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We heard you loud and clear
Gulf News ^ | 3/12/06

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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bushbotdramaqueens; dpw; dpworld; globalisation; hystericalbushbots; knownothings; ports; soreloserman; uae
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To: trubluolyguy

"Then again China is not at war with us."

Funny, I didn't realize the UAE was at war with us. Somebody better go tell that to the U.S. Military, because we're hanging out at their base. They're loading and unloading our Navy ships and they're training Iraqi soldiers with us.


41 posted on 03/12/2006 10:43:56 AM PST by soccermom
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To: EagleUSA

The majority of Americans did not understand what the debate was about. They rose to the race-bait and the rest is history.


42 posted on 03/12/2006 10:46:54 AM PST by carton253 (Al-Qa'eda are not the Viet Cong. If you exit, they'll follow. And Americans will die...)
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To: Graymatter

I think the problem with your post is that you paint all Arabs/Muslims with the same brush. Do all Muslims hate us? Do all Arabs hate us? Should we distrust all of them?
If the answer is yes... and all hate us, then we should distrust them all... But if the answer is no, then what happened this week in Washington was disgraceful...


43 posted on 03/12/2006 10:49:32 AM PST by carton253 (Al-Qa'eda are not the Viet Cong. If you exit, they'll follow. And Americans will die...)
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To: Howlin

I love you... you are so good... LOL!


44 posted on 03/12/2006 10:51:28 AM PST by carton253 (Al-Qa'eda are not the Viet Cong. If you exit, they'll follow. And Americans will die...)
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To: carton253
It's easy to goad some [oaky...a whole lot of] FReepers into irrational fear or thinking when it comes emotionally-charged issues. Take careful notice of this poll question and the way and manner in which it was responded to.
45 posted on 03/12/2006 10:55:22 AM PST by LowCountryJoe (I'm a Paleo-liberal: I believe in freedom; am socially independent and a borderline fiscal anarchist)
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To: LowCountryJoe
true conservatives who disdain markets.

I fully expect to see them with Molotov cocktails and throwing brick at the next trade meeting.

What a bunch!

46 posted on 03/12/2006 10:56:42 AM PST by Cold Heat
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To: carton253
Try this again:
this poll
47 posted on 03/12/2006 10:56:45 AM PST by LowCountryJoe (I'm a Paleo-liberal: I believe in freedom; am socially independent and a borderline fiscal anarchist)
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To: carton253
"If the answer is yes... and all hate us, then we should distrust them all"

Yes, and no. All practicing Islamists hate us. They're required to. They teach it in Sunday school, and write it into their laws. The ones who do not hate us cannot properly be called Islamists any more than could someone who supports abortion be rightly called a practicing Catholic.

48 posted on 03/12/2006 10:57:49 AM PST by CowboyJay (Rough Riders! Tancredo '08)
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To: Valin

Actually now that I understand this whole thing I'm still torn.Yes there is a part of me that doesn't trust the UAE or any other Muslim and or Arab as far as I can throw them,..for good reason.Then there is the rational part of me that can look at a map and understand just how important an ally the UAE is and hope we didn't screw that up.Mostly this has been a PR disaster for Bush which I hope doesn't rub off on the rest of the party.


49 posted on 03/12/2006 10:59:32 AM PST by edchambers (Neocon foot-soldier of the Haliburton death squad)
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To: CowboyJay
I agree with your definition of what a Muslim is. But, just like Europe is called Christian (and they're not) so are Arabs called Muslims. Do all of them hate us? I don't think so.

Only a nitwit paints a people group with one paint brush.

50 posted on 03/12/2006 11:01:31 AM PST by carton253 (Al-Qa'eda are not the Viet Cong. If you exit, they'll follow. And Americans will die...)
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To: trubluolyguy
The US and China are in an economic struggle of tremendous significance. . . . some even call it worse than a shooting war because it is destroying the American middle class and lowering the standard of living for all Americans. To infer that we are not in an economic war which could easily esculate to shooting war is something only an unaware American could believe.
51 posted on 03/12/2006 11:07:31 AM PST by rollin (q)
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Comment #52 Removed by Moderator

To: carton253

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1595016/posts

Have you seen this thread?

I don't think I painted all, at all. But neither do I think we have to wait until every single Muslim on the planet goes on record wishing us dead, before we conclude we'd be suicidally stupid to trust them. My tolerance level, my fuse and my magic number may differ from yours.
What I was saying was that it seems there are more people who understand the Muslim hatred of the West, and fewer who understand our distrust of the Muslims.
And that regardless where you stand on the port deal, the port deal controversy should never have happened. Somebody dropped the ball there.


53 posted on 03/12/2006 11:12:17 AM PST by Graymatter
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To: Howlin

I bang my head upon the wall in sympathetic agreement. ><


54 posted on 03/12/2006 11:14:55 AM PST by Constantine XIII
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To: Graymatter
The fact that you suspect that all Muslims will go on record to wish us dead seems pretty one brush to me.

I agree the Port Deal has handled badly, but I blame the Congress... their behavior this week makes all the jokes about politicians pretty valid.

55 posted on 03/12/2006 11:15:49 AM PST by carton253 (Al-Qa'eda are not the Viet Cong. If you exit, they'll follow. And Americans will die...)
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To: tennmountainman

When the hell did the adminstration PROPOSE this deal?

DPW bought out the British company, and all the administration did is say "You don't look like the kind of people who blow stuff up, so we're OK with that."

Learn what you're talking about before you go around throwing names and CAPITALIZING things.


56 posted on 03/12/2006 11:18:32 AM PST by Constantine XIII
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To: Constantine XIII

I think it is a bit more complicated than that...


57 posted on 03/12/2006 11:22:37 AM PST by carton253 (Al-Qa'eda are not the Viet Cong. If you exit, they'll follow. And Americans will die...)
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To: carton253
The fact that you suspect that all Muslims will go on record to wish us dead seems pretty one brush to me.

It is NOT a fact, it is not what I wrote and it is not what I think. I must have expressed myself poorly. Hope this clears it up.

58 posted on 03/12/2006 11:34:53 AM PST by Graymatter
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To: Lunatic Fringe
It will come back to bite America in the A**.
You don't allow Chinese on one coast to do port business and turn another nationality away from another coast. Dubai will gradually be investing in other country's, America is not so great that it can't fall.
Now all those Dubai haters lets see you do something about China. Dubai is nowhere the size of China and, if you think China has a great love for America than you are deceived. All one has to do is watch China in the coming weeks with the UN
applying restrictions on Iran, it aint going to happen.
59 posted on 03/12/2006 11:36:53 AM PST by buck61 (luv6060)
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To: Graymatter

Good...


60 posted on 03/12/2006 11:38:58 AM PST by carton253 (Al-Qa'eda are not the Viet Cong. If you exit, they'll follow. And Americans will die...)
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