Steyn: Arab world needs more Dubais

ocregister.com ^ | March 18, 2006 | MARK STEYN

[Cannoneer No. 4]

How’s that Dubai ports deal going? You remember, the one where Dubai Ports World agreed to sell its U.S. port operations to an American company?

[snip]

If I were Dubai Ports World, I’d sell the U.S. operations to Cosco, the Chinese Commies who run port operations in California, just for the fun of watching congressional heads explode. Or does Washington’s new fun xenophobia stop at the (Pacific) water’s edge?

Congress’ demand that DPW sell their U.S. operations to someone even if there’s no someone to sell them to is almost a parody of the Democrats’ (and naysaying Republicans’) approach to national security: Gosh darnit, we may not know what we’re for but we sure as hell know what we’re against. In that sense, whatever one’s dissatisfactions on this third anniversary of the Iraq invasion, the Bush Doctrine remains the only game in town. It recognizes that the problem has to be fixed at the source, which means changing the nature of the terrorist breeding grounds. That’s not sappy internationalism, but taking the game to the enemy.

[snip]

So saying "Get lost, Dubai" isn’t a new steeliness so much as a retreat into an unsustainable bunker mentality more sentimental than Bush’s liberty promotion. My National Review comrade John Derbyshire has been promoting the slogan "Rubble Doesn’t Cause Trouble." Cute, and I wish him well with the T-shirt sales.

[goldstategop]

Interestingly enough, Tom Friedman, the foreign affairs guru of the Left agrees with Steyn. Dubai is the kind of Arab Singapore we should want to hold up as a model for the future of the Arab world. But as Friedman noted, we also just informed them to go to hell.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Siena Dreaming]

Or does Washington’s new fun xenophobia

Last I knew Steyn was on the fence regarding the ports deal.

Now it looks like he's calling the anti-ports people xenophobes. Has he jumped off the fence onto the pro-Dubai side?

[Clara Lou]

I didn't ever see Steyn on the fence.

[AntiGuv]

Singapore at least pretends to have elections. ;)

[Bahbah]

I didn't ever see Steyn on the fence.

Nor do I. I think he held his fire until he understood what was going on and I don't recall him voicing any opposition.

[HardStarboard]

>>>Last I knew Steyn was on the fence regarding the ports deal.<<<

If there is one thing that Steyn is seldom - its "on the fence"!

I recall him being pro-DPW ports deal on the Hugh Hewitt show when the whole imbroglio was just getting started.

Buchanan'ist protectionist xenophobia killed DPW - played brilliantly by Schumer and Co. and flubbed by the administration who didn't enter the game until it was over!

[goldstategop]

Steyn makes the point ALL the 9/11 failures came from the American government. Dubai is not any one's idea of a democracy but in hindsight, we ought to have allowed Arabs to run our ports, if only to give them a stake in our security. If Dubai profits from America, they won't attack the hand that feeds them. And it shows the Muslim World its best to drop jihad and try trade and commerce. Over the long run that will open up their societies and make us more safer. We can't turn the entire Muslim World into rubble unless we're willing to also take on the trash that keeps their societies subservient and backward. Its just too bad election season politics got in the way of a sensible approach. Do we really want to tell Arabs who want to do business with America other than to sell us oil to get lost? What's truly ironic is the xenophobic and racial profiling arguments against Middle Easterners came from liberals. These are the people who usually tell us to be understanding and respectful of other cultures. But they took the time to tell Dubai they are not welcome in this country.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[1rudeboy]

Who is this Friedman character? Is he to free-traders who Paul Krugman is to protectionists?

[hosepipe]

[ Now it looks like he's calling the anti-ports people xenophobes. Has he jumped off the fence onto the pro-Dubai side? ]

Why not... since the Chinese communist already OWN docking stations in most western, eastern U.S. ports and most South American and Canadian ones too.... Dubai is not nearly as involved in selling wherewithall to terrorists as chinese commies do.. and the chinese commies vassal North Korea.. which the chinese commies work thru with near abandon..

American National Security is pretty much a joke.. thats WHY the Mexican Wall is not built.. its a JOKE... with the american masses being oblivious.. Mark is not oblivious..

[King Prout]

the snippets are great, as Mark Steyn usually is.

anyone have a freely-reprintable-in-full source for this article? I'm not in the mood to register anywhere at the moment.

[Siena Dreaming]

I think he held his fire until he understood what was going

Well, that's kind of what I mean. He didn't take a position early on in one of his columns.

I find it interesting that he's now pro-Dubai. I was wondering which way he would go.

[CBart95]

Try cooling down a smidge.

He's merely pointing out that this xenophobia is likely to be only just beginning. He's just observing ...not taking sides... the situation is ripe for more reprecussions as the facts become more available.

China Ocean Shipping (COSCO) is an excellent example of a "MAJOR PRESENCE" in our ports right this moment.

[goldstategop]

Friedman is a New York Times foreign affairs correspondent and columnist. He's a liberal but's also bullish for the Iraq War, for democracy in the Arab World and a staunch proponent of the benefits of globalization. All of which is anathema to the American Left.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Siena Dreaming]

He's just observing ...not taking sides

Seems to me in naming Congress as xenophobic, he's declared his pro-Dubai stance.

[conservativecorner]

No, the world needs more Anwar al-Sadats.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I didn't ever see Steyn on the fence.

Never, in the ports deal IMHO. I wasn't in doubts that Steyn and Rush were on the same page. And what are the odds that both of them would be off the reservation?

[fishtank]

No, we simply told them to wait until:

(1) They grant religious freedom to their people

(2) they recognize Israel

(3) they distance themselves from Taliban and Al Qaeda

(4) they stop getting cozy with Iran

[goldstategop]

If the Democrats were intellectually and morally honest, they'd demand an end to ChiCom involvement in our Western ports. This deal was attacked by political demagogues who stampeded the American people into thinking Al Qaeda would be in charge of every American port. Stop and think for a moment: if America doesn't have an Arab ally, who do we trust? It was our own government that let us down on 9/11, not the Sultan of Dubai. But no one's saying the government should be kept from running the ports despite those failures. And we ought to exclude Arabs because they're a security risk. This from the same people who deny we're at war with radical Islam.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[dufekin]

But Dubai Ports World has become for the American People the moral equivalent of an Anglicism of the name "Usama bin Laden" and hence an enemy of the United States set to buy the moral equivalent of the New York Port Authority and the US Customs agency. And that's the Truth refined from the reality by our friends at America's premier mental institution, the Democratic National Committee.