Lose the battles, win the war

President Bush is doing the right thing in vocally sticking to his guns on honoring the ports sale. While having a UAE-owned company run our ports obviously isn't America's top choice (why not an American company?), it's against the ethics of both business and government policy to discriminate against a company based solely on its nation of origin.

It is unlikely that anything will change at the ports. The workers will continue to be Americans, the managers will continue to be Brits at a certain level. That terrorists will be better able to exploit our ports is doubtful.

Having good relations with peaceful Arab countries is vital for Bush's agenda of bringing democracy to that region. He needs to show Arabs that he - and America - will give them a fair deal. It's disingenuous to tell them they need to reform, but then shun their businessmen.

Bush will lose this battle politically. It's ready-made for local politicians to Stand Up To Washington and show how they care about their local communities. And Bush can't make this into a public show of rhetoric. It has to be plain and simple: the Emirati's are our allies, we trust them, and so we do business fairly. And that line of reasoning doesn't resonate well enough on the Panic Box television to have an impact.

In retrospect, however, this kind of thing is necessary to salvage Bush's Legacy and the Meaning of his presidency. If history looks kindly on him, it will be because he is the president who first engaged us in the Middle East, however sloppily, and he was the first president to believe that Arabs and Muslims could be 'good folks' and responsible world citizens. That's valuable, and as many mistakes as Bush makes, he's a visionary in changing the way the U.S. thinks about distant parts of the world.