How Quickly Things Change
filed in Commentary, News, Political on Feb.28, 2006
The Venerable William F. Buckley expounds upon that nagging suspicion that’s been dancing around the periphery of my conscious thoughts this past week: It Didn’t Work. “It”, of course, is our intervention — experiment, even, depending on which columnists you read — in Iraq. Most notably, WFB notes that our course in Iraq was founded on two assumptions, two postulates; should either of them prove untrue, then “all bets are off.” It would seem that this is where we find ourselves.
Depressing in some ways, this concept. Frankly, “disturbing” is a more appropriate word. All the more so when compounded with the sheer staggering scale of Dubya’s 2nd Term screwups — the latest of which is, of course, the UAE ports deal. Unlike the popular hype, I don’t think the sky would indeed fall if such a deal were cut — but for sheer political reasons alone it should’ve gone permanently in the circular file. Consider the irony: the administration is assuring us that our ports would be just as secure as they currently are once we hand a large portion of the day-to-day ops to a Middle Eastern Arabic country …while the same administration can’t even secure our borders, can’t even prevent the daily tsunami of illegals across the very boundaries that delineate our country. All in all, not good politics — and at a time when Bush needs to do everything right, politics included.
Europe and the Middle East aren’t getting better. If we can’t hold the course, no one else will.
March 4th, 2006 on 3:31:11 pm
In your commentary you state,
Ah, but there’s the rub…(and the mis-information that the dems and the media have so far successfully communicated…either through plan or sheer ignorance). Interesting too, that the dems have now taken a totally opposite stance concerning our country’s treatment of Arab countries and people. This is clearly a stance taken solely by the dems for political gain.
But, the truth is, as we are all slowly beginning to find out (see FOX news for some informative reports), ownership of the ports has very little to do with the ‘day to day operations’ of the offloading, inspection, and/or security of our ports.
A recent FOX news investigation reported that, for the ports being discussed in the ‘Dubai Ports World’ deal, none of the current personnel or operations would be affected or changed in any way; and in fact, such operations or personnel would not fall strictly, or even primarily, under the control of such a purchaser.
If anything, the current debate focuses needed attention on an area that is obviously poorly understood by the US congress, the media, and the US citizenry. For instance, the major responsibilities for security, inspections, off-loading, etc. were spelled out in the National Maritime Security Act passed in November 2002, which put the Coast Guard in charge of tightening port security, while Customs and Border Protection oversees the cargo that arrives in more than 20,000 shipping containers that pass through U.S. ports daily. In addition, the Homeland Security Department released a report stating that the ‘people working on the docks’ and security personnel would not change under the pending deal.
Dennis Murphy, former Customs port director at the Port of Norfolk and former Homeland Security spokesman said the entire supply chain is scrutinized by a number of people — including the buyer, the seller and the shipper along with federal officials — who want to make sure cargo moves where it’s supposed to move. ‘It’s an elaborate ballet of information and machinery,’ he said. ‘You don’t mess around. If you divert a container here and there, investigators will crawl all over your personal life if they think anything is hinky.’
Bottom Line?
Yes, the ports deal gives the appearance of a weak, uninformed George Bush. And, what has transpired is definitely another Presidential political mistake, which you so eloquently describe as ‘another 2nd Term screwup by Dubya.’ But, let’s not allow the country’s wide-spread buy-in to the dems’ and the media hype slide by without getting the facts out there. Forcing our politicians to fully understand the facts of US port ownership versus port operations/security is essential to providing legislation that can properly regulate, secure, and protect our ports and our citizens.
Let’s add our voice to getting the facts out there, and force congress to deal with the facts and not just the hype. Clearly, our ports are far from being as secure as they need to be; but just as clearly, the ownership of those ports by the Dubai company seems to threaten our ports more in appearance than in fact. Port ownership aside, the US congress must become better informed and act quickly to plug the holes and strengthen security in this critical arena of our nation’s fight against terrorism.