Pity is a selective thing. Western navies are advised by lawyers that pirates must be given asylum if they are apprehended while hundreds of Indians, Pakistanis, Africans and Filipino seamen, working for a pittance, languish in captivity while seized in the service of their employers, without prospect of legal residency in Europe. The Times Online reports that the “Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights.” In the meantime:
The number of abducted Filipino seafarers in Somali waters rose to 134 with the seizure of the MV Delight on November 18. The seven Filipino seafarers are members of a 25 multi-national crew aboard the Hong Kong registered Iranian ship, whose crew also includes seven Indians, two Pakistanis and two Ghanaians. None of the crew members are reported to be harmed. The 134 Filipinos currently held come from a total of eight hijacked ships, including 19 from the high profile capture of the Sirius Star; with the single largest contingent being the 26 man crew of the MV Centauri taken on the 17th of September. The total would be higher but for 76 Filipino crew have been released by the Somali pirates since the April of this year. The large number of abducted Filipinos reflects the large Filipino seafaring community, some 230,000 of all ranks in 2004, who command wages only a third of that of Western seamen.
Here’s a partial list of the ships and men that have been entertained at the pirate city of Eyl. (More on Eyl)
1. Sirius Star
Hijacked November 17
Cargo: 2 million barrels of oil, valued at $100 million
Crew: 25 men2. MV Karagol
Hijacked November 12
Cargo: 4,000 tons of chemicals
Crew: 14 Turks3. MV Stolt Strength
Hijacked November 10
Cargo: Phosphoric acid
Crew: 23 Filipinos4. CEC Future
Hijacked November 7
Cargo: Unknown
Crew: 11 Russians, one Georgian, one Lithuanian5. MV Yasa Neslihan
Hijacked October 29
Cargo: Iron ore
Crew: 20 Turks6. MT African Sanderling
Hijacked October 15
Cargo: Unknown
Crew: 21 Filipinos7. MV Faina
Hijacked September 25
Cargo: 33 T-72 Russian battle tanks
Crew: 17 Ukrainians, 2 Latvians, one Russian8. MV Captain Stefanos
Hijacked September 21
Cargo: Unknown
Crew: 17 Filipinos, two other nationals9. Centauri
Hijacked September 18
Cargo: 17,000 tons of salt
Crew: 25 Filipinos10. MV Great Creation
Hijacked September 17
Cargo: Chemical fertilizer
Crew: 24 Chinese, one Sri Lankan
The Washington Post quoted an expert in late 2008 who said, “We have never seen this before, these kinds of numbers, the number of ships that have been attacked”.
Pirates in the Gulf of Aden are holding nine ships with more than 100 passengers for ransom off Somalia, the International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Center said Thursday. A 15,000-ton South Korean cargo ship with 21 sailors was hijacked Wednesday. Other captives include a French couple kidnapped Sept. 3 aboard their yacht, which pirates now are using to capture other ships, authorities said.
Pirates released two other ships, a German-owned cargo vessel and a Japanese chemical tanker, after receiving ransoms, the Reuters news agency reported Thursday.
Wednesday’s hijacking brought the number of pirate attacks this year in the Gulf of Aden to 50, up from 13 for all of last year, Noel Choong, spokesman for the Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur, said by telephone. “We have never seen this before, these kinds of numbers, the number of ships that have been attacked,” Choong said.
How will the saga end? Reuters provides a window into the thinking of some policy makers. In article titled, “Scenarios: How will Somali-American pirate standoff end?”, Andrew Cawthorne offers five outcomes:
1) Negotiated solution, with the pirates being offered safe conduct in exchange for the release of an American captain. 2) Protracted saga, as pirates are fed by Western navies while negotiations are under way; 3) Pirate reinforcement as more buccaneers arrive on-scene; 4) International response, as a flotilla of vessels from all nations arrives to show resolve; 5) Political solution — “Everyone agrees the real solution to piracy is achieving peace and stable central government in Somalia. … there have been 15 attempts to restore central government, the latest being the administration of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, formed in a U.N.-brokered peace process earlier this year. … Violence has intensified poverty in Somalia, where many of the young and unemployed now view the riches available from piracy as a dazzling alternative.”
