I wish I had a chance to make an informed decision on the recent Dubai port controversy before the political fire storm killed the deal. At first I wasn't very surprised because of the long history of the Bush Family and Middle Eastern money. I was surprised to learn that Bush knew nothing of the deal until it was in the newspapers or at least someone told him it was in the papers. Which makes me a little skeptical as to the truthfulness of that claim.
The storm cause by a huge public outcry push politicians on both sides of the aisle into knee jerk reactions rather then a measured reasonable fair and open hearing, the latter would never happen with this administrations love of secrecy, on the pros and cons of the deal. Such as the fact that the UAE has been a strong ally in the War ( I think the use of the word "war" has caused more problems, but that a discussion for another day.) on Terror since GW proclaimed "your with us or against us." but then again they were at a minimum complacent in Pakistan's "Nukes R Us" Dealings.
These are issues that needed to be explored before a deal could be seriously concidered.
But in the end George Bush has no one to blame but himself for the fiasco that followed the revelation about that deal. After four plus years of conditioning the electorate for a pavlov response to terror threats, the administration should not be surprised when that dog raised it head and bit them in the ass.
