"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

SIMPLE SOLUTION FOR DUBAI/US PORT TAKEOVER BROUHAHA: CALL MAERSK!

A British company which managed the 6 largest ports in the USA sold them to a company owned in part by the government of the UAE.

Though approved by the WH, the sale has caused a BI-PARTISAN public outcry.
Most people think it's simply nuts to have our ports managed by a foreign company, let alone an Arab company - especially in a time of war. This feeling is widespread even though the port operator is NOT responsible for port security - the US government is, (and would remain so even if this deal goes through). (More stories on the brouhaha HERE and HERE and HERE.)

I HAVE A SIMPLE SOLUTION: Let's get P&O - the current British owner - or Ports World (the impending Dubai owner) - to sell the port operations to MAERSK - a DANISH shipping company. They're one of the LARGEST shipping container companies in the world, and already manage dozens and dozens of major ports; in fact, Maersk's APM TERMINALS division is the THIRD LARGEST port operator in the world.

I think most Americans trust the Danes - and would LOVE to see the Danes get this business, especially NOW! DOWN WITH DUBAI! UP WITH DENMARK!

IOW: Let's not just "BUY DANISH!"; let's SELL SOMETHING TO THEM, TOO!

WE CAN "PROTECT OUR PORTS" AND HELP AN ALLY IN NEED AT THE SAME TIME!

UPDATE: Welcome VODKAPUNDIT readers and JAWA REPORT readers! And Hotline's BLOGOMETER, too!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

didn't mærsk just buy p&o nedlloyd containers?

I think mærsk dropped out on the bidding for the ports - I dont know if it was price or competition rules...but if mærsk want to buy these 6 ports they could...

Anyway the problem can be dealt with by separating the operation of the ports with security services at the ports...

Reliapundit said...

anon 316 - actiually - as i point pout in the popst - security is already run by the usgov and NOT the port operator.

nevertheless, RIGHT NOW, it would better for us to have danes running the port than arabs.

Anonymous said...

well if you want your goods on time and not pilfered then let the danes handle it...

Reliapundit said...

paul;
all things being equal, wouldn;t you rather an staunch ally under assault by islamothuggery got the deal and not a comopnay OWNED in oart by an islamic republic?

sure: uae - relative to other arab muslimnations is relatively modern.

but compared to ANY nation in the free world it is VERY repressive.

would you care if a RUSSIAN company took over our ports?

i would.

i would prefer a danish company to a russian company or an arab company.

John said...

Who owns/ runs Long Beach and LA ? The Chinese?