It’s hard to know what to think about the Dubai port takeover controversy.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President George W. Bush vowed on Tuesday to veto any attempt to block an Arab company’s takeover of management of major U.S. seaports, defying members of Congress who insisted the deal posed security risks.
Setting the stage for a showdown, Bush brushed aside objections from Republicans and Democrats, including likely 2008 presidential contenders, to reassert his backing for a takeover covering six shipping terminals.
“After careful review by our government, I believe the transaction ought to go forward,” Bush told reporters aboard Air Force One. If Congress passed a law to stop the deal, “I’ll deal with it with a veto,” he said.
Arabs complain that this is an issue of American bias towards Arabs. True. We’re biased. Then again, we have reason to be. President Bush complains that Americans need to trust government and that the deal has been checked out but we’re told all that information is secret. Forgive me for not buying into that. If Dubai has nothing to hide, publish a public report and allay our fears.
In my lifetime, I’ve been handed rifles, pistols and machine guns by a country that doesn’t trust me to fly as a passenger on a plane with a small screwdriver. The same mental incompetence that allows such a dichotomy of realities to exist where one moment I am allowed to walk around with an automatic weapon and the next moment the government can’t trust me with a tiny computer screwdriver exists in the bureaucratic vetting process my president assures me has reviewed this deal and ensured our security. That makes me break out in nervous sweat from time to time.
Does modern government really serve me, or is it the other way around most of the time? Hmm…
President Bush isn’t going to win any new votes for Republicans with his seemingly arrogant response to this debate. Dubai may well be our ally, but it’s up to the federal government to convince actual Americans of that. And they’re doing a damn poor job right now. Let’s all take a moment to remember who serves who. If Americans want to know, government has a responsibility to answer the question.