Dubai is out

[Kinases]

Re: Dubai is out

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The only thing better than having lots of money is having more of it.

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And having power...

[Guitar Lawyer]

Re: Dubai is out

These type of people are past lusting over money - they want power.

[charvelguy]

Re: Dubai is out

Here's a fair example of too much dinero..
Download the file and watch the vid..

http://www.savefile.com/files/9662931

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: Dubai is out

[ QUOTE ]
The UAE is an ally and has been pretty cooperative with us on the terror war to date. Sure, a UAE citizen was one of the 9/11 hijackers. American citizens blew up the Murraugh
Federal Building in OKC; does that mean we can't trust ourselves?

Face it, there really IS no port security in the US as we do it now, regardless of who's in charge...

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I agree Rich. Although I wasn't too thrilled with the deal it really didn't have an affect on security or lack there of in our ports

[lerxstcat]

Re: Dubai is out

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I don't really know what to think about the UAE... They're rich as all god damned hell... I don't see why they would want to invest in foreign(Ib4e?) ports unless they have malicious intentions!

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They know the oil won't last forever, and they want good moneymaking businesses well-established when the oil money runs out. Good thinking, IMO.

I'm not that excited about ANY foreign company controlling our port security, but if we are doing that, I think this rejection of "any" Arabs will hurt us in the longterm war on terror. It kind of makes us look like liars when we say
we're not against all Arabs, just the terrorists.

And one of the ports they'd have been working was Gulfport, right here - not part of the main 6 but they'd have been supervising loading and unloading at the port, which is still a great in to cause trouble. Part of me is glad that it won't be happening, but the other thinks we just blew a major point of credibility that will come back to bite us in the ass.

To be fair Congress should probably require that port security be brought under the DOD instead of hired out.

[lerxstcat]

Re: Dubai is out

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The UAE and the US are allies of convenience. The only thing that's stopping Iran from just taking the UAE and other small Gulf states (it would probably take all of a half-dozen fishing trawlers to handle the invasion) is the US military presence in the area. That's not the sort of relationship that tends to build a lot of trust between the parties.

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True, but if the UAE needs us to keep the Iranians off of them, they are unlikely to fuck us over when that means clearing the way for the fishing trawler invasion! Besides, the UAE are Arabs and the Iranians are Persian, those ethnic groups do not get along very well. Arabs originated Islam and are mostly Sunnis, wheras Iran is the strongest Islamic power and is Shiite. So there are religious and ethnic differences there.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"; ancient (pre-Islam) Arab proverb. Trust is not required, just maintaining the balance of power.

[SeventhSon]

Re: Dubai is out

[ QUOTE ]

I'm not that excited about ANY foreign company controlling our port security, but if we are doing that, I think this rejection of "any" Arabs will hurt us in the longterm war on terror. It kind of makes us look like liars when we say
we're not against all Arabs, just the terrorists.


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Lol, the war in Iraq is doing a fine job of hurting the longterm war on terror.

[lerxstcat]

Re: Dubai is out

I disagree on that. Iraq was the perfect place to start at introducing democracy into the region. Yeah, it's a royal PITA, but less of a PITA than doing it anywhere else in the region. And it gives us a great base of ops if we have to bitchslap Iran in the near future. Frankly I think that was the idea all along, and we should've just said so in the first place.

[charvelguy]

Re: Dubai is out

Well then, there's always democracy for the Palestinians..they (the Gov't's supporting the change of process initiated by the 'road map') couldn't forsee the voting of Hamas? Not surprised there, I think we should have taken out the Hamas along with the Taliban if you are going to approach 'terorists', but you know the repocussions of that wouldn't have been good either, especially with deep roots in Syria.

You can call it democratic in process but it works only if you are democratic in OUR way, by our rules. Westernize the ME is asking for huge trouble. So, if you are contantly engaging in a power play to beat down the Arab self interest, which is ultimately to take out Israel one way or another, whether it be through terrorism, nuclear threat or politics... it isn't a stable democracy, or still one that will serve the interest of the US. Probably better than an Arab thuggary, but you are exchanging one problem for a canful of worms. So, that leaves a military option, or threats of-not healthy for establishing good relations.

It'll never work IMO, at least not the way we would hope. Playing along only barely works for Jordan and Eygpt because they border Israel and they are much more well off and structured than the Palestianians. Hell, if my house was next to a guy that could kick my ass and he didn't want for me to shoot mown grass over onto his lawn, I'd get a lawn bag or mow the opposite way or prepare for a nasty fight or at least petty arguments.

You can sense the buildup, the whole ME will not stand for what amounts to US/Euro 'oppression' for much longer, it'll either unite or verge on civil war if not outright civil war. Plus Russia and China are big players in this, we all know how democratic Russia is at times - just barely. They have their own problems too and China, lookout.. here they come! Now lets talk about HN51. I'm gonna go get a McChicken while I still can.

[charvelguy]

Re: Dubai is out

H5N1..typo..