Posted on 03/12/2006 7:51:11 PM PST by bayourant
"I really don't have to curry favor with Mark....NOT AT ALL! someone sounds a bit jealous.. I am gonna guess you are a female..."
Geez, you're still at it. "someone sounds a bit jealous". Still touting that "special relationship" you think you now have, eh? I did like your first sentence though: "I don't have to curry favor with Mark". Good, don't.
"Have you been over there lately? The cities over there make Times Square look suburban. Their most popular restaurants are places like Chili's and McDonalds. There is a Starbucks on every corner. Their shopping malls put ours to shame. There is a satellite dish on every rooftop, and children wear Oakland Raider t-shirts. "
And Osama uses a cell phone, Iran is making nukes, and the 9/11 hijackers flew planes.
Shared technology (invented by the West) does not equal in any way shared values.
When they held local elections in Saudi Arabia, guess who won?
Islamists.
Ditto for Bahrain, and Kuwait.
The UAE is even worse than the former states, at least according to one poll, which indicates that over 70% of the Muslim native population has a hostile view of the United States.
At least there were ceremonies honoring the victims of September 11th in Kuwait.
I'm not aware of any similar ones taking place in Dubai, or Abu Dhabi, or anywhere else in the Trucial states.
They might have occurred, but the fact that I didn't see or hear of them-and most Americans weren't aware of them, if they did take place-is telling.
It is called strategic reality....which also explains why we've been so kind and considerate to them.
"France has nukes. Does that concern you?"
Yes. It does. Having witnessed first hand the French propensity to sell any technology it controls to the highest bidder, I would prefer France not having nuclear weapons.
"Would you feel the same about our allies Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait having nukes?"
The fewer countries that have nuclear weapons the better. I don't care if its Qatar, Iran or Japan.
Actually, Miers withdrew when it was clear she wasn't impressing anybody. When Specter and Leahy sent her questionare back, with Leahy saying it was the first time in his life he could remember a nominee failing their questionare, it was clear she wasn't coming up to speed. When every senator that met her came away unimpressed (except for Reid, who probably liked having someone he didn't feel inferior to), that told her things were going badly.
Of course "republicans" killed the nominee, we are the majority. But what killed her was that, as the facts were revealed, it was clear she needed to withdraw.
What killed the PORTS deal was a combination of things, none of which had to do with port security. By the end the number one complaint was that we shouldn't "REWARD" the country with the deal, as if running terminals in our ports is some great prize that we reserve for only the noblest of the noble.
The arguments at least had finally found a factual basis, although they were far removed from the initial complaints. "UAE doesn't recognize Isreal, they recognized the Taliban, they support they boycott, they don't vote with us in the U.N, they haven't been our friends long enough" -- these were the arguments that slowly replaced the lie "we can't give our ports away to terrorist countries like UAE", and the personal attack "You just can't trust muslims, you can't trust arabs, they are just out to get us, their religion teaches them to lie to us". While the real argument seemed to be "we have to seal our borders, and now we're going to do THIS?"
as one who wished our terminals were run by patriotic conservative-supporting american companies, it was hard to be on the side of the rule of law, and of free trade, against those who thought somehow stopping this one deal would make a bit of difference.
But given that the BIG argument was about whether Bush was selling out the country for his oil buddies, it seemed unfathomable that republicans would jump on that, given that Bush had to follow the law, that the law was followed, and it was unseemly to attack him for that, or to say (as so many did the first days) that the deal had not been reviewed.
The answer you demand from me, is many threads long, which is why I suggested that you go and read them. Actually, why is it that haven't read them?
The consequences/fallout from the way all of this was handled, takes various forms; both here and abroad.
The citizenry, after having been whipped up and filled up with a diet of lies, comes off looking biased, easily molded, and confused; and that's putting it kindly.
Not all Arabs are Muslims. Not all Muslims are Arabs. Not all Muslim Arabs are terrorists. Some terrorists aren't Arabs at all. And not all terrorist Islamonazis are even foreigners!
