ARTICLE: "Bush, Congress Head for Clash Over Ports Deal: President Promises a Veto, As Republican Leaders Move To Block Dubai Acquisition," by Greg Hitt, Dennis K. Berman and Daniel Machalaba, Wall Street Journal, 22 February 2006, p. A1.

EDITORIAL: "Ports of Politics: How to sound like a hawk without being one," Wall Street Journal, 22 February 2006, p. A14.

EDITORIAL: "Paranoia about Dubai ports deal is needless," Financial Times, 21 February 2006.

After lecturing the Europeans over the cartoon flap, it's awfully weird to watch the paranoia, racism, and pure political nonsense at work on the proposed purchase of a British port-managing firm by a Dubai corporation.

The message we send on this is clear: if you're Arab, you're immediately untrustworthy. Dubai seeks to become the Singapore of the Middle East, and watching that rather progressive model of capitalism + Islam reach out for this strand of connectivity in a venue it knows all too well (shipping) makes perfect sense, just like CNOOC reaching for UNOCAL last summer.

Is it the pretense of these "hawks" that America somehow "secures" itself in a globalized world, not being able to trust any others in this process?

This thing is so overblown on so many levels as to be truly, madly, deeply stupid as a political football. Shame on any presidential types for grabbing this one and running with it. Our goal in the GWOT is to connect the Middle East faster than the jihadists can disconnect it, so again, what do we say here to the people of Dubai,who have--believe it or not--done plenty to aid our efforts in the region at great personal risk to their national security?

This is something I harp on in BFA: either we reward countries trying to make the journey from Gap to Core or we stop pretending we're in this GWOT for anything other than our own profiteering--political or otherwise.

The biggest joke? This labeling of the contract as somehow putting the company in question in charge of our port security, when it's only about managing commercial activities. The Coast Guard runs security for our ports--always has and always will. This is misrepresentation of the worst sort, and it's why I argue against a strategic communications strategy with the Gap: our own politicians screw up that sort of effort on a daily basis. Better to police our own loose lips than seek any singular voice abroad.

People act responsibly when you give them responsibility. Dubai has earned that trust. Either we're true to our word or let's just go Tom Friedman's 'cut-them-off-at-the-gas" proposal and tell the entire Islamic world that we accept Osama bin Laden's offer of civilizational apartheid.

I'm with Bush on this one. He's showing some serious maturity on a subject about which too many in Congress are acting childishly.