The idea that the Dubai Ports World acquisition of US ports was a "business deal that got politicized" is one I have heard many times lately. It is an idea that is worthy of closer scrutiny and, I believe, will receive just that. I'll state for the record that I disagree with this point of view. As I have taken some pains to point out in two posts entitled The Unions, The Senators, and the Ports, Part II and The Unions, The Senators, and the Ports port security has already been a political issue. As I detailed in the first of those two posts, longshore unions have been advocating since 2002 for a greater role in port security and, as best I can tell, been rebuffed. They did not, however, give up or go away. Afterall, why would they? There is too much potentially at stake for them.

What happened in the DPW case is this: the issue of port security was again seized upon by two interest groups ones that are not fellow travellers. The first was the unions whose interest has been port security, something that would provide them with a high level of job security and hand their Democratic representatives much needed and enhanced credibility on national security.

Then there was the national and homeland security crowd, mostly from the Republican party. Their sensibilities were rubbed raw and their latent distrust of foreigners was ginned up by the Danish cartoon controversy, subsequent protests and boycott, and what they perceived as an assault on free speech. This group was already quite defensive about lagging support in the US for the war in Iraq, in particular, and the Global War on Terror, in general. And with the being an election year, no members of this party were anxious to appear overly conciliatory to Middle Eastern governments or companies owned by the same.

Added to the mix were three important institutions- public opinion, the mainstream media organizations, and the alternative media, principally blogs and talk radio. The latter of the two, I think, help to both shape and amplify public opinion, then to make the deal appear unwise, and then finally to doom it, often through distortion, half truth, hyperbole, deliberate misinformation, and pandering to baser instincts.

Far from being a "business deal" that got politicized", this was something far more signficant: it was a perfect storm of interests and issues and institutions. It was a confluence of forces man, rather than nature, that created a political firestorm rather than a hurricane or noreaster. It was storm in which the strangest of political bedfellows found common ground and security in homeland security while those at sea found, quite literally, no port safe.

Afterthought

I wonder if George Clooney will come back to Dubaiand make a film about this "Perfect Storm." Probably not. "Dubaiana" and "Emiratiana" don't really have much of a ring to them. But then again, I'd rather see him try that than Ocean's 13!

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