But that's NOT the picture that was portrayed by the MSM, the damned Dems, and some GOPers.
American has a rather large TRADE SURPLUS with the UAE.
The UAE has, in point of fact, been a very good ally, of the USA, since 9/11.
Putting forth the face of the UGLY AMERICAN, just feeds the IslamoNazis who then say: "SEE? THEY HATE ALL OF US, SO WE'RE RIGHT IN WANTING TO DESTROY THEM!". People, who otherwise wouldn't believe that garbage, might now.
Just because the UAE now buys a LOT of stuff from us, doesn't mean that after this debacle, they still shall. America isn't the only country that manufactures planes.
The UAE has supplied us with not only vital intell, but also refurbishes our ships, gives us free reign to use their ports and flyover space and has caught members of al Qaeda and handed them over to us.
This is the Cliff notes of the Cliff notes of the Cliff notes. I suggest that you find the threads which go into a LOT of detail about these things and more, and read them.
LOL
"When they held local elections in Saudi Arabia, guess who won?"
That would be the one where women could not vote.
Yes. many shared values/not
Ha haaa -- you got post #666.
I just saw that KIA (a foreign company) is actually buying LAND in the middle of the heartland, to set up a factory where they will build CARS. They say they will hire americans, but maybe we'd be better off if they sold off this factory to an american company, I'd sure feel a lot more secure knowing that Dahmler-Chrysler was running this factory.
:-)
I don't know if you've heard of Lucien Bitterlein, but there's a wonderful section of "The Rage and the Pride" that explains his ominous plan for cultural subjugation of Europe by the Muslim world.
Willingly surrendering Europe's treasures to the Arab-Muslim world.
Only he didn't call them "Muslims."
He called them "Arabs."
And it was not framed as subjugation, but as multicultural integration.
The new term was Eurabia, an insidious neologism that we've come to know all to well in recent years.
Personally, I'd rather live as a free man in a third world country-where you have to ride a rickshaw instead of a motor vehicle with an internal combustion engine-than a first world country, the much-derided American "hyperpower" of the nightmares that plague Dominique de Villepin that's perpetually enslaved to the Arab-Muslim leviathan.
you stepped in it bigtime pardner...lol
by your analogies...
Fat Albert was a racist cartoon too
somebody call Cosby..lol
that is exactly what I was thinking
That would be "The Force of Reason."
The second part of her trilogy defending Western civilization, not her first book in that series.
Suppoedly the third has already been published overseas.
I just hope the English-language translation is published much sooner than the previous volumes.
Yet, in every single thread discussing the UAE port deal, you bring up Saudi Arabia. Go figure.
"I am saying that Arabs in general, regardless of which Arab country is being talked about, are not to be trusted."
Amazing that someone would have the gall to accuse you of making gross generalities based on a person's ethnic background. How dare they.
"It's only been about 4 years since 9/11 (two of the hijackers were from the UAE), and now suddenly they've done a 100% turnaround and are our best buds?"
Amazing that all those terrorists came legally to the United States to accomplish their training. It is almost like the United States allows terrorists to train inside its borders. We ought to ban trade with ourselves. And we should also ban trade with Great Britain. The last terrorist to try to commit an attack on our nation was Richard Reid, the Shoebomber. He was a citizen of Great Britain. And don't forget the evil French. Zacarias Moussaoui, the leader of them all was a Frenchman.
Your problem, Flaglady, is that you aren't even aware of what world you actually live in. You certainly have no idea of what is real and what is media skewed perception. You live in a world of your own creation, and I doubt there is anything that could shake you from it.
Tell that to the Menonites. The fact that Arab culture is increasingly accepting Western influence is a very strong indicator of a shift in values. Why do you think the Taliban and the Mullahs of Iran prohibit all forms of Western influence?
was that bayourod reincarnated?
biggest dumbass move I've seen around here in 6 years maybe
called Levin out and then denied he said what he himself wrote just a half dozen replies before in his vanity
hysteria
Levin is a good guy..
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