DISRAELI IN DUBAI

The 19^th century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) once commented on accusations that a political opponent of his was lying regarding an important issue before Parliament:  "It is worse than a lie – it is a blunder."

We can be sure that the Earl of Beaconsfield (the peerage awarded to Disraeli by Queen Victoria) would make the same observation today over the travails of George Bush and the port scandal.

There is no secret deal here.  CFIUS, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, that vets these things, ran it through 12 agencies including Defense, Treasury, State, Homeland Security, and the White House National Security Council.  Their approval was unanimous.  Had just one objected, it would have been put on a 45-day investigative hold.

Bush was blindsided on this out of sheer naiveté.  He still can’t accept as real the bottomless mendacity of Democrats.  For Barbara Boxer and Chuck Schumer to foment in protest over a deal with America’s closest Arab ally, when they have gone far more ballistic at any suggestion that Arabs be profiled at US airports – well, I guess it’s standard liberal chutzpah.

Outdoing Bush in naiveté are Republicans in Congress being led with rings in their noses by Boxer and Schumer into an orgy of Bush-bashing.  It would be nice if they all took a deep breath, switched on their brains, and began thinking of how to take advantage of this fiasco.

Wouldn’t it be great if Bill Frist stood up in the Senate Chamber and congratulated his Democrat colleagues for their concern over the safety of America’s ports, and that he was sure they would now show their concern for the safety of America’s airports by mandating Arab Moslem male passengers instead of grandmas and others at politically correct random?

Or if Denny Hastert stood up in the House Chamber to say he was sure his Democrat colleagues, so newly passionate about national security and concerned over our dependence on Arab oil, would now support drilling oil in Alaska’s ANWR, offshore drilling in Florida and the East Coast, and eliminating government restrictions so that nuclear power plants and oil refineries can be built in three to four years.

So, should the deal with Dubai Ports World be toast?  Because the Dems have demonized the UAE in order to demonize Bush once again, this is going to be tricky.  So let’s talk about this place, the United Arab Emirates.

It’s a collection of seven tiny Persian Gulf sheikhdoms welded together by the Brits in 1892, changing what was called the Pirate Coast to the Trucial Coast, and creating a British Protectorate protecting them from the Ottoman Turks.  The truce between the seven – Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujaira, Ajman, Umm al Qaiwan, and Ras al-Kaimah – worked so well that by 1972, they were transformed into the UAE, with their respective leaders being upgraded from sheikhs to emirs.

They were all mud hut fishing villages until oil was found in Abu Dhabi and pumped out in quantity in the 1960s.  With one exception, the other emirates were happy to kick back and live off Abu Dhabi’s largesse.  The exception was Dubai.  The Maktoum clan of the Babi Yas tribe that runs Dubai have always been traders.  So they made a decision in the 1970s to prosper on their own.

They did it be transforming their mud hut fishing village into the Hong Kong of the Middle East.  Their success in doing so has been beyond spectacular.

If you associate "Arabs" with "camel-herding" and "poverty," if you visit Dubai you’re in for the shock of your life.  For openers, there’s the world’s only seven star hotel, the Burj al-Arab:

The amount of business being done in Dubai is staggering, thanks to a zero corporate tax rate, no restrictions on repatriation of capital, and 100% foreign ownership of businesses permitted.  The Dubai International Finance Center, with millions of square feet of state-of-the-art hi-tech office space, is rapidly becoming the Wall Street of the Middle East.

Dubai Healthcare City is a $3 billion project, making the emirate a world class center for medical treatment, research, and education that includes branches of the Mayo Clinic and the Harvard Medical School.

With a $5 billion dollar project called Dubailand, it plans on being the Disneyland of the Middle East, with 15 million additional tourists as year.

There are millions of tourists and businessmen coming every year to Dubai already.  The lubricant of tourism, of course, is booze, rivers of which flow through Dubai’s hotels, bars, and discos.  Remember this is a Moslem country.

And wherever there are hordes of tourists with money, there are hordes of hookers.  Prostitution is as illegal as it is in Las Vegas.  Every bar in every 4 and 5 star hotel in Dubai offers a selection of ladies from Russia, England, China, Pakistan, the Philippines, Ethiopia, and elsewhere.  The Cyclone Disco is legendary for being a "United Nations of prostitution," with over 500 international ladies of the evening available on an average night.

You would think that this debauch of money, booze, and sex would outrage the Islamists.  Yet Dubai has never been hit with a terrorist attack.  Right across the sandy border, Saudi Arabia has been hit by suicidal Moslem crazies numerous times.  But Dubai – America’s best friend in Arab-land, the Moslem Fleshpot – never.

That’s because Dubai, besides being the Middle East’s Hong Kong, Wall Street, Disneyland, and Las Vegas, is also the Middle East’s Switzerland, where everyone’s money no matter how drug, mafia, or terrorist-tainted, is handled with equal discretion.

That’s the trade-off.  As it’s the place where terrorists can do business, the terrorists leave it alone.

But what if Al Qaeda or an Al Qaeda wannabe decides to blackmail the Dubai government, owners of Dubai Ports World?  One suicide bomber wiping out the lobby of the Burj al-Arab could cost Dubai billions in tourist and investment revenue.  To prevent this, all DPW has to do is insert a few Al Qaeda boys to work in American ports.

Terrorist Blackmail is the security issue that needs to be discussed.

The Bushistas have made a bewildering blunder in not briefing Congress and preempting Democratic demagoguery.  A lot of conservatives knee-jerk reacted with a "not just no but hell no!" unthinking rejection like Sue Myrick (R-NC).  This is going to change as conservatives calm down and actually start to reflect on the matter, instead of venting and demagoguing like liberals do.

Take a look at the White House’s reasoning in its Fact Sheet on the CFIUS Process and the DP World Transaction.  The case is well made.  If the White House can effectively assuage the terrorist blackmail concern, then you’ll see a shift in support for the president.

It has already begun – Jack Kelly’s column, Is It Smart To Attack All Moslems?,  this week is example. 

Look at it this way – to be on the side of Barbara Boxer, Chuck Schumer, and Hillary Clinton and against George Bush on an issue is prima facie not pro-American. 

Maybe – just maybe – the port scandal will turn out not to be a Bushie blunder at all.  You wonder what Disraeli would say about that.