McEwen: American Port Management a Question of "Common Sense"

Via the WMD Mailbag from the McEwen campaign:

Former Congressman Bob McEwen issued the following statement regarding the port management controversy involving Dubai Ports World:

“One of the most frequently cited defenses of this deal is the notion that the UAE is our ally and we can’t afford to insult our friends. But this defense doesn’t withstand even minor scrutiny. If the UAE is such a strong ally, one failed port deal won’t destroy our relationship. If it does, then the UAE wasn’t our friend to begin with.

If we are “buying” their support, then let’s just give them a few billion dollars and not put the security of our ports in question. Even worse, the contention that the UAE is an invaluable ally appears to be a gross exaggeration. While the emirs may be cooperating, their subjects have a far different view of things.

In a time of war, it is vitally important to know who your friends truly are. So we went to great lengths today to “quantify” that friendship. I say that sarcastically, of course, because it took our staff just a few minutes of online research to identify polling data from the UAE about its views of the United States. The results were shocking for so-called “friends.” Here are a few key findings from a 2004 Zogby poll:

-- 73% of UAE citizens had a negative view of the United States; only 14% had a favorable view.

-- Only 5% of UAE citizens felt that “democracy” was an “extremely important” reason for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Preventing the spread of WMD was cited by 16%. “Oil” and “domination of the Muslim world” were the main reasons offered by UAE citizens for our invasion of Iraq.

-- 81% of UAE citizens felt Iraq was worse off after the war. 4% said it was better off without Saddam.

-- Asked to identify their “most admired” world leaders, 18% of UAE citizens chose Osama bin Laden. “No one” finished first with 22%.

-- When asked how they viewed themselves, only 19% said they identified first and foremost as citizens of the United Arab Emirates, while 66% said they saw themselves as “Muslims” first.

We should not be so quick to deceive ourselves about the nature of this “friendship.” The United Arab Emirates is not Great Britain. Its citizens share neither our values nor our interests. Yes, the rulers of the UAE have been cooperating with us, but they are sitting on a powder keg of radical Islamic fundamentalism, making it much more likely that Dubai Ports World, and thus the U.S., will be susceptible to infiltration.”

Bob McEwen served in the House of Representatives from 1981 to 1993. He was selected by his colleagues to serve on the Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees our nation’s secrets. He is currently a candidate for the Republican nomination for the Second Congressional District.

Question for Mr. McEwen...didn't the second district soundly re-elect President George W. Bush?

McEwen takes a terribly simplistic view of this situation and if this is a sample of what his constituents could expect if they should elect him; they couldn't do worse by sticking with Jean Schmidt. McEwen served on the Intelligence committee and this is all the insight he has on this vital issue?

McEwen fails to understand that this compani from Dubai would be taking over the operations of these ports, not the security of these ports. If security were really an issue McEwen wanted to run on, he might have a few words to say about our borders, illegal immigration, and airport security. But we don't hear about that...

Instead, we get another "establishment" hack who is running against George W. Bush instead of the incumbent he is trying to unseat. Typical.