Editor,
It is moments like this that almost make me regret being a Republican.
The week before last, the House Appropriations Committee voted 62-2 in favor of blocking Dubai Ports World from managing the terminals at six American ports. This vote was made despite the fact that a promised 45-day review of the deal had not finished taking place, but these "representatives" in congress felt it was OK to jump the gun on this, and vote before everything was known about the deal.
When I say that this almost makes me regret being a Republican, I mean this doesn't make me fully regret it, because I know what Republicans are supposed to stand for - even if these people apparently do not. The only two people who had the sense not to be reactionary morons about the whole issue were one Republican congressman and one Democrat congressman who both insisted that not enough was known about the deal to force a vote on it.
This whole issue is being played up as a national security issue, when it is nothing of the sort. The port deal decision was made out of panic and fear - and it wasn't fear of terrorism, it was fear of the Democrats seemingly coming out ahead of Republicans on a national security issue in an election year.
As soon as this deal was announced, the Democrats and Republicans began a race to see who could kill this deal first, and embarrassingly enough, it was the Republicans who won. They came up with stupid campaign catchphrases like "Keep American ports in American hands."
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We're going to run into a problem there, because the ports were always in our hands, and even if the deal went through, it would still be in the government-controlled local port authority's hands. Also, Americans have not run the terminals at the ports since British-owned Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company took control - there isn't an American company that has an interest in running terminals at ports.
I expect Democrats to act like knee-jerk reactionary children about things like this. Make no mistake, Democrats have done whatever they can to try and convince the American people that there is no enemy, that George Bush is the enemy, that we have to understand why the terrorists hate us, or that there is no overwhelming terrorist threat.
If there is something good to come out of this whole debacle, it's that Democrats might finally accept that we have an enemy out there. The problem is that instead of leveling their sights at America's real enemies, they have leveled them at America's friends, and Republicans went right along with it.
I realize congressmen have constituents that they have to represent, and the American public has been shown to be against the deal by about 80 percent. Of course, it is also the reason we have a representative democracy - we expect our representatives to educate themselves on an issue before they vote on it, and they didn't even wait for the 45-day waiting period.
As of now this deal is officially over. Members of Dubai's royal family were said to be furious over United States plans to reject their bid to operate terminals at American ports - and they're threatening to cancel American business deals, and perhaps even kick the United States military forces from strategic bases in the United Arab Emirates.
I think we'll begin to see a few congressmen come foreword to say, "Gee, maybe we didn't think this all the way through before we rushed a vote on this." Good job, Congress, pat yourselves on the back - you've alienated a friend of the United States and sent a horrible message to overseas investors who may want to have business relations in the future.
Mathew Nidel
UNM student
