While I’m Bush-bashing, I should toss out at least some small comment on the whole ports thing.
Look, I actually don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with the ports deal–I think most of the reaction to it has been ridiculously overblown. In fact, I think Kenton Kelly has some excellent points in his piece over at Reason Online:
Beyond that, port security is not in the hands of terminal operators; it is handled by four agencies of the federal government as well as state and local law enforcement agencies. A number of port authorities, such as New York/New Jersey’s, have their own police forces. While terminal operators have a variety of international and domestic security regulations to comply with, they are not in charge of any aspect of port security. The fact is that P&O never has had the responsibility for providing port security.
and
So, in the end, what we are telling Arab moderates in no uncertain terms is that it doesn’t matter what they do; what matters is what they are. After all our posturing about the hypocrisy of Arab and Muslim moderates who haven’t stood up to Middle East extremists, it turns out our only reward for the people who do take a stand is a mix of distrust and contempt.
That being said, though, I think it’s a hilarious example of incompetence that the Bush people didn’t see that this would be an incredibly hot issue with the American public. I could go on about that, but not any better than John Scalzi puts it:
Simple fact: You can’t spend years demonizing a group of people in words and in deeds and expect people you’ve been scaring not to react badly when suddenly it seems like you’re in bed with the demons and getting slipped their devilish meat. I fully grant the UAE is not Iraq or Iran, but with no disrespect toward the mass of US citizens, the vast majority of us can’t find the UAE on a map and even if we could, through ignorance and design we’ve lumped “Arabs” into a massive, scary category so indiscriminate in its composition that if one were to point out to most Americans that Iranians aren’t actually Arab at all, they’d look at you with blank incomprehension and wonder what your point is. They’re all swarthy Moooslims! They can’t be trusted! This is not a formulation the Bush folks have gone out of their way to correct, as it has served their purposes well enough up to this point.
and
Again: How could the Bush people not see this coming? The fact that they didn’t (or did but managed to convince themselves it wouldn’t be a big deal) is among many other reasons why this is such a horrible presidency: It’s not smart enough to see the consequences of its own actions, even when those consequences are laid out like Tinkertoys directly in front of them.
I really hope Scalzi’s conclusions about the possible good that can come from this is something that is realized. I’m all about a powerful series of checks and balances that limits the power of any government.
(Note: I also find this whole thing funny, since it’s just more of the administration imploding. I issue my best Nelson-esque “Ha Ha”.)
