Today, I
must express bottomless disgust with those on the Right who have
turned into mush-mouthed race-card players to shift blame away
from President Bush for his miserable mishandling of the situation.
It's one
thing for feckless grievance-mongers on the Left to accuse Americans
genuinely concerned about national security of Islamophobia. It's
quite another for the Right to sink to such a level in accusing
all good-faith critics of demagoguery. Reasonable people can disagree
on the process pitfalls and security implications of the deal.
But the elite Right has simply lost its marbles:
Here's GOP
strategist and Muslim voter outreach architect Grover Norquist
in the Los Angeles Times dismissing critics of the deal:
"The only whiners left by next week will be the registered
bigots."
Conservative
commentator Larry
Kudlow: "This whole brouhaha surrounding the Bush administration's
green-light to a United Arab Emirates company slated to manage
six major U.S. ports has nothing to do with protecting homeland
security. Allow me to give it its proper name: Islamophobia."
New
York Times columnist David Brooks: "This Dubai port
deal has unleashed a kind of collective mania we haven't seen
in decades. First seized by the radio hatemonger Michael Savage,
it's been embraced by reactionaries of left and right, exploited
by Empire State panderers, and enabled by a bipartisan horde of
politicians who don't have the guts to stand in front of a xenophobic
tsunami."
The UAE
is our "friend," we are told, and to question that assertion,
we are scolded, is to engage in reckless prejudice and life-threatening
insult. Yes, well, some friends are more equal than others. To
instinctively trust a longtime, stalwart Western democracy more
than an Arab newcomer with a mixed record on combating terror,
international crime and Islamic extremism is not "Islamophobia."
It's self-preservationism in a time of war.
We are at
war, aren't we?
President
Bush himself is ultimately responsible for encouraging the race-card
players, thanks to his stunning comment that "those who are
questioning" the deal need to "step up and explain why
all of a sudden a Middle Eastern company is held to a different
standard than a Great British company."
Yes, there
are countless homegrown terrorists across England, where Peninsular
and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the maritime company purchased
by state-owned Dubai Ports World, operates. So what? So, now,
a peaceful Western democracy that is infiltrated against its will
by al Qaeda is on the same plane as an Arab federation whose ruling
emiratis ran interference for Osama bin Laden before Sept. 11,
which continued to be a logistical hub for al Qaeda for years
after, which refuses to recognize the existence of Israel, bans
our textbooks as "racist" because they point out Syria's
state sponsorship of terrorism, and is boycotting Denmark over
the Mohammed Cartoons?
Now, all
the proselytizers who tell us to collect the dots and connect
the dots want us to throw them all away lest we give offense?
Yes, the
UAE has taken steps to cooperate in the War on Terror after the
Sept. 11 attacks. Give them a pat on the back. But don't tell
me that their actions over the past four years elevate them to
the same level of partnership and trustworthiness as Great Britain.
That's offensive.
Perhaps
Bush should consult with his own Justice Department, which understood
the need for heightened scrutiny of Middle Eastern illegal aliens
in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, and instituted temporary
targeted fingerprinting and registration policies for Middle Eastern
tourists, businessmen and students.
Bigots!
Perhaps
he should ask his own Border Patrol, which is on heightened alert
for illegal Middle Eastern border-crossers.
Bigots!
Perhaps
he should ask his own FBI, which is zeroing in on mosques and
Muslim charities instead of Lutheran churches and the March of
Dimes in the domestic War on Terror.
Bigots!
(But don't
bother asking Transportation Department Norm Mineta anything --
well, other than "Why the heck are you still here, Normie?")
The sad
lesson of Portgate: Scream "racism" loud enough, and
people will blame the messengers and back down. By the Bush standard,
we who put American security above Arab sensitivity are all bigots
now.
