This is his reasoning:
["I want those who are questioning it to step up and explain why all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard than a great British company," Bush said. "I'm trying to conduct foreign policy now by saying to the people of the world 'we'll treat you fairly. And after careful scrutiny, we believe this deal is a legitimate deal that will not jeopardize the security of the country and at the same time sends that signal that we are willing to treat people fairly."]
...and his reasoning is correct assuming we are using a carrot and stick approach to Middle Eastern countries. The ones which uphold the liberties of its citizens or move quickly in that direction we should reward, and the ones which continue to oppress the peasants should be moved up the list to be dealt with in the manner of Afghanistan and Iraq.
If this deal goes through, there will be NO change in how port security is handled, and no difference in our safety.
Anyone who disagrees should explain specifically why.
If this is a Muslim country then most of its citizenry either support al-Qaeda or admire and respect it. Don't buy any bull about 'moderate Muslims'. All the 'moderate Muslims' ever say is, "do what the extremists tell you to".
We just plain cannot trust Muslim countries with vital security functions. Is that clear enough for you ?
You've asked for someone to explain this.
I'll give it a try.
America claims to be an ally of Israel, and indeed, President Bush has stated that we would defend Israel if Iran (for example) were to launch an attack.
The UAE (as already pointed out) is anti-Israel, has no diplomatic relations with Israel, was one of only a handful of nations to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, and likewise (already pointed out), has been less than cooperative in tracking down Usama bin Laden and his cohorts.
I point these things out to first establish that the UAE is the WRONG choice so far as managing port operations for the United States, particularly when military equipment is going to be routed through those ports. That would be like authorizing a Nazi firm managed by Albert Speer to oversee the ports from which our troops and supply ships were using to keep the Allied war effort alive during WWII. It is quite frankly, an insane and indefensible position. The UAE is also the wrong choice based simply on the fact that IF the U.S. values human rights, and believes specifically in the human rights of every Israeli citizen, the UAE, which disdains Israel and makes no bones about it, becomes even more of a bad example in selecting it for this function.
Now for the most critical issue here: The UAW is a Muslim country (as everyone says "no duh"). While there may be many millions of Muslims who are not predisposed to violence or terrorist acts, there is simply no way to sort them out from those who are inclined to commit such acts. To return to the Nazi analogy, during World War II, there were no doubt many Germans who expressed their public horror at the misdeeds and crimes of Hitler, but how many of those Germans were secretly rooting for der Fuehrer, and would have shielded and assisted German espionage agents? The fact is, the Nazi ideology was a powerful tool of cultural seduction, it appealed to the German desire for a strong Fatherland, to right the wrongs of World War I and the disgrace suffered by Germany.
The ideology of Islam is many times more powerful than Nazism, it appeals to the spiritual desires within the heart of every Muslim, and while we might wish to accept the disavowals of violence we hear from some Muslims, we must take those disavowals not with a grain of salt, but with a whole box.
If we allow a Muslim nation (the UAE) to become an integral part of U.S. port operations, no matter the security safeguards which may be in place, we are inviting any number of clandestine agents, who may in fact proclaim their fervor for freedom, and curse al Qaeda day and night, all the while working behind the scenes to undermine the security of any given port, with disasterous consequences if they succeed.
Our problem in detecting such subterfuge is our lack of Arabic translators at every level of our federal government. It is not possible to eavesdrop all of the possible suspects with either "live" wiretaps, or electronic surveillance ala NSA, simply because we don't have the translators in sufficient numbers to sift through the data in a timely enough fashion. The Islamofascists who seek to destroy us might as well be aliens from another galaxy speaking some hybrid hexidecimal gibberish, because that is how difficult this task is.
Our only default position is to ban Muslim companies and nations from participating in critical U.S. defense functions. It isn't a question of discriminating against Arabs or adherents of the Muslim religion, it is a question of being unable to confirm that those who we would grant access to are in fact, good security risks.
If this were World War II, the benefits would be outweighed by the risks to our collective national security. In the post 9/11 world, with the real possibilities of chemical/biological or nuclear terrorism, the risks are simply too high to gamble with political correctness, high minded statements about "playing fair", and hoping that by inviting a potential fox into our henhouse, that the chickens will still be alive in the morning.
The President is wrong. That is the bottom line, and I regret to say that it appears that hubris has set in.
And what thanks did Israel get when they gave up Gaza to the Palestinians recently. If Bush really thinks generosity will change them, then he needs to review the history books.
The British company was not owned by the British government. DP world is one hundred percent owned by the UAE government. That is a HUGE difference.
Because a foreign-owned company -- ANY foreign-owned company -- just shouldn't be controlling our ports, ESPECIALLY ports that handle Army shipping!
...The ones which uphold the liberties of its citizens or move quickly in that direction we should reward...
Sometimes carrots ARE the right lever.