah...and Japan is one of the most racist countries in the world and we deal with them. So what? They ain't us and we ain't them. I know that and I'm not interested in telling them how to run their society. And I don't think they're telling us how to run ours.
I know they're grown-ups but the UAE is of major strategic military importance to the United States right now and we need to keep that in mind when deciding yea or nay on this port deal. If they tell us to clear out we lose a major air base and one of the safest sea ports for our naval ships in the region. Then where do we go?
There's a much bigger issue here than the simplistic notion that we shouldn't let an Arab country do business in our ports because it might be a security risk. The fact is they could say the same thing about our planes and ships in their country and we need to not lose sight of the bigger picture here. Reactionary conservatives won't understand that. Clearer minded conservatives will.