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February 27, 2006
With the ports mess, what goes around has finally come around
The tone deafness of the Bush Administration in approving Dubai Ports World’s purchase of the Peninsular & Oriental company is astonishing. But to many who have seen Bush’s cynical political use of the terrorism card, the irony is juicy.
This is one area in which perceptions matter as much or more than reality. I’m not qualified to say whether having a United Arab Emirates-owned company managing U.S. ports poses a security risk. It’s true that two of the 19 9/11 hijackers came from there.
To Americans, and to politicians running for reelection, all Arabs look alike, and they’re scary. That’s much to our discredit because it’s racist. Te Bush administration didn’t see this flap coming. They distinguish between “good” Arab states, like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, the undemocratic state that regards women as second-class, and rogue Arab states like Iraq, Iran and Syria. They haven’t taught Americans how to distinguish the good ones from the bad ones on their list.
The Bushies have cynically used terrorism, as Karl Rove did in the 2002 mid-term elections to maintain control of Congress. But now they are forlorn when xenophobia is deployed against them. As my dad used to say, “What goes around comes around.” Finally.
Posted Feb 27 2006 @ 06:48 AM