I’m completely baffled by the hue and cry over the Dubai ports deal. OK, I’m not completely baffled. I understand that xenophobia is a common problem with the small minded. I also understand that politicians are more than willing to score political points even if it creates all sorts of real problems in the process.
However, I am baffled that no one seems to have said the obvious. Namely, that painting all people of one culture with the same brush is almost always flawed. Why? Because the distinctions made by those outside a culture are rarely appropriately nuanced. More to the point, assuming that those who invest in this country would be willing to see their (somewhat significant) investment go down the toilet for ideological reasons is extremely shortsighted. Very few people with the wherewithal to accumulate wealth are willing to deliberately destroy what they’ve spent time building. Keep in mind that Osama bin Laden didn’t create the wealth he uses to fund his crusades - he inherited it.
If anything, one of the best ways to insure security in this country is to encourage more foreign investment. By doing so, we in essence coopt foreign citizens and their governments into helping insure our continued prosperity. And they pay for the privilege instead of us having to pay them. If instead we drive them away, all we do is generate the very misunderstandings that lead to terrorism in the first place.
In the future, some wisdom and backbone in Washington on these issues could go a long way towards solving the problem of terrorism - for free.