Michael Pascoe writes:

If the United States had a tenuous hold on the Middle
East, it lost it last week, creating greater political opportunities
for Russia and China while ensuring its thousands of casualties in Iraq have
certainly been suffered in vain. This was something so incredibly stupid even
George W Bush realised it was dumb.

The US told
whatever friends it had left in the Arabic world that they’re rubbish and can’t
be trusted. No matter how loyal those Islamic allies might have been through
the two Iraq wars or how moderate their stance on Israel’s
expansionism, as far as the United States is concerned, all Arabs are devious,
treacherous and generally inferior.

That’s the message sent by the Dubai Ports
embarrassment with the Republicans and Democrats combining to make Dubai’s purchase of
a stevedoring company in six American ports impossible. There’s no problem with
Dubai Ports World buying P&O’s operations everywhere else in the world –
including about half of Australia’s stevedoring operations –
but the US won’t countenance a UAE-owned corporation employing American
wharfies. Hell, the Mob is fine on the waterfront, but Arab money is not.

So obnoxious is the message sent that Australia
should be embarrassed to so closely align itself with American Middle East
policy. America has made itself a poisonous joke that we should avoid associating
with in our own self interest.

About the kindest spin put on the US
response to Dubai Port’s takeover bid is that it was collateral damage in a battle between
the White House and a disaffected Republican Party. But the pathetic effort of the Democrats playing the race/religion/xenophobia
card as well speaks of a broader failure of US
foreign policy after five years of neo-con control – or perhaps just a general
disintegration of America’s ability to run foreign policy for anyone’s benefit beyond base
domestic political goals.

There can be no better demonstration of
that failure than Hillary Clinton jumping on the anti-Dubai bandwagon while
Bill Clinton, according to the Financial Times, was advising Dubai on how to
handle US politicians.

Showing more class that its critics, Dubai
Ports World ended the embarrassment by announcing it will sell the P&O
operations in six American ports – but that does nothing to soften the message Washington has
sent to the Middle East.

And in the process, the US went
another step towards pushing Pakistan
into the mad mullahs’ grasp. If Republicans and Democrats alike won’t
countenance Dubai owning stevedoring operations in the US,
there’s no way they have any long or even medium-term comfort in Islamic
Pakistan possessing nuclear weapons.

This occurs as Washington reportedly wants to set a two-week deadline for Iran to back away from the nuclear option
and Condi Rice declares she is coming to Australia to plot the military containment of China – and
she’s not too sure about their economic ambitions either.

The lunatics are in charge of the asylum –
and most of the world’s weapons of mass destruction.