Another Reuters piece calls the whole piracy situation “an annoying distraction for Obama”.
“We don’t want to go back there,” said presidential historian Thomas Alan Schwartz, a professor at Vanderbilt University. “This may be one of those points where Obama is going to have to cash in some of his international chips and get the U.N. to go in there.”
“Somebody needs to go into Somalia and govern the place,” he said.
In other words, many would prefer to buy them off or at least, give them enough money to distract them for a while. And it is not so outrageous as it seems. I think there will be a surprising amount of sympathy in polite society for the plight of the pirates, who after all are suffering from the root causes of deprivation. There will be almost none for the Third World merchant seamen who have tried to feed their families at the risk to life and limb by working for companies. They will be remembered as little as those who follow the rules so often are: the legal immigrants who wait in line; those who win their citizenship by service; the families who scrimped and saved to buy houses they could afford. What public policy remembers them? Maybe the real poem for our era isn’t Auden’s 1939, but his In memory of WB Yeats. The exceptional have such contempt for the ordinary, because they distract them from the business of their great vanities, when all that is truly exceptional in them is their blindness.
Hostages in training? Filipino fishermen attending church in Fraserburgh, Scotland as they follow the sea.
embedded by Embedded VideoYouTube Direkt
Reliving the Carter years…
Pirate ship converge on US hostage at sea
NAIROBI, Kenya – Escalating a dramatic Indian Ocean standoff, more U.S. warships — as well as pirate reinforcements with an international gallery of hostages — rushed Friday toward the spot where four Somali bandits are holding a U.S. sea captain aboard a drifting lifeboat.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090410/ap_on_re_af/piracy
Political Correctness is the HIV-AIDS of western democracies. This and obeisance to the UN will ensure that nothing useful is done.
“Another Reuters piece calls the whole piracy situation “an annoying distraction for Obama”.”
That’s the problem: EVERYTHING is “an annoying distraction for Obama.” ‘Tis hard to be a Floating Faerie King when such mundane matters keeping pulling one down to earth.
What self-respecting pirate would fear the US Navy? This whole thing is the best laugh I’ve had in a couple of months.
On the contrary, they are suffering from the root cause of not working for a living – like the Philipino and Indian sailors they have kidnapped.
I would offer a 6th outcome to Andrew Cawthorne’s list: Merchant ships start packing M61 Vulcans at stem & stern guns with the ability to rotate to cover the port & starboard in overlapping arcs. That ought to discourage these little speedboats. A weapons locker with long and hand guns for each crew member also ought dampen their enthusiasm.
Sure, some crew training would be necessary, but I bet most of the best training could be handled using video games. If the crew had regular Xbox360 access they could practice defending the ship every night.
Rob,
I posted the same link on the At sea thread. It is either feast or famine with the number of threads. Wretchard nails it regarding the hypocrisy of the self proclaimed Aristos. As noted on the Doppelganger thread they are those who identify with the enemies of law and progress against the productive middle class. Historically a strong executive has allied with the middle class against the elites.
I feel sorry for the captured sailors, but I don’t see that the USA has to do anything about it.
Your list of ten ships lacks details about the country affiliations. In which country is each ship registered? To which country does each ship’s owner pay taxes? To the laws of which country is each ship subject?
By the way, before these Filipino sailors were captured, what was the general opinion of the Filipino population about the USA playing the role of the world’s policeman? Do most Filipinos want the USA to be the world’s policeman normally or only when some Filipino sailors are captured off the coast of Somalia?
Step 1. Round up the lawyers
Step 2. Hang ‘em from the halyards
Step 3. Put Marines on random cargo ships in the area.
Step 4. Shoot the next pirate attempt and leave the carcasses for shark feed.
Step 5. Yawn in indifference when the MSM bleats on about pirate human rights and bad, bad, Western navies.
Problem solved.
I can imagine Mr. Sylvester in 1803 braying against President Jefferson’s dispatch of ships and marines to the North African Coast to tackle the Pirate problem.
