Bush Cluless … Again
OK then call me stupid, but when national security is at stake shouldn’t the big guy get involved in the big decisions? Apparently not because as the Associated Press reveals, here printed in the New York Times: Bush Played No Role in Approval of Port Deal, White House Says, our great defender was not in the decision loop when the contract to manage six of our key ports was allowed to go to a company based in Dubai.
How strange is that? This is the same President who has made a political football out of our fears, and who has relentlessly exploited xenophobic feelings to stir up support for his hopelessly ill advised foreign policies. He has struggled to look like a supreme commander at every turn. Yet now he spreads the word that he heard about the ports contract, a major security issue, after the fact. Just who is he kidding?
Then again the alternative: that he really didn’t know, is just as bad. That would mean that his administration treated the whole ports contract as just another ho-hum deal, one not worth bothering the big guy about. That’s called strectching incredulity a little too far. Rumsfeld didn’t know? Chertoff didn’t know? If they did, then obviously they thought that handing over the protection of six of our major ports to a company based in Dubai, the source of funding and support for some of the 9/11 criminals wasn’t worth mentioning.
Which is scary, and I don’t buy it.
Nor do I buy the idea that a contract’s a contract and that we shouldn’t walk away from this one becasue it might offend our allies. Big deal. Let people get offended. Safety first. I thought that Bush would be spouting on endlessly about how he brought in a good old “red white and blue” contractor to enhance security [Halliburton comes to mind!]. Apparently I don’t understand Bush because he has leapt to defend the contract and has attacked its critics as being xenophobic.
Now that’s the pot calling the kettle black! And it makes me think that there’s more to the eye here. Like there’s investments in this Dubai company that come from … oh, let’s just say Kennebunkport.
Setting aside the conspiracy theory: Bush is getting more and more clueless, and it’s strange that he would be so far out of step with his far right supporters on this one. I suspect that this denial of knowledge is the first step toward Bush trying to save face. It’s too late for that in my mind. He really is the dunce I think he is.
