Ports of Concern?

Fire of Liberty
As I noted in an earlier post, I think the whole kerfuffel over the ports is more of a mole-hill than the mountain that our congressmen, senators and the MSM(excluding a select few like the WSJ and the Wash. Post)are making it out to be. Above all else, the ports will still be patrolled and policed by the US Coast Guard and the Custom and Border agents no matter which countries or how many owners who possess the deed to the property. The thing that bothers me about the whole matter is that the folks who keep saying that it's alright for the Brits or the Chinese to run our ports but it's not ok for a Muslim country like the UAE to run the show. Their main reason is that the UAE is a country that is far more likely to have people in the internal workings of the company or in other parts of the operation that might be playing ball with the radical Islamists and might find a way exact some horrific damage on our country via a bomb. Thankfully, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Jack Kelly(A big security minded fellow and not too slack on the White House when it comes to these issues)has put some deep thought into the matter not to mention wading through the hyperbole of both the left and right and has revealed in his most recent column that the deal doesn't effect our security one iota but is just another transaction in the global economy. Take a look:

Among Arab nations, we have no better friends than the United Arab Emirates. The government (which owns Dubai Ports World) sponsors a U.S. Air Force base, services U.S. Navy warships and is assisting in our efforts to shut down terrorist funding. (Dubai is the banking, and consequently the money laundering, center of the Gulf.)

Unlike Saudi Arabia, the UAE is a modern, tolerant country. The British Financial Times describes it as "the Singapore of the Gulf." The UAE is what we wish every Arab country were like. But we will not make more friends in the Arab world if we treat the friends we have as if they were enemies.

There are, of course, Islamists in the UAE. But not, so far as we know, in the management of Dubai Ports World, whose security record has been exemplary.

There are, as we have seen, Islamists in Toledo, too. And there are lots of Islamists in London, which is where Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, the British firm Dubai Ports World bought, is headquartered. Not even Jack Cafferty has yet suggested we stop doing business with Ohio and Britain.

For me, if we allow the UAE service our warships, aircraft carriers, and supply ships and they provide a base for our military aircraft/spy-planes then they've got to be pretty darn safe. So maybe Sean Hannity and Representative King, Sens. Schumer and Clinton should calm their jets and realize that they're strutting around for looking stupid on this particular issue.