Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

I’m confused.

For the past five years President Bush has said, time and again, that our national security is of the utmost importance. He has pledged troops to battle on that account; he has limited some of our freedoms too. He has supported holding foreign prisoners indefinitely in such places as Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and has piqued the ire of the United Nations for doing so. Yet, he persists.

But now comes a state-owned business of the United Arab Emirates, one of those small but rich oil countries in the Middle East. This company is purchasing, with Bush’s public approval, six ports of entry into the United States at the cost of 6.8 billion dollars. These ports include New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami, and Philadelphia.

Wait a minute! Aren’t these some of the most populous areas of our country? Could there be an ulterior motive for the purchase? I’m not usually an alarmist, but when both sides of the political fence — Democrats and Republicans alike — urge our President to hold off on the purchase, I think it is a good idea. Yet Bush has said he will encourage the passage of the purchase and veto any resistance against it. He believes it is in our country’s best interest.

I am not suggesting for one minute that the company eager to purchase these ports is into sabotage. Rather I am suggesting that something, other than our nation’s security, is motivating the President. I don’t know what it is, but it makes for a rather inconsistent policy on his part. And it diminishes his cause in the future when he pleads for national security at all cost.