Friedman is right on the ports issue as are most folks who think this through. The frenzy about the ownership of the companies that manage the ports is misguided and not a security threat.
I have little tolerance for the politicians who have decided to use this sale for purely political ends claiming a bogus national security threat.
Friedman describes the bigger threat in this commentary of the violence and hatred that is building in the world between the West and Islam, fueled and exploited by terrorists who pursue a world Caliphate.
"But while I have zero sympathy for the political mess in which the president now finds himself, I will not join this feeding frenzy. On the pure merits of this case, the president is right. The port deal should go ahead. Congress should focus on the N.S.A. wiretapping. Not this.
As a country, we must not go down this road of global ethnic profiling Ã?— looking for Arabs under our beds the way we once looked for commies. If we do Ã?— if America, the world's beacon of pluralism and tolerance, goes down that road Ã?— we will take the rest of the world with us. We will sow the wind and we will reap the whirlwind.
If there were a real security issue here, I'd join the critics. But the security argument is bogus and, I would add, borderline racist. Many U.S. ports are run today by foreign companies, but the U.S. Coast Guard still controls all aspects of port security, entry and exits; the U.S. Customs Service is still in charge of inspecting the containers; and U.S. longshoremen still handle the cargos."
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