It’s Not Over: What About the Rest of the Hostages in Somalia?
What the crew of the Alabama started could be some sort of a grass-root movement. (Or is it a seaweed movement?)
By showing so much courage and initiative, the ship’s Captain triggered the whole chain of events leading to this examplary rebuff of the terrorists on water, a.k.a. “pirates”!
So what’s the right follow up, and how to go about it?
I don’t see how to do anything before getting all the nations who have these 200+ hostages taken from them involved, so in this case there is a whole bunch of diplomatic work to be done up-front.
The so-called “international community” (what does this mean, really?) is more on the side of the pirates than on the side of human rights, no matter what the slogans, declarations and irresolute “resolutions” are.
We can help the nations who want to help themselves and participate in the effort, but not until they pledge their willingness to share the risks as well as the benefits. Until that time, we just defend our own ships. If this deters the pirates from attacking other nation’s ships in the meantime, that’s wonderful, but we cannot take on the burden of policing the Gulf of Aden just for the sake of it.
Three cheers for the Captain, his family, the Navy seals, the Navy, America, and freedom! Freedom is constantly challenged by terror. It is for us to defend.
Once Ben Franklin said to a lady who asked “what kind of society we are going to be?”: “A republic, if you can keep it!”
