I have absolutely no inside knowledge about the ports deal, but it’s possible that this event is George Bush’s Bitburg. A private personal appeal from a world leader may have been the key missing link to what seems like an inexplicably stupid decision. Bush might have been personally prevailed upon by the pooh-bahs in Dubai — who have, it is said, been very helpful in some of the financial aspects of the war on terror — to agree to the ports deal. That would follow the same pattern as Ronald Reagan, who agreed to a personal plea from Helmut Kohl to lay a wreath on the German war dead at Bitburg. Wrath rained down from the heavens upon Ronald Reagan, just as it is right now on George W. Bush. And as was true in the earlier case, it’s only going to get worse. A classic second-term blunder.