Congress A Dearth Of Leadership
The recent Dubai ports deal highlighted a perpetual trait of our Congressmen, they are always thinking first of their safety come November, and only as a corollary to their primary goal, re-election or electoral advancement, do they allow themselves to be distracted by concerns over the general safety of the American people. The demagoguery over the UAE's involvement in our ports, where they would be performing the same handling operations now handled by another foreign country, has yet to end, And the same operations Congress has permitted the Republic of China, and others, to perform. And, the UAE contract was approved by a US governmental agency which correctly followed the application process in place at the time and still in place today. And, given that the UAE nor the principle of foreign entity operations at our ports were not exacted out of consideration for receipt of these type of contracts, the deal was legal, and by all technicalities proper.
To be sure, it was worth investigation to completely understand if, and in what ways, our security would have been impacted by allowing the UAE to acquire the now British run operations at those ports. But, that answer was never achieved. Today we no more know whether the elements of such an arrangement, where a foreign entity manages the loading/off-loading at our ports, is a security threat than we did before the UAE hysteria. And, we have no new determination as to whether the UAE is to be considered friendly or hostile. Instead what we got from Congress was a reaction to the American public's legitimate questioning of whether such an arrangement is prudent. The people fairly asked the question as to whether we could trust this Mideast country in the proposed circumstance, and to be fair there were some who reacted unfavorable simply because the proposed tenant is Arab, but nobody actually answered the question. Yet there were plenty of Congressmen willing to ride on the wave of fear, rather than taking the lead in getting to the truth. From Congress we got reinforcement of all manner of rumor and unsubstantiated gloom and doom predictions. Oh, and lest I forget to mention it, we also got a huge load of self-congratulation. The Congress achieved its only goal in the UAE matter, it made itself feel safer.
It has not made us, the American people safer, because nothing has changed. There are no new laws or review directives with regard to the port contract applications. There is no new universal understanding of principle to use in setting future policy. There is no exact determination of whether we accept the UAE, or any Arab nation, as a trusted ally (not that we ever tell any ally everything, or that we ever trust any ally without continued verification). There is no consensus on anything. Some of the same people who now champion their vigilance on this matter obstructed on the Patriot Act, FISA, Guantanamo, and even the war to defeat the terrorists. And nearly all of Congress seems so uninformed about the real particulars of the port dealings that if they were asked to perform in a high school debate on the subject they would be ill-equipped to speak to either side, pro or con, and they should know both sides so well that they can make the case for both their own side and the opponents arguments before they profess to have solved the matter in our best interests.
No, today in Congress we don't have leaders; we have poll watchers spending every day's energy on getting past their next election with a job in hand. They do not focus on knowing the facts, and they do not focus on finding lasting principles and repeatable solutions. They play politics. And when they win at that goal, they pat themselves on the back in congratulation and vote themselves a pay raise.
