BF2S Forums Am I the only one concerned over the UAE buying US ports?

Okay, so it's a lease and not a sale, and I knew workers/security was not going to change, but I can't see the UAE being in charge of that as being anything but bad.

You know when you have Republicans that have towed the Bush line all along doing a, "What the fuck are thinking!?" stand on this, it can't be good.

I'm a little concerned.  Even though UAE might not support terrisom.  There could be a possiblity that someone in that company might try to sneak in a few things.

P&O (the current 'owners') are granted a licence to operate the ports by the respective port authorities. Dubai Ports World (DPW) are buying the ports/shipping/freight arm of P&O, and by extension their licence to operate ports.

Firstly, you need to remember that DPW is a goverment owned & run outfit. Politcally it'd be a most ill-advised move to stop them using the ports that they will technically then own the licence for. The UAE is not a terrorist state: stop branding all Arabs as terrorists.

Secondly, it's a bit hysterical to think that this will suddenly allow these Arabs to dock and drop off a nuke in your docks. You do have port security, coastguards and similar., do you not?

Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:

First of all, I never said they were all terrorists, but even those that aren't have a bad habit of looking the other way.

"Even those that aren't"? No, that doesn't sound Islamophobic at all. Well done on your stereotypical view of Islam and Arabs.

Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:

Secondly, it was already stated that the 9/11 terrorists used the UAE, to some degree, as a point of operations, and that the UAE was involved in the sale of parts to make nuclear weapons to N. Korea and Iran.

I think you'll find your country armed and trained Osama and his buddies a few years back. Picking and choosing your facts is not a good way to go.

This is just my opinion, but I reckon the political ramifications of stopping DPW using these ports after it's bought P&O will be fairly 'interesting'. Given that the primary export of that area is oil, I can't see this legal challenge getting very far. But hey, we'll find out in 45 days or whatever.

No, that doesn't sound Islamophobic at all. Well done on your stereotypical view of Islam and Arabs.

Maybe when they stop acting like a bunch of fucking retards, killing other people, and themselves, over the most idiotic crap, maybe the rest of the fucking WORLD will not be Islamophobic!!

Lib-Sl@yer wrote:

I hope every little fucker in the trade dies i hope they all fuckin die

I'm a bit confused by your post.  Who is is everyone in the trade?

Last edited by Agent_Dung_Bomb (2006-02-28 15:35:16)

Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:

Maybe when they stop acting like a bunch of fucking retards, killing other people, and themselves, over the most idiotic crap, maybe the rest of the fucking WORLD will not be Islamophobic!!

The world isn't Islamophobic - in fact the number one religion in the world is Islam - but by the way you keep carrying on, no wonder it seems like everyone hates Islam. I note you're from the US though, so I suppose we should all just agree in case you bomb the crap out of us.

Now, I know that this is probably a very biased opionion, but from what I have studied, it is true.  The company that is bidding for the contract for our ports is a company that is so interlinked with America's upperclass, it's like the Bin Laden family, and I don't mean Osama, but the rest of his family, where we have their financial mice in a vice and they will not do anything stupid to risk that much money to completly exclude themself from doing any projects in the world if they slip on this one.  The US government may not have consulted Bush (is that really that suprising?) but the UAE isn't Iran, and it's a country where the upper class loves Americans because without us, they would have no wealth and they do know where their loyalties lie, it's just the lower classes that are more easily swayed towards the terrorist/extremist tendencies.  The only reason that the upper class people go to the extremist side is that they buy into the radical sect of Islam which isn't true Islam, but the fact that they are severely brainwashed.   The companies and their employees that will be dealing with the US ports however are going to be very well educated and were probably in school at US colleges, secretly eating all the pussy and drinking all the beer like any other American and they love the life here, and they don't want to see a business deal like this be tainted by a shallow example of the extremist minority destroying life for the majority.  Also, these guys in the UAE are very cooperative, and they like the American dollar and realize that they need to educate themselves and advance as far as rights go to keep up as an active player in the modern world since their oil deposits are running out.  They want this for economic gain, not to get into our ports and screw things up.  Not all of them are the MEC bastards that you frag and teabag, and the guys in these companies aren't.  (Not to mention that they probably use American-made weapons because they know what's best, look at Gulf I, the Americans had to go and train the rich middle east countries' militaries, namely Saudi and Kuwaiti, how to use their American armored vehicles)

lol 

RAIMIUS wrote:

1. The UAE is our ally.
2. Having anything "bad" happen at a port would be bad for them.
3. We (americans) are still running the port.
4. Things do not change dramatically when the port has a new owner, just a different party gets the money from operations.

