[cripplecreek]

Their busy promoting fantasy island. I talked to one of my mothers friends who just got back from driving a truck in Iraq. He says he traveled freely in Jordan and Kuwait (with a warning to be carefull) but in the UAE they strongly suggested that he not leave the resort areas.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

WHO strongly suggested that he not leave the resort areas? Somebody from his employer?

[maica]

in the UAE they strongly suggested that he not leave the resort areas.

####

The same is told to every visitor to downtown Baltimore.

[elli1]

...but in the UAE they strongly suggested that he not leave the resort areas.

My 15 YO is on a school trip to Washington DC. The kids were told essentially the same thing (about DC) at the pre-trip meeting for students & parents last week....with the slightly embellished reminder that DC is 'the murder capitol of the world.'

[syriacus]

in the UAE they strongly suggested that he not leave the resort areas.

While attending a convention in pre-Katrina New Orleans, my sister-in-law traveled with a security guard whenever she left the hotel. She's an ordinary hard-working woman, not a celebrity.

[PrinceOfCups]

You Wrote: ...Their busy promoting fantasy island. I talked to one of my mothers friends who just got back from driving a truck in Iraq. He says he traveled freely in Jordan and Kuwait (with a warning to be careful) but in the UAE they strongly suggested that he not leave the resort areas...

I've been in every UAE Emirate here; never had a single problem. I drive across the border to Oman frequently for "visa runs". This just plain misinformation

[drhogan]

people are mixing up three separate but interrelated issues here (and i don't mean you--i agree with you on this):
1. smearing our allies (a bad idea; but if the UAE refuses to let Jews enter, and if the UAE supported the talaban and supports hamas, this should be publicized);
2. free trade--a good idea
3. turning over our ports to the UAE: a bad idea, for security reasons.

free trade is not the same thing as weakening our security.

[Brit_Guy]

"UAE they strongly suggested that he not leave the resort areas."

This one made me chuckle. I was in Washington DC in October and got a very similar warning!

I go to the UAE (well Dubai to be specific) a couple of times a year. In fact I will be there this coming Friday. It's a safe, clean modern country of such spectacular ambition that it blows your mind. It is to the Middle East as Hong Kong is to China. An example of how it all could work if we put our minds to it, despite our differences. The real danger from this furore over nothing is that Arabs who have bought into the US message that it is a war on radical islam, not a war on Arabs per se, will begin to have doubts...