Excellent point.
I am shocked that the UAE and the adminstration and the investments bankers and all parties involved didn't conclude that this deal, however fine it may have been operationally and financially, might have a huge PR problem.
When the fox tries to buy access to the henhouse, the chickens get nervous.
Maybe they -- like me -- intially had some questions about the potential PR problem when the deal was first announced, but had those concerns alleviated when "the PR problem" didn't materialize.
Most people seem to forget that this deal was first announced in public more than two months before the PR nightmare materialized here in ths U.S. When the DPW acquisition of P&O Ports was announced in late November of 2005 and there was no adverse reaction to it from elected officials and other interested parties in the U.S. in December, January, and during the first two weeks of February, there was no reason for anyone to suspect that it would suddenly become a major problem in mid-February.
The biggest mistake the UAE and Bush administration made in this debacle was that they grossly underestimated the abject ignorance and stupidity of people of Chuck Schumer, Peter King, Robert Menendez, and a whole host of people in the media with big mouths and small minds.