David Brooks: Kicking the Arabs in the Teeth :: TimesSelect

Line 1: "The opposition to the acquisition of U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World is completely bogus."

I like the mild-mannered David Brooks. Always have. If he says something is completely bogus you can trust he's saying it like it is. Too bad the article is $.

But James K. Glassman (classy, like the use of the middle initial there, James) is free and here's what he's saying:

Isn't this precisely what the United States preaches? Don't we want places like Dubai to fight terror and to grow, to invest, to buy, to trade, to adopt Western commercial practices, to expose themselves to the rest of the world and thus become tolerant and moderate?

Instead, congressional leaders are trying to kill the deal, which is set to go into effect next week. Why? "Outsourcing the operations of our largest ports to a country with a dubious record on terrorism is a homeland security and commerce accident waiting to happen," says Schumer.

This is rank racist nonsense.

And, Dubai, take a bow. Here's what Americans are finally hearing about Dubai Ports World, via Glassman's post:

It is a company that knows this business well, currently running what The Guardian, the British newspaper, calls "one of the most efficient port organizations in the world," including deepwater facilities in Turkey, Hong Kong, three ports in mainland China, Australia, Germany, the Dominician Republic, Venezuela and South Korea. "Its port operations are breathtakingly fast and efficient." Meanwhile, Dubai itself is building a freeport hub, "so vast that approaching a fifth of the world's cranes are now to be found at work there."

So, who's learning from whom? Sounds like the U.S. is going to benefit from Dubai Port World's efficient business practices. Trade brings people together, and it changes them. Ain't the free market great?

The great economist, Milton Friedman, made the following observation in a recent interview:

The great virtue of a free market is that it enables people who hate each other, or who are from vastly different religious or ethnic backgrounds, to cooperate economically. Government intervention can't do that. Politics exacerbates and magnifies differences.

Bingo.