Re: The Kohlbot Gets Rolled Out

I am in favor of letting the ports deal go through.

Full Disclosure: I lived in the UAE for six years.

Now, the UAE has territorial disputes with Iran and Iran is becoming more and more assertive. No one else in this world is in any position to help the UAE out against Iran than we are and they know it.

The UAE is a frequent stop for our Navy. I toured the USS Nimitz once when it was docked in Jebel Ali (next to Dubai), and have many other stories about running into USN people in Dubai. We have strategic pre-positions in the area and access to their airstrips. Those facts are not widely known throughout their populations.

James Robbins over at NRO underlines how the UAE has cooperated with us in the WOT. Increasing their port security, tightening banking reg.s and other actions.

Now, to be quite fair there are some negatives. The biggest negative I can think of has to do with the spotting of a UAE jet in close proximity to an Afghani Al-Qaeda camp and the fallout from Richard Clarke's leak about it. And of course, we have Marwan Al Shehi son of Ras Al-Khaimah (one of the seven emirates that forms the UAE) who flew a jet into one of the World Trade Center Towers on 9/11, as well as much of the logistics for the 9/11 attacks flowing through the UAE. None of those negatives were a result of UAE government policy; in fact, a buddy still in the UAE said UAE nationals were much more sympathetic in the aftermath of 9/11 than were Canadians and Europeans (who it sounded like were gleeful).

The UAE Government knows (especially the rulers of Dubai) the oil is not going to last forever and is trying to diversify its income base. Can you imagine the harm if it was found out Dubai was not honest about its intentions in the Port deal?

Now, if you went out of your way to do good by a buddy and that "buddy" treated you badly what would your reaction be? If the port deal gets canceled then friendly Arab nations will see it as "damned if you do, damned if you don't" and stop their cooperation.

I leave you with a quote from Mansoor Ijaz's latest NRO article:

Washington's bout with Islamophobia also ignores the reality of Dubai's future direction. A metropolis already, it is rapidly becoming the prototype city-state that could serve as an important example for the future in Muslim societies bedeviled by high unemployment, low literacy rates, bad trade policies, and authoritarian political structures. It is managed and led by a cadre of young, highly educated Arab and Muslim professionals who seek to transform the world's stereotype of Islam by developing and running businesses transparently, with integrity and with an increasingly democratic and accountable corporate culture.