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Sense and the Bush administration
by John Storhm
February 24, 2006

I feel like I can't make sense any longer of the Bush administration. Five years ago after 9/11 the Bushites were openly hostile to any suggestion that a foreign government should be able to influence America's response to a terrorist attack. Anyone who accepted international criticism of America's roughshod policy of attack first and ask questions later was accused of internationalism or of sacrificing America's national security to the dictates of foreign interests.

Yesterday, the Bush administration came out with both barrels blazing in support of just such a policy threatening to veto any legislation which attempted to scuttle the sale of a British company which manages a number of American ports to Dubai Ports World a company controlled by the government of Dubai. The Bush administration questioned why a Middle-Eastern company should be excluded from what is only an international business deal.

What becomes obvious in this latest Bush non sequitur is that the Bush administration is for internationalism - the international ability of businesses to conduct business around the world irrespective of the national security interests of the host nations. This while our government has thousands of people in jail in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba and the United States because of little more than its suspicion of links to Middle-Eastern groups that may or may-not be associated with terrorists. This while the Bush administration asserts is constitutional authority to spy on American citizens.

What could be so different between the United Nations playing a part in our decision to go to war and this latest business deal? Why is one bad-internationalism and the other is good-internationalism? Perhaps it is that whatever agreement the Bush administration has struck with Dubai Ports World is a secret agreement while debate in the U.N. is public. Perhaps it is that under the Bush vision corporations have more rights than individuals. Or perhaps some member of the Bush administration has financial ties to Dubai Ports World and this is just another instance of corruption within his administration.

In a post 9/11 world we have been told on a personal level that everything is changed. We need to sacrifice our freedoms to ensure our security. Before 9/11 corporations were allowed to move around the globe freely setting up shop where and when they liked. It is time for the multi-national corporations to realize that their world must change too. No longer can they move around the globe at will. Their freedoms must also be sacrificed if what remains of our freedoms are to be protected.

John Storhm
Cleveland Heights, Ohio

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