Posted on 03/12/2006 8:29:15 AM PST by Valin
According to a Gulf News poll, 64 per cent of readers say the DP World affair "changed their opinion for the worst" about investing in the United States. A number of businessmen told the newspaper yesterday that Arab investors would think about other destinations. The majority agreed that DP World has been forced out of the US port operations due to "racism".
President George W. Bush admitted Congress has sent the "wrong message" to the rest of the world.
We don't feel that DP World lost. It in fact won the respect of the international business community when it won the bid to acquire the British P&O Company. It gained the admiration of the political community when it showed the maturity to bow out with grace.
Nevertheless, the whole affair served as a lesson for other Arab companies who may have thought of investing in what has proved to be a hostile US atmosphere. All the free trade talk proved to be just empty rhetoric. Another irony is that the Democrats, the supporters of globalisation, were the key opponents of the deal. There must have been something else behind the sudden change of heart.
It was definitely not the concern for national security, as they fully know the Bush administration had run a meticulous review of the deal, which established it was not a threat. Was it the "Israeli element" as some have suggested? Maybe. Otherwise, why would some Congress members bombard the
DP World executive, during last week's hearing, with questions about the Arab boycott of Israel? Did they want to force the UAE to end the pan-Arab boycott of Israel in order approve the deal?
These questions need to be investigated. But the fact remains it was an ugly scene in Washington. Other foreign-owned companies run US ports but they were not Arab. That is the message.
And we got it.
And we should notify the Chinese that their management of US ports will not be tolerated either.
President George W. Bush admitted Congress has sent the "wrong message" to the rest of the world.
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No George, it was sent the RIGHT message, that the people of America are not stupid, and care mightily about their security and their soverignty. Now, there is clearly no doubt as to the truth and reality of that.
Sorry George, but you will just have to swallow your POLITICAL defeat here which was a win for the American people and the fact this country belongs to them, not a bunch of elitists in Washington.
As posted before, the link below is the same news story as this with a number of good comments.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1594847/posts
This says it all for me. Know-Nothings 1 Sane People 0
Very sad and so damn unnecessary.
Ignorance, lies and hysteria prevailed.
4 posted on 03/12/2006 1:01:11 AM CST by onyx (IF ONLY 10% of Muslims are radical, that's still 120 MILLION who want to kill us.)
Agreed. The outcry of the American people was based on the race-baiting on the left, and Republicans bought it hook, line, and sinker.
Memo to self:
Subject: Search engine
Use it you idiot!
A number of businessmen told the newspaper yesterday that Arab investors would think about other destinations
And we should notify the Chinese that their management of US ports will not be tolerated either.
Very sad and so damn unnecessary.
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Maybe it was, and maybe it was not.
The majority of America does not agree with you. And the majority is still what is important in America, especially those that have not forgotten the images of 9/11.
Thank God there are checks and balances in our system.
I see this whole affair as a failure.
It was a crisis that didn't have to happen. Somone in the administration agreed DPW could take over port management contracts. The President didn't hear about it until after the fact, and then had no choice, in his mind, but to support it. And the American people, rightly in my view, were concerned about it.
Now DPW has to back out, and we apparently are viewed as racist simpletons.
Had the people responsible for greenlighting this in the first place understood and appreciated how this would be viewed by the American people as well as by Congress, they likely would not have done it, and the crisis wouldn't have happened.
Incompetence. Pure and simple.
It makes me sick.
Hear, hear! We should keep security of ports where it belongs... with the American mafia!
/sarcasm off
Although I'm somewhere between the Know Nothings and the Know Betters, the message I'm getting here is that it's ok for Muslims to hate us but not ok for us to distrust them.
Whatever. Somebody bungled this right at the start. As a strategeric Bush admin practice, ear-to-the-ground has become head-in-the-sand. The President is justly proud of himself for not leading by poll results, but that shouldn't mean one doesn't pay heed to public opinion at all.
We should keep security of ports where it belongs... with the American mafia!
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Absolutely --- :-)
,P. That's exactly what this is about but too many feel the need to make it about "racism" 'cause that's a better sell.
'Zactly.
You must be kidding!! China is in an economic war with us and is winning big time. Hopefully you are not one of those that have been making money selling out the US insterests at the expense of National security or hiring illigal alens.
China is in an economic war with us and is winning big time.
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