"I hope this deal goes down the toilet, it should, but why do we need any foreign country's companies to handle these ports? Are there no American companys who can handle this? Are we all that inept?"
that is the least useful argument to make.
foreign investors like to invest in America for good reasons.
why (in general) turn them away? Why must it be American? do you want to forbid foreign airlines from flying to USA?
If you did, you would destroy international air travel.
The importance has to do with national security. Actually why a British Co. was in charge is beyond me. A foreign airline is a lot different from a company in charge with port security. And even then there are differences. The Chinese are allowed to fly over the US, while we are not allowed to fly over China. I wonder why the difference.
If a country wants to invest in the US, by all means..buy stock in Disneyland or a New York skyscraper. But not in an entity that is important to national security. Recently a British Co. bought our local electric system and the other day it was announced that they also bought out our local natural gas supplier. When they get tired of these investments, maybe they should sell the package to Russia or China or Iran, for that matter. Why not? According to you.