Adding my own thoughts on this issue....
When the news on this issue first broke, one of my co-workers, a fairly 'right minded' individual was upset about the news. He was quite concerned that the move was a bad one, and in his mind, and that of another co-worker, it was completely the wrong thing to do at the wrong time.
I was unconcerned, and even when the news came out that the deal was torpedoed, I was unconcerned for the most part. As I told my co-worker, and others that we work with, as well as friends, I don't think having Dubai/UAE in charge of the ports makes a whit of difference as to who handles what on the docks. The docks will be still be controlled by the friends of Tony Soprano, Teamsters, Longshoremen, etc. Union personnel through and through that will in no way change the way they do business in their daily lives just because another company, that happens to be based in another nation, is signing their checks.
This was plain and simple fear mongering, and once the ball was rolling, the Republicans had to show themselves to continue to own the homeland security issue, even over the objections of their President, because they feared that they'd be giving up an issue to the Democrats and the likes of Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer.
I'd have let them have the issue and I'd have turned right around and called them the fear mongering and somewhat racist jerks that they really are. As noted above and in the news, the Democrats own beloved lover-boy former leader was lobbying on behalf of the folks in the UAE, and had no qualms in doing so. Neither did Bob Dole, John Warner (himself no slouch in the area of national security) or a host of others.
I'm greatly saddened and sickened that things turned out how they did. There really was no legitimate reason to shoot down the ports deal, and yet it became a fire that was out of control and the media drove the issue. Hell, that right there should tell you why we went in the wrong direction, or at least how to tell that we did -- the media was the driver. They drove the issue, and choose the outcome that they wanted and was the only one they'd accept. The self same liberal media that lets the likes of the New York Times, Washington Post, Time magazine and a batch of others try to pick our presidents and run our national and foreign policy.
There are other threats out there, many of other threats. Driving away potential partners and people we should be trying to impress or get to cooperate with us and help influence others in the Islamic world is stupid. Instead of showing ourselves to be a people that are able to form partnerships and trust with others, we show we are easily scared and that we will let racism and religious biases drive our behavior.
I hope that Schumer, Clinton (Hillary), and all of the others involved are proud of themselves and the damage they've done to our nations reputation.
