"He's doing what's right for the country."
In whose opinion? Not mine. I think that Congress is two things here in spades:
1.) Short-sighted - blocking this deal will hurt the long term objectives/interests of the United States in the Middle East. Don't give me the bull about security. All of the security concerns are easily managable. What isn't managable is how this will play to the Arabs. Al-Jarezza and Osama are writing their thank you cards to members of Congress right now.
2.) Congress is bunch of YELLOW-BELLIED COWARDS! They have the right to challenge the President on this issue. Fine. Put the bill forward all by itself. Debate it on its merits and let the members stand up and be counted on this single issue. This tactic of sticking it into the bill funding our troops and the relief efforts in the Gulf is the tactic of spineless politicians. A pox on the Republicans in the House. We might as well have the Democrats in charge.
Finally, why no furor over the Chinese running our Western ports?? Last time I checked the UAE wasn't busy building a blue water navy to challenge the USN. Last time I checked the UAE wasn't busy stealing our nuclear and missile technology. Last time I checked the UAE wasn't engaged in piracy of American software nor industrial spying. Last time I checked the UAE didn't possess a million man army nor nuclear weapons. Last time I checked the UAE was supplying us with oil versus being our rivals in that commodity. The double standard here is glaring. Count on Osama and his ilk to use the ban to their advantage.
We understand. You are in the small minority of Americans who think this is a good idea.
Thankfully, the voice of the overwhelming majority was heard and heeded in Congress today.
It didn't have to come to this. Bush could've made behind-the-scenes deals to have the UAE withdraw from this portion of the deal. Instead, he vowed to veto something we later discovered he didn't even KNOW about.
He was warned by conservatives from across the country not to pursue this, but he did. And this is the answer America has given him.
It's too bad it went this far, but he should've stopped this weeks ago. Any fallout from this lies at his feet.