I tried to ignore the whole port story. After all I don't live anywhere near the ocean, so what do I care? It seemed that the whole thing was blown out of proportion from the word go.

We have republicans that, all of the sudden, think that President Bush isn't trustworthy on national security. Please. This is the president that has spent his entire term fighting terrrorists and strengthening national security. Who really thinks that he would put our country at risk? And now we have democrats that are security hawks. It's too dangerous to allow a foreign company to run our ports they say. There is one, exactly one, American company capable of running our ports. It is called Haliburton. Can anyone imagine the shrill screaming from congress if they had gotten the bid?

Let's all take a deep breath and count to three. Maybe then we will be able to look at this like rational adults rather than have a pavlovian reaction to what should have been a news story buried on the back pages along with the obituaries.

Foreign companies have all kinds of holdings in the U.S. And you know something? The world hasn't come to ane end. The British ran the six ports in question before our friends in Dubai got the deal, and if they hadn't gotten the job some other foreign country would have.

As far as danger goes the UAE ranks pretty low on the list. It's not like China is going to be doing the job. Oh wait they run ports on the west coast, and California doesn't have a Chinese flag flying over it. It isn't like the Iranians got the job. The UAE isn't all that into Jihad and suicide bombings. They're more interested in making money. Which is one reason why the UAE is the most propserous country in that part of the world.

Secondly, they wouldn't be running security. Did anyone think that the security would be guys name Mohammed taking flight lessons when they weren't on duty? The coast guard, which last time I checked was run by the U.S. government, handles all port security. Americans will still be working the docks.

The words of the day seem to be port security. The democrats want some credibility on something other than cutting and running, and since this is an election year a lot of congressional republicans are ready to wet their pants, and do whatever is necessary to make themselves look good to their constituents.

I would like to know what the congress wants. Do they want to stop every ship and inspect every single container? That would stop trade real fast and bring our economy to a grinding halt. Do they want to nationalize the ports? That's a good way to let security lapse. No, what they want is their fifteen minutes in the spotlight so they can point back to this and say that they are serious on national security. Because it's dangerous to allow a foreign company to run a port, but illegal for a President to spy on terrorists phone calls.

If we want to take security seriously lets keep hunting the terrorists. Let the best company run the ports.