Hanson does a great job for handing out the blame on what went wrong.
Start with the Republicans in congress who sprinted to away from the deal without even attempting to get any facts. Then with pure political posturing denied any real debate on the topic. Nothing like pure self interest to make a politico ignore the facts.
Then there was the MSM who did a very effective job in their non-reporting of the few hearings that were held where Homeland Security and other agencies involved told why this was a non-problem. And the MSM talking heads who consistently got the fact wrong. Such as saying that the ports would be run by DPW and not just the terminal operations. CNN was especially humorous in never getting the facts quite straight. (Though none of the rest were exactly perfect on that count either.)
Let's not forget the polls. Nothing to show the public that they don't support a program based on no information, so that more mindless trolls can pile on the bandwagon.
IMAO, this whole scenario showed the US at its absolute worst.
To understand the fiasco, we must allot blame to almost everyone involved. A Republican administration -- almost daily accused of talking down to "the people" -- somehow feels no need to reveal how its own familiar world of transnational corporations works. Much less does anyone up on Olympus explain to us mere mortals below why our long-term strategic interests would remain safe with ports owned by Dubai's government.and
Meanwhile, the Democrats, who have lectured us ad nauseam about ethnic stereotyping, couldn't resist the political opening. So they jettisoned this old sensitivity to score jingoist points by suggesting that an Arab fifth column could, in theory, gain control of our ports.He does seem to miss some others that would have been worth pinning some blame on.It was surreal to hear Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., the multicultural guru, lecture us about the dangers of these Gulf middlemen -- even as her huckstering husband advised the United Arab Emirates how to finesse the American Congress.
Start with the Republicans in congress who sprinted to away from the deal without even attempting to get any facts. Then with pure political posturing denied any real debate on the topic. Nothing like pure self interest to make a politico ignore the facts.
Then there was the MSM who did a very effective job in their non-reporting of the few hearings that were held where Homeland Security and other agencies involved told why this was a non-problem. And the MSM talking heads who consistently got the fact wrong. Such as saying that the ports would be run by DPW and not just the terminal operations. CNN was especially humorous in never getting the facts quite straight. (Though none of the rest were exactly perfect on that count either.)
Let's not forget the polls. Nothing to show the public that they don't support a program based on no information, so that more mindless trolls can pile on the bandwagon.
IMAO, this whole scenario showed the US at its absolute worst.
No comments:
Post a Comment