Monday, March 13, 2006
XENOPHOBIA
Now honestly, who knows all the details about this "ports deal" anyways? It seems everybody had an opinion. "Oh God no we can't give the ports to a foreign company!!" But they're run by a foreign company, a British company. "But, what about national security??" Well, what about it? How does anything change when these people come in? What, oh cause a couple hijackers were from the UAE? Oh, that makes sense, ya know cause every time an American does something stupid in Europe, we blame Bush right? Well, some may... but the point is that it's entirely illogical, and politically motivated.
But here's the best part of this article:
Thomas Friedman called it xenophobia disguised as a "national security" issue. If you really want to break it down, there are probably three layers. The core is protectionism. This is the true core of much of the Democratic opposition. The middle layer is xenophobia. The outer shell that everybody has been spoon-fed is national security. Bull shit. We've been told over and over again that the ports aren't that safe to begin with. The Dubai-based company is in the business of making money. When they look at America, they do not see brown and white. They see GREEN. Thomas Friedman also said now is not the time to start looking for Arabs under your bed like you looked for Commies during the Cold War... The situation is no good, but the only glimmer of hope is that this ends up just being politics and not anything people actually believe to their core.
But here's the best part of this article:
The ironic fact is that the UAE is precisely the kind of Arab ally the United States needs most now. But that clearly didn't matter to an election-year Congress, which responded to the Dubai deal with a frenzy of Muslim-bashing disguised as concern about terrorism. And we wonder why the rest of the world doesn't like us.Are we really that stupid as a nation to think that the UAE is just "another Arab nation"? I mean, are we really stereotyping that bad at this point? This is disgusting. This is the state in the Middle East we should be praising, and tripping over ourselves to court them.
Thomas Friedman called it xenophobia disguised as a "national security" issue. If you really want to break it down, there are probably three layers. The core is protectionism. This is the true core of much of the Democratic opposition. The middle layer is xenophobia. The outer shell that everybody has been spoon-fed is national security. Bull shit. We've been told over and over again that the ports aren't that safe to begin with. The Dubai-based company is in the business of making money. When they look at America, they do not see brown and white. They see GREEN. Thomas Friedman also said now is not the time to start looking for Arabs under your bed like you looked for Commies during the Cold War... The situation is no good, but the only glimmer of hope is that this ends up just being politics and not anything people actually believe to their core.
