So now a pirate spokesman is claiming that Somali pirates were "angered by the U.S. action" and are swearing revenge. I'm sorry, is he saying he is mad that we protected our ship, saved the life of our captured countryman, and took out the pirates who were threatening to kill him? Sure, armed piracy on the high seas is fine, but when you defend yourself - well, that's just going too far.
His protests aside, I think our actions were both reasonable and necessary. Some worry this may escalate the situation, and ramp up violence in future piracy attempts. But the reality is these pirates are thugs who respect force, and can be deterred. Why has piracy seen such a sharp spike in recent years? Because companies have been paying millions of dollars in ransom. And this will only continue getting worse until more countries do what France and the U.S. just did, and react with force instead of payment. If you keep paying ransom, pirates will keep seizing ships.
And you just can't say enough about the amazing job the Navy SEALs did. They parachuted in at dark, boarded the USS Bainbridge, took positions 100 feet away from the captured lifeboat, and waited for their opportunity. Three shots and three kills, all simultaneous. And all from one bobbing vessel to targets behind glass on another boat in the water. There is a great book that chronicles the SEAL training program called "The Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228". On average, only about 25% of the men who start BUD/S will actually complete the program - its that grueling. But you can see why the people who do are among the best of the best.
Lastly, let's not forgot all those GOP blowhards who filled the airwaves for days, talking down Obama and our country, saying we couldn't handle the pirates, and claiming Obama was missing in action during the crisis. All while Obama was quietly handling the situation behind the scenes, then authorizing the successful operation that took out the pirates and saved our men. Quite a contrast from George "we'll get Osama Bin Laden dead or alive" Bush, who normally followed his public bluster with a lack of actual results. The folks over at DailyKos put together an excellent compilation of these whiners:
As a good liberal internationalist I have an instinctive skepticism of any argument that starts out with "we need to teach them a lesson through force cause it's the only language they understand". I heard a speech by Rep. Joe Sestak on Wednesday (a guy I campaigned for in 2006) in which he made the point that the piracy problem has roots in the overfishing of tuna that destroyed the livelihood of many Somali fishermen who have turned to piracy out of a lack of other options. When people think they have no other option, the mere threat of force doesn't deter them - it just prompts them to try to gain the upper hand in an arms race. Hence my skepticism that they can be so easily deterred.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of respect for Sestak - I believe he's actually the highest ranking military officer ever elected to Congress (He was a Vice-Admiral, or 3 star). Deterrence won't be easy - we saw another pirate attack on a U.S. flagged vessel within days of the Maersk Alabama rescue. And I'd agree that the long term solution has to do with having a functional government in Somali, and giving Somalis better options. But in the short term I don't think we have any alternative but to fight piracy. So long as ransoms are being paid, piracy will always be the best and most alluring option, and we will see more and more such attacks on merchant ships. It's no different than street crime - you can understand the reasons why somebody ended up becoming a mugger - but you don't then decide to stop fighting crime because of it.
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