Jack Kelly: The phony fracas

My apolgies if you are tired of this story. But apparently the Democrats aren't tired of trying to split the Republican governing coalition... so here's another go:

Jack Kelly: The phony fracas: Sorry folks, but United Arab Emirates is a key American ally

What do the arrests of three suspected Muslim terrorists in Ohio have to do with the purchase by an Arab company of the firm that manages facilities at six U.S. seaports?

Nothing ... and everything.
The Justice Department indicted Tuesday Mohammad Zaki Amawi, 26, of Toledo; Marwan Othman al-Hindi, 42, of Toledo; and Wassim Mazloum, 24, of Cleveland, on charges of plotting to kill U.S. military personnel.
A fourth person is mentioned in the indictment. He is "the trainer," a U.S. military combat veteran and "respected member of the Muslim community" in Toledo from whom the plotters sought weapons training and bomb making advice.
The "trainer" reported the terrorists to the FBI, and agreed to work undercover to build the case against them.
So what does this have to do with the purchase by Dubai Ports World of the British firm that manages commercial operations at ports in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans?
Bush administration approval of the sale has united Democrats and Republicans in fury. Conservative pundits are apoplectic.
"The Dubai ports fracas will become a flap, quickly swell into a firestorm, then become a debacle before settling into the history books as a 'historic miscalculation' -- providing the Republicans only lose the Congress," predicted James Lileks of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
On the left, Jack Cafferty, CNN's resident bozo, opined the ports deal could be grounds for impeachment.
Distilled to its essence, the argument against the sale is that Dubai Ports World is an Arab firm, and it was Arabs who attacked us on 9/11 (including Marwan al Shehhi, a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, who flew United Flight 175 into the World Trade Center).
The argument is comparable to the one President Roosevelt used to send Japanese Americans from the West Coast to concentration camps.
If we are to win the war against the Islamofascists, we need to be able to distinguish our friends from our enemies.
In this war, there are good Muslims and bad Muslims. The Toledo conspirators are examples of the latter. The "trainer," and the 1,715 Muslims currently serving in the U.S. Army are examples of the former.
We wouldn't lump "the trainer" in with the terrorists he risked his life to catch, and we shouldn't lump the UAE in with Iran or Syria, or even with Egypt or Saudi Arabia.
Among Arab nations, we have no better friends than the United Arab Emirates. The government (which owns Dubai Ports World) sponsors a U.S. Air Force base, services U.S. Navy warships and is assisting in our efforts to shut down terrorist funding. (Dubai is the banking, and consequently the money laundering, center of the Gulf.)
Unlike Saudi Arabia, the UAE is a modern, tolerant country. The British Financial Times describes it as "the Singapore of the Gulf." The UAE is what we wish every Arab country were like. But we will not make more friends in the Arab world if we treat the friends we have as if they were enemies.
There are, of course, Islamists in the UAE. But not, so far as we know, in the management of Dubai Ports World, whose security record has been exemplary.
There are, as we have seen, Islamists in Toledo, too. And there are lots of Islamists in London, which is where Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, the British firm Dubai Ports World bought, is headquartered. Not even Jack Cafferty has yet suggested we stop doing business with Ohio and Britain.
Dubai Ports World bought P&O; it isn't replacing it. Management of the ports will continue as before. The employees who load and unload ships -- nearly all of whom are Americans -- will remain the same. The managers simply will report to a different board of directors.
And P&O has nothing to do with port security, which remains in the hands of the Coast Guard and other federal agencies. U.S. intelligence agencies and the U.S. military reviewed the deal, and say they have no problem with it.
Opposition to the ports deal has been fueled by ignorance and prejudice. Blocking it will do no more to defeat the terrorists than Roosevelt's concentration camps did to defeat the Japanese.
It is stupid as well as shameful to turn the war we must fight against Islamic extremism into an attack on Muslims generally.