Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Swallow Your Pride

I am about to do something I rarely have to do. I have to pull a New York Times. I have to retract a post I made earlier. But unlike the Times I'm a big enough man to admit when I'm wrong while doing it, and I could have been wrong. I did the post Not Such A Good Idea without actually knowing anything about the story. But the more I pay attention to the story the less problem I have with it. Don't get me wrong, I still believe that America should have control over any and all ports but I made my judgment based solely on the fact that it was an Arab company. I didn't know that the UAE was actually one of out biggest supporters in the Middle East. That they're actually helping us in the War On Terror. That we actually get intelligence from the area. And that they won't actually be in charge of doing security checks on the containers coming into that port. Homeland Security will still be handling that. Although I'm sure at the same crappy level they're operating at now. I stupidly made the mistake of listening to media reports and heard only one thing they're harping on. Some of the 9/11 hijackers came from the UAE. And, yes, I realize that I'm swallowing a lot of pride. Especially considering what I said about Carter and Republican and Democrat ignorance. Maybe this will teach me to do a little more research next time. Naaaaaaa. But like I said, I believe that we should be in control of our own ports but to dismiss this company simply because of who they are is the kind of tactic that the Left would do. That all being said, we need to keep a close eye on this company. They are after all from a region full of people who would love nothing more than to annihilate the United States.
Filed under Miscellaneous

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations.

Crazy Politico said...

It takes a big guy to admit when he's wrong. And unlike the Times, you don't need a second editor to tell everyone, you can do it yourself :)

Christopher Lee said...

random numbers, be my guest.

Duez said...

Wow, are you serious?

The fact that the company is OWNED by another country and that country is in a region we have had problems with doesn't bother you?

Crazy. I would love to see the President veto the bill though. Wow, the Republicans are eating their own on this one.

I think it is a terrible idea to have a country run our ports. Haven't seen any evidence as to why it is a good idea. Other than Bush saying, "We wouldn't do it if it wasn't a good deal." (trust us!)

Christopher Lee said...

Oh, it does bother me. That's why I say we need to keep a closer eye on this company. Like I said, we should be in control of our own ports.

Anonymous said...

I'm impressed, Indian Chris! Although I was weary at first, too, I knew by the way that Bush was pushing the port deal that there had to be something major in it for us as a nation. Good job, though. It takes a set to fess up.

Christopher Lee said...

Grapefruits, baby. Grapefruits.

Opinionnation said...

. I still think it is a dumb idea. The chance that Al Qaeda can infiltrate these port businesses is, in my opinion, too great to allow this transaction to go through.

The Angry American said...

I was much like you when I first heard the UAE story,and like you I did a little more research. I agree it isn't a great idea for the UAE to run some area's. However The coast gaurd must still inspect each and every ship that comes into port before anything can be unloaded from a ship. So I'm not convinced that this will lesson national security at all. And also the UAE has been one of our allies in the war on terror. Great blog by the way!

Crazy Politico said...

Hey, for everyone worried about "other countries" running our ports, 9 other countries have companies that control many more terminals in Long Beach than the 24 that DPW will control in the 7 east coast ports. China being the biggest.