Setting the Stage?

In my previous post, I referred to this little piece of utter illogic, in which Bush now asserts that:

Bush, who has yet to veto a bill during his administration, warned that the United States is sending "mixed signals" by attacking a Middle Eastern company after the American ports were run by a British firm for several years.

Mixed signals? Let's see if I've got this straight - you go running around invading or threatening half of the Arab world, and then doing business with a UAE government-owned company - this isn't mixed signals?? When the UAE was "uncooperative" in the early days following 9/11, you turn around a claim that today the UAE is a safe base of operations? Hmmm

Lessee - we are talking about some of the biggest port facilities in the United States. Does it not occur to you that just possibly there might be a few people in this company who have an axe to grind with the US? Just as Arab countries might justifiably be worried about the United States army taking up residence on their borders, you might exercise a similar bit of caution.

Or...

Just maybe the administration is opening the door for the often-predicted "follow-up" attack. With Republican fortunes weakening in the polls, and Bush running up to the "mid-term elections", another attack on US soil would scare enough of the population into voting for "good, strong Republican government" to maintain the Republican control over the legislative and executive functions of government.

Think about it - a foreign owned company running the biggest container ports in the United States. It's not terribly difficult to imagine how that kind of control would make it reasonably easy for something nasty to be smuggled in across a few containers.

Of course, the administration would claim that it was all the evil terrorists, but would it really be? (or are the terrorists closer to home than any have imagined?)

[Update 22/2/2006] Just in case you had any doubt that some hideousness wasn't involved at the White House: There's this little gem tying things together for us. This doesn't confirm my theory above, but it once again makes me wonder about the honesty of those who lust after power.