The American Spectator

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p> NO PORTS IN THIS STORM br> Re: John Tabin's Who Lost Dubai? : /p>

John Tabin gets it mostly right, but he overlooks the current state of commerce. What is really important about containers is not how they are handled when they get here but what is put in them when they are shipped. For that, we already depend a great deal on security procedures at Dubai Ports in Dubai and other ports in other countries. If it is thought that Dubai Ports as an enterprise is uniquely susceptible to terrorist infiltration, then we should stop all commerce from Dubai. Having Dubai Ports manage the unloading, storage and transshipment of containers is the least risky part of the transaction from a security standpoint.

Security at U.S. Ports is done by Customs and the Coast Guard. Most people think that two guys in an outboard motor runabout are not very effective in terms of security. But security is much more than that. It is having teams of people with badges and authority who decide which containers will be examined and how they will be examined. The port operator, whether Dubai Ports or anyone else, has no say in those procedures.

Lastly, nobody has mentioned the very firm letter from Zim, the leading Israeli shipping company. They strongly defended the business practices of Dubai Ports World and their relationship with them.

Have seamy things happened in Dubai? Very likely. Seamy things have happened in Washington. That has basically nothing to do with this commercial arrangement. People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. If we establish that no foreigners should be involved in important businesses in the U.S., what does that say about the international operations of Bechtel, ExxonMobil, Boeing, the dreaded Halliburton and thousands of American businesses which perform essential services and build infrastructure all over the world, and particularly in the Middle East?

We are engaged in a huge experiment in Iraq. We are trying to lay down a model of development for Islamic/Arab societies to move into the modern world without becoming terrorist or totalitarian. Dubai is a country that is concentrating on commerce, with all the beneficial social effects of that model. And with all the sacrifices we have made in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have just publicly established the principal that an Arab country by virtue of its Arabness is not worthy to do business with the United States.

p>I don't understand it. And more to the point, few in Congress do either. br> -- Greg Richards /p>

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