There has been a flash flood of discussion (if broadly defined) concerning the pending sale of operations of U.S. ports to an Arab company. Several observations are in order, some original and some in link-form.

Are you sitting down? Good. I think the president made a good point (in part)...still breathing?...Good.

At least as it has been attributed to him, the president rhetorically asked why this company is being treated differently than other non-Arab foreign companies (including other companies controlled by foreign governments). [Granted...the president did not know he was asking a question rhetorically, or even what that means, and this was probably an accidental lapse in his control over his inner dialogue.]

While I think there are some valid answers to that question (most of which could be found in the president's own policies to this point (e.g. Guantanamo Bay, airport screening, etc.)), I also believe that the president makes a good point. To assume that simply because a company is affiliated and/or controlled by a state that is affiliated with the same religion as terrorists who threaten our nation and its people, that said company will intentionally allow harm to befall our nation and its people is xenophobic and inconsistent. Based on that logic, no Christian person or company affiliated with a Christian person should be allowed in public buildings or granted government contracts because they might cooperate with the Ku Klux Klan (analogy borrowed from this episode of the best show in television history).

That said, there are valid issues with this sale. But, I believe the wholesale bandwagon-jumping is political opportunism and it insults the intelligence of the American people. Are some Americans going to create wild conspiracies involving the U.S. government selling its own people into slavery to the Arab world? Sure. But, they already have those theories. Many Americans, however, may be able to comprehend the difference between the terrorist network itself and a corporation affiliated with a state which, by the way, is consistently named as an ally in the war on terror. To conflate the terrorists with an Arab corporation is racist, period. The irony, however, is noteworthy.

The Bush Administration is now suffering this eruption of controversy (from both sides of the aisle, mind you) because it has been so successful in convincing the world that an Arab-looking person is suspicious (See airport screening, suspicionless arrests of Arab and Muslim men after 9/11) and that a person who practices Islam may deserve to be labeled an "enemy combatant" and relocated to a non-place on the island of Cuba or, worse, not be labeled at all and simply disappear to an undisclosed location (See GITMO, black-site interrogation, torture). As a great example, consider that the port transaction's opponents first point out that some of the 9/11 hijackers used the United Arab Emirates (UAE) -- the state that "owns" the company in question -- as a base of operations. This is sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it? This rationale was the same used daily by the Administration to further its war on terror and, ultimately, the "military operations" in Iraq.

My point is karma. If you spend all your time and energy creating and manipulating the people's fear to serve your (political) purposes, beware of the consequences. The Administration has created this problem for itself by dumbing down or ignoring altogether a substantive discussion of terrorism (and its causes), the political and economic state of the Middle East, the proper role of diplomacy and economic incentives in the war on terror, and the actual threats to national security. Instead of educating the American people, the Administration has bravely and brilliantly created a nation of citizens who are told it is patriotic to be suspicious of people who practice Islam or look Arab. If the Administration had spent more time convincing the American people that not all Arabs are terrorists and that one way to defeat terrorism is to welcome economic exchange with Arab states, it may not be as easy for politicians -- many from the "new" Republican party which the Administration's own strategist helped orchestrate -- to stand up and bang the Great Drum of Fear. But, instead, the Administration spent time building the Drum, one innuendo-laden speech at a time.

Until recent weeks, the president has been leading a political parade, pounding the drum in the back of the pack. One by one, his band has begun to turn around and march the other way. And now, the president must choose whether to step aside and get out of the way of the parade he created or to be trampled by it.

My dogma ran over my karma.
Chickens came home to roost.
What goes around comes around.
Et cetera...
- posted by C @ 8:35:00 PM