While we’re visiting Drezner’s site, his take on the The Great Dubai Ports Debacle of 2006 mirrors mine exactly. With the death of that deal, I slept soundly and safely, knowing nothing could harm me now.
Bush screwed this up royally. For an Administration that is supposed to be politically adept, this is a major faux pas. I have no idea what they were thinking in this complete and total ham-handed treatment of what should have been a simple political maneuver. For once, I line up with all the people saying that Bush has hurt our status in the world. We’ve taken a moderate, Muslim ally and told them to screw off. I don’t see how we can say we’re fighting a war against Muslim nutjobs when we don’t do everything in our power to increase trade and acceptance of moderate Muslim countries.
This was stupid and unnecessary. We’re going to be feeling the repercussions for quite some time, I’m afraid.