U.A.E. company would control US military shipments

In my previous post, I cited only the practical and political issues surrounding the sale of port security to a state-owned Dubai firm. There has been an incredibly amount of political hay-making since 2000, and one might be inclined to write this off as much ado about nothing.

Think Progress points out another reason (aside from the UAE's history of blocking our efforts to bring terrorists to justice) that this business venture is a hugely troubling proposition:

A major part of the story, however, has been mostly overlooked. The company, Dubai Ports World, would also control the movement of military equipment on behalf of the U.S. Army through two other ports. From today’s edition of the British paper Lloyd’s List:

[P&O] has just renewed a contract with the United States Surface Deployment and Distribution Command to provide stevedoring [loading and unloading] of military equipment at the Texan ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi through 2010.

If I may be so bold, I'll address the racial dimension of this issue. After all, Ann Coulter recently used the term 'ragheads' before a conservative audience to huge applause. With Karl Rove leading the charge, the GOP has gleefully exploited racial fears to win elections over the last few decades. And this could be an instance when the GOP is hoist by its own petard. They've repeatedly encouraged political action on the basis of race to such a point that their most fervent and ignorant supporters will finally be hard-pressed to defend this proposal. Mr. White Fundamentalist Patriot would not only send American jobs abroad, but he'd send them to the land of the 'ragheads'-- those they've been taught to hate for the last three and a half years.