In defense of United Arab Emirates

News last week of an ordinary corporate transaction – the acquisition of Peninsular ‘ Oriental… News last week of an ordinary corporate transaction – the acquisition of Peninsular ‘ Oriental Steam Co. by Dubai Ports World – has been cause for alarm for many people. Ports in six major U.S. cities that were controlled by P’O will now be run by the state-run company based in the United Arab Emirates. The fear is because of the perception that the UAE is somehow connected to terrorism, and that this would leave our ports vulnerable to attack.

Dubai Ports World is a state-run company. That fact is of extreme importance in determining its motives. If DP World was a private company, it would have a lower profile and a more relaxed policy on security because maintaining monetary gain would be its only impetus. Instead, the company is tied to a nation that has a vested interest in keeping diplomatic peace for the sake of its continued prosperity. Things must run smoothly, or else the UAE will suffer from tarnishing its reputation of being a highly regarded nation with which to trade. For this reason, I can conclude that Dubai would never purposely instigate such a conflict.

P’O was a private British company. It’s peculiar to note that a terrorist shoe bomber was supplied in the UK. Why hasn’t P’O received scrutiny in the past for being run by a country that is known to have supplied terrorists? For the obvious reason – the United Kingdom is still perceived as an ally and to suggest that it harbors terrorism would be ridiculous.

Ironically, the businessmen and government officials of Dubai are scaring proud capitalistic Americans for simply participating in our money culture. The United States isn’t a country that produces large volumes of exportable goods. Our country relies on the exportation of currency, the end effect being that foreign investors come back to us to spend that capital. The UAE is doing the United States a favor by valuing our economy enough to have a financial interest in it.

As it is, seaport security in the United States is extremely low. Only 4 to 6 percent of international cargo containers are actually inspected when entering American ports. Does it make sense to believe that stopping a single company from operating a few of our ports is going to make a sizable dent in the terrorist threat? I’d say certainly not. Such an action would serve only to blind people from reality, creating within them a false sense of security.

Terrorists will operate through whatever means allows them to achieve their nefarious goals. Successful terrorists are highly motivated people that will attack the most weakly guarded and most unexpected of targets. They cannot be stopped through routine security precautions because terrorist attacks are not routine themselves. It’s just as easy for an attacker to use our ports as it is for him to penetrate our notoriously weak north and south borders.

I am surprised that President Bush is actually backing this deal. And not only that, he’s threatening to use his veto power to allow the port deal to continue. To put things into perspective, Mr. Bush has never vetoed anything. Perhaps I misjudged him, or perhaps he’s doing this for some hidden interest.

The GOP is using their time-tested tool of exploiting the public through fear. Fear is a wonderful motivation to act at times when that fear is legitimate, but its use to control people, power and money is a despicable practice. The fear of Dubai is unreasonable because they have shown us no reason to fear them.

Many Democrats are behaving just as irrationally, but for a different reason. Instead of taking real issue with the port deal, many in the party are using it as a political tool. Conveniently, it allows them to appear as if they are being tough on terrorism at the same time as making Bush look like a fool.

How can policy-makers have such an arrogant attitude? They think it’s perfectly fine to embed themselves in the infrastructure of Arab countries by building permanent foreign military bases. But if an Arab country takes an economic interest in a segment of American commerce and infrastructure, these same politicians begin the protesting and fear-mongering.

The United States has one of its largest foreign military port operations in Dubai, with not a single demonstrated security risk from the UAE government. And proof has yet to be shown that there was ever any link between Dubai and the supposed Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers. We have all the reason to hold the UAE in high esteem as a valuable trade partner and a model nation to other Mid-East countries.

E-mail Karim at kab85@itt.edu.