Ports, Arabs, and Innuendo

I know you've all been hungering for an update on the ports issue (Senor Caliente aka Slumlord, in particular, likes to keep up to date on the ports).

Okay, enough juvenile sexual innuendo. On with the politics!

As you may recall, a big stink was created in the past couple weeks when the Bush administration approved Dubai Ports World from the United Arab Emirates to administer several major U.S. ports. I will spare you the charge and counter-charge of "9-11" and "terrorism" that have infested the mass media and instead deliver (without a TimesSelect subscription) Nicholas Kristof's assessment:

Let's be blunt: this fuss about ports is really about Arabs.

Kristof provides a number of balms to soothe the terrorism fever: DPW is from Dubai, the "Disneyland" of the Arab world that is pro-Western; many DPW executives are from Western countries. However, it might be worth pointing out that at some point we have to start trusting some Arabs, too, not just those that work under Westerners.

Kristof's stronger point is that we can't run our global economic policy on paranoia, because that's what "has led us to Iraq, Guantanamo and domestic N.S.A. wiretaps." There's no better fodder for Al Qaeda propagandists that the "Great Satan" using racial profiling at the ports. Sure, the world has changed since 9/11, but since we haven't had much luck winning Arab hearts with wars and breaching civil liberties, maybe it's time to try diplomacy and trade.

Two stories give this a little context:
1) I went to my caucus last night, a place for partisans to get together and select delegates to conventions, make silly party rules, and propose platform resolutions. This last item is interesting, as it's a chance for the party grassroots to set party policy. One ancient women wanted to propose a resolution against the port deal on the grounds that Muslims are called by their faith to holy war against non-Muslims. What she said explicitly is what a lot of powerful politicians are saying implicitly.

2) I had the good fortune to hear a talk by Kathleen Hall Jamieson (of factcheck.org)before I attended my caucus. She said that psychologists have known for a while that it's really easy to believe things that square with your stereotypes - in fact, it's when you hear something that sounds right that you are most likely to be duped. So when Democrats heard a couple weeks ago that the Bush administration was going to hand over ports to an Arab country despite all the 9/11 stuff, it seemed to ring true with their assessment of Bush's intelligence. I think there's a substantial chance of being duped by that interpretation. In other words, "if it seems right - think twice."