UAE Company Agrees to Delay Ports Takeover

A United Arab Emirates company offered Thursday to delay part of its $6.8 billion takeover of most operations at six U.S. ports to give the Bush administration more time to convince skeptical lawmakers the deal poses no security risks. The surprise announcement relieves some pressure from a standoff between President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress, which has threatened to block the deal because of the UAE’s purported ties to terrorism.

The Chief sees the ending of this issue on the horizon. The Congressional GOP critics will take a breath, step back, re-examine everything, and eventually go along with the deal. There ARE some excellent strategic reasons to do so: if something is required in the future to deal with Iran, the bases (Naval and Air Force) in Dubai will be critically important. (Of course the Donks, will just take a deep breath, have another swallow of Kool-aid, and continue to attack Dubya et al unremittingly.)

Of course on the negative side, there IS still the fecklessness of the Administration in successfully dealing with the Mexican and Canadian borders, the bungled and confused response to Katrina, and little faith left in assurances that “Everything will be OK with the deal.”

Overall, this deal to have not just a foriegn corporation, but a foriegn GOVERNMENT with a somewhat mottled past history in terms of dealing with Islamofascism, leaves a sort of queasy feeling – like the aftermath of a Tijuana street vendor’s tacos that haven’t quite started their efforts to violently excavate a new passage from the stomach to the outside world.