I second that. DPW is buying that part of P&O for about 6,8 Billion €. They already run 30 ports in 18 countries. This is a business decision. Safety won't be an issue, since those who actually run security at the ports will be the same as before ( US Coast Guard, Customs, TSA ). Even the longshoremen working there will be the same. Just a different management, that's it.

It is also important to show some trust in your allies, especially those in the middle east region.
Imagine you were in the UAE government. US is buying your oil, they are using military bases in your country for the war on terror, but they don't trust you with those ports ? You gotta be kidding me...

Bush knows that and that's why he initially had nothing against the deal and even said he'd veto any move in congress against it. I hope he doesn't back down here. That would be the wrong sign.

AnarkyXtra wrote:

Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:

Maybe when they stop acting like a bunch of fucking retards, killing other people, and themselves, over the most idiotic crap, maybe the rest of the fucking WORLD will not be Islamophobic!!

The world isn't Islamophobic - in fact the number one religion in the world is Islam - but by the way you keep carrying on, no wonder it seems like everyone hates Islam. I note you're from the US though, so I suppose we should all just agree in case you bomb the crap out of us.

Islam has shown that it is not a religion of peace.  In fact, every day it shows itself as a religion far too dangerous to allow it to continue to exist at all, in any form, anywhere.  I also have to wonder as China's and India's economies continue to grow and the US is no longer the major pocket liner to these oil exporting countries, just how friendly they will continue to be.

As far as us bombing you, I don't think you have to worry about that.  In any case, I have come to despise what this country stands for.  It is no longer the democratic republic as it was founded and has become greedy and corrupt.  The religious right in this country have gone absolutely crazy and are attempting to turn this country into a Christian version of the middle east, where there is no tolerance for those that don't follow their hardline Christian belief system.  As far as I am concerned, people like Pat Robertson are every bit as dangerous as the hardline Muslim clerics and should be right at the top of the terrorist watch list.

It's quite disheartening to see things deteriorate every day, and have to wonder about whether the human species will even survive its own stupidity.  It's kind of funny really.  As science continues to pick apart religion as the lies that it is, those who can't accept that the Bible, or whatever religious text they read, isn't the truth they thought it was, so they seem to be in far too big a hurry to bring on the "second coming", even if it means hastening the end result...we all die.

AnarkyXtra wrote:

I do hear what you're saying, but I also feel it's a bit too broad a generalisation to state that Islam isn't peaceful: the core texts are much like those of most other mainstream religions - just with a different deity.

The problem is extremists who take the texts and manipulate them to suit their violent needs. Dressing terrorism up as a Jihad is not in any of the texts - yet (once again) religion is being used as a crutch to support violent crimes against other people.

My general approach on this whole debate is that all religion, whether people like it or not, was only invented to put something (or someone) in between themselves and the dark depths of the unknown: a handy safety net to fall back on when people asked awkward questions like "What happens when you die?" and "Why have we had this earthquake?"

As you so rightly say, science has picked apart religion for the farce it really is. Priests can no longer wield the power they used to in the past because they essentially preyed on the fact that people didn't know why the seasons changed/how life started/why they were here. The answer used to be "Because God made it that way". Now that we know the real reasons, we see the hardliners come out in more strength - trying to push the wool back over your eyes and tell you that everything will be fine...but only if you accept [insert religion here] as the one true faith.

Religion's a con. The sooner people get over it and realise, the better we'll all be. I may start a religion, in fact: the 'Be Groovy To Everyone' religion. That's the first and only commandment. Join me. It truly is the one true faith. 

I hear what you're saying.  In fact, I just barely posted this in the "Would we be better with no religion" thread.

"Love huh?  I think you better go back and read the Old Testament.  God was one mean SOB in that section.  It's kind of funny how religious people pick and choose the sections of the Bible, or whatever text they read, to support their point of view, and totally ignore the rest.

The fact is that God does not exist.  Do I believe that when you die you just snuff out and that's it? No.  While our bodies are organic, the rest of what makes us human is energy, and energy cannot be destroyed, it can only be transformed into another form.  I believe we are part of something bigger, but something we just don't yet understand, but God as some all powerful parent figure is just the imagination of the primitive human mind trying to assign a value to something it can't yet understand, and to deal with the fact that mortality is something none of us can escape.

Religion's time is done and should be done away with.  When people start treating each other with dignity, compassion, and respect simply because they are a human being, then and only then will the human race have a chance to survive.  As long as religion exists our future is murky at best."