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I think I have come to a decision based on what I've read, heard, thought, blah, blah, blah.
I am no longer against it.
The UAE - Dubai in particular - is one of the more "westernized" Arab countries. More liberal, if you. Far fewer restrictions on women, more personal freedoms. If the US of A makes a decision that simply because they are an Arab nation that we cannot do business with them, then it sends a message to Arabs everywhere that westernization - however small it may be - we will not do business with them because we perceive them all as terrorists.
The only thing that changes from the way it is run now is the bean counters.
The longshoremen and their union will still be running the operations of the docks. The coast guard will still be in charge of all port security. As it is now, the Dubai shipping company (or whatever their name is) runs the docks from which almost everything that comes in to the US comes from.
I think more than Iraq and more than Iran and more than Afghanistan and more than our support of Isreal, what will speak to Mr. and Mrs. Average Abdul in the middle east would be the refusal of the US to do business with a country simply because they are, well, Arab. Why support any sort of reform to a western open philosophy that same western opn philosophy views them all as terrorists.
That being said, perhaps I am a racist. Would I feel the same way if Arabs would be the ones working the docks? I don't know. I don't think all Arabs are terrorists, but most terrorists we deal with are Arab. This is proving to be a difficult topic for me.
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