Why couldn’t President Bush have simply hired Mansoor Ijaz to tell the story of Dubai? I’m certainly nearly convinced the Dubai deal is OK after reading this editorial in the Christian Science Monitor:
Dubai’s business environment is the Middle East’s only meritocracy. Young men and women compete openly with ideas and ambitions to make their nation a model example for Muslim societies besieged by high unemployment, low literacy rates, bad trade policies, and authoritarian political structures. They run businesses transparently, with integrity and with an increasingly democratic and accountable corporate culture.
Known for innovative investing and one-of-a-kind megaprojects, Dubai should not be antagonized. Rather it should be encouraged, for example, to fund and deploy a revolutionary array of security initiatives at the US ports, such as neutron pulse scanners and smart chips for tracking containers. US technology already exists in prototype form to scan containers without opening them or materially affecting port management economics. The Department of Homeland Security should find a common investment and implementation basis with Dubai Ports World for the rapid development of such technologies.
The television signal that we receive in our hooches here in Baghdad comes from Dubai, or at least a lot of the television commercials advertise events in Dubai. It does appear to be a very modern, business oriented Arab city-state, at least on TV.
Now that we have a national dialogue on Dubai, I’m becoming more comfortable with the idea of the port deal. One question I would want to ask Mr. Ijaz about Dubai is – can a Jew and an Arab sit down in the conference room of any hotel in the city and work out a business deal in peace? Is that an ignorant thing to wonder about or use as a criteria for judging whether or not an Arab city is also a modern city that I would want to do business in or with?
Anyhow the point is to look at all the decisions we make in life in a rational way, whether they are individual or collective decisions.
The Instapundit weighs in with some comments in the Wall Street Journal on the UAE and Dubai Ports World deal. The comments are, of course, mainly related to where the blogosphere fits into the picture. As usual, Glenn Reynolds in right on target.