Back then the Royal Navy policed the world’s oceans but they had this little problem of containing this French fellow by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. Besides, they didn’t mind if their former ingrate colonials were preyed upon by pirates. Maybe we should have just paid up. After all, we weren’t the world’s policeman.
Someone has to protect the ocean commons or world trade will come to a screeching halt. Almost all international trade is carried in ships and if the world, led by the United States Navy will not deal with piracy in the time honored way this scourge will just grow all over the world. If civilized society will not deal with barbarians then barbarism wins out and civilization collapses.
The situation off the Horn of Africa is very much like New York City prior to the election of Rudi Giuliani. The young barbarians ruled the streets in guise of squeegee men, turnstile jumpers and street hustlers. Civilized life dried up in the great city of New York. Mayor Giuliani chased the barbarians from the streets of New York and it became the safest major city in the world. Perhaps the Foreign Office, the State Department and Mr. Sylvester should pay attention to the New York way.
Maybe we just need to reframe the problem, and point out how much excess carbon emissions are created by re-routing all those ships to avoid the pirates. You know, just turn it into an environmental issue.
Then maybe we could even convince Greenpeace to send in their anti-whaling ships to spray water and throw stink bombs at the pirates.
Brock offers a sixth possible option and Jaymaster a seventh to Andrew Cawthorne’s five. An eighth option would involve sending more Somalis to Minnesota, where they have integrated into the community so well (irony). Yes, liberal church groups will indeed display, (as Wrichard writes) “a surprising amount of sympathy in polite society for the plight of the pirates, who after all are suffering from the root causes of deprivation. . . . [but] . . . there will be almost none for the Third World merchant seamen who have tried to feed their families at the risk to life and limb by working for companies.”
And here is the third section of “In Memory of W. B. Yeats,” to which Wrichard alludes in his thread title—
Earth, receive an honoured guest:
William Yeats is laid to rest.
Let the Irish vessel lie
Emptied of its poetry.
In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,
Each sequestered in its hate;
Intellectual disgrace
Stares from every human face,
And the seas of pity lie
Locked and frozen in each eye.
Follow, poet, follow right
To the bottom of the night,
With your unconstraining voice
Still persuade us to rejoice.
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress.
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountains start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
— W.H. Auden
Piracy is, has been and will be, an international crime. Seamen know how to solve the problem. Anyone else’s opinion is hot air.
When Lloyd’s gets enough, it will end.
I remember sailing in the area in the 70′s. Pirates existed then. No one bothered western flagged vessels, especially Greek and Russian. Targets then were “green flags” (i.e. Islamic countries tend to use the color green)
transporting pilgrams up the Red Sea for the Haj.
It doesn’t take heavy artillery to ward them off. Vigilence, a few rifles and if your really serious, .50 or two.
Today’s difference is unrestrained restraint.
We were never chased, but I remember sitting in water front saloons with some who were.
Mike at 7. Feel sorry? Seamen and life at sea is a different world. You may be confusing life ashore with life at sea. Piracy must be hammered. It is the same ethic as going to the rescue of any vessel in distress.
jerryofva,
Rudy’s NY Way is the same as The Untouchables Chicago Way. Both are better than Obama’s Chicago Way.
The sticking point for the NY Times and others who are tying themselves into knots to prevent the time honored and effective response to the 4,000 year old problem of piracy is that making a distinction between pirates and regular criminal defendants, who are now allowed like juveniles to argue that their deprived conditions are mitigating if not exculpatory, admits the historical veracity of the distinction between lawful and unlawful combatants that underlay the Bush/Cheney policy in the Global War on Terror. Given that the first and over-riding priority is the political cause of invalidating all works of Bush/Cheney McChimpyhalliburton small issues like real world life and death and the freedom of commerce on which our liberties and prosperity depend pale in significance.
That this is even a problem is nonsense! Here is the solution: You arm your ship. You train your crew. You kill any thug who tries to seize your ship. Blow their little boat out of the water and leave them to drown. No sympathy. The thugs made their choice to live as pirates. They should live, or die, with the consequences of THEIR choice. Any other “solution” is pandering to the pirates.
After a few encounters the pirates will realize that maybe their choice isn’t a good one. Problem solved.
This site looks like a good resource on the subject overall – lots of background, photos, and maps as well
http://www.eaglespeak.us/
Maybe tangential, maybe not. A book I read and re-read as a kid was Mark Twain’s ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.’ The book’s plot and the role of its antagonist, ‘Injun Joe’ (not a PC world back then), is probably familiar to most. What struck me, even as a kid, was Twain’s postscript of sorts that followed Tom’s and Becky Thatcher’s escape from the cave (italics mine):
“Injun Joe was buried near the mouth of the cave; and people flocked there in boats and wagons from the towns and from all the farms and hamlets for seven miles around; they brought their children, and all sorts of provisions, and confessed that they had had almost as satisfactory a time at the funeral as they could have had at the hanging.
This funeral stopped the further growth of one thing–the petition to the governor for Injun Joe’s pardon. The petition had been largely signed; many tearful and eloquent meetings had been held, and a committee of sappy women been appointed to go in deep mourning and wail around the governor, and implore him to be a merciful ass and trample his duty under foot. Injun Joe was believed to have killed five citizens of the village, but what of that? If he had been Satan himself there would have been plenty of weaklings ready to scribble their names to a pardon-petition, and drip a tear on it from their permanently impaired and leaky water-works.”
Even back in Twain’s day there was a “root causes” crowd that either couldn’t or didn’t want to get it. My guess is that a non-negligible fraction of the current root causes crowd unfortunately does get it, but pretends not to because it serves their ends.
P.S. Editing feature awesome – allowed me to change to italics what I had mistakenly put into boldface!
As has been mentioned by others; even though giving firearms to the crew is by far the cheapest, simplest, and best idea; those firearms would be illegal for non-licensed non-citizens to own in almost all of the ports of call to which the ships would travel. They would become illegal once the ship left international waters moving towards a port.
We all know what the solution is. The problem is one of will, of desire. Implementing the solution means granting others responsibility and freedom, and a government will never do that.
luagha:
Not quite true at least for US ships. All ships, not just warships, are sovereign territory of the flags they fly. Absent company policy prohibiting firearms at “the workplace”, US merchant seamem serving aboard a US flagged vessel still have Second Ammendment rights. What they can’t do is bring that weapon ashore with them.
shoot any and all pirates at sea upon sight…
feed to the sharks…
next?
Welcome to 1783
The Betsey and the Philadelphia…
We have been there before…
Peaceful Islam has raised it’s ugly war-like head again..
time to chop it off
There is quite a bit of piracy in the Molucca straits. The pirates there learned not to attack ships that flew the Russian or Israeli flags. Pirates who were stupid enough to try usually ended up washing ashore with a bullet through their heads. Its an old solution, but it works.
OT http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/76084/
You know, if ever there was a situation that begged for a private solution, isn’t this it?
If, for example, a number of us had the means, we could quietly pool our resources, purchase a boat of appropriate size and, ah, attractiveness… an ocean-going wolf in sheeps clothing, so to speak… surely we could come up with proper armament… cruise the Somali coast (in international waters, of course) and wait for the inevitable boarding party.
Suck’em in good and close – then blow’em the h3ll outta the water. Leave nothing but a thinning oil slick. Sooner or later the pirates would notice that a raider here and there wasn’t coming home… with no idea why.
You’ve got to think it’d put a crimp in this kind of activity.
It’d also feel rather good, seeing as we’re pretty much limited when it comes to taking things into our own hands everywhere else.
Some things just need killin’ – pirates fit that description.
If we really must not harm them: retrofit the decks with water cannons as have been deployed by one crew. Of course those pirates wearing head dress will be humiliated by the forced removal of same. Their mates will no doubt appreciate the baths. This will work until one of the pirates gets off a lucky shot with one of the RPGs.
If my memory serves me correctly the USN was formed in order to dissuade piracy (Muslim). It was deemed an alternative to paying large sums of “tribute” which had been the practice for years and did little to dissuade the practice of taking ships and enslaving hostages. If fact some folks and publications of the time suggested and tried to convince Congress that paying tribute/ransom actually promoted and encouraged piracy.
Having