Today the company, Dubai Ports World, has rescinded their offer to buy several US ports as Congress intensified their objections to the deal. Bush originally said that he would veto any overruling of the deal by Congress, and then backed down after seeing the opposition from both parties.
The news of DPW's decision came to Senate floor to mixed reviews. Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, who was one of the leaders of the opposition said:
"This is obviously a promising development, but the devil's in the details...Those of us who feel strongly about this issue believe that the U.S. part of the British company should have no connection to the United Arab Emirates or DP World."
Yet Schumer's feelings don't reflect my lack of satisfaction to this result. Look, once the press got wind of this and the deal became public knowledge, I don't believe that anyone in their right mind thought that it would go through. In fact, considering the climate of the country right now, the suggestion, regardless of its racial and nationalist overtones, was completely inane. "I have an idea, lets sell our ports to the Arabs!" It's sounds silly when typed out, and yet we have spent another two weeks fleshing the entire idea out while (fill-in-the-blank of your favorite world catastrophe) occurred. And two weeks before that we had to deal with the moronic Cheney shooting scandal, and the idiocy of the Winter Olympics, where the only think more interesting than watching grown men brush the ice out of a rolling rocks way, is watching another grown man throw himself down a mountain wearing nothing but a pair of waxed skis. And don't even get me started on that Bravo show they call ice skating--put two cowboys in it and they would nominate it for an Academy Award. Anyway...
I'm unfulfilled much like Patrick Bateman is at the end of American Psycho. The conclusion of the Dubai deal brings epiphany and no closure, because there was nothing to close. Nothing has come to an end. The real problems facing America are still facing America and nothing's changed. Some have suggested that because we turned UAE away Western companies will be denied business with the Middle East. That's bunk. Pure bunk. I am reminded of that old joke about Israel and the US talking after Israel is founded, and the US telling them, "well I hear you have some problems with your neighbors. We could loan you some Generals if you'd like." and Israel says, "Sure. Can you send General Dynamics and General Electric our way?" We've created a system within the Middle East that forces them to purchase their most important goods and services from the West, and it will continue that way as long as we continue our foreign policy. Of course this is the same policy that makes them hate us. Good for Halliburton, bad for you.
Now that would be a great slogan for the Iraq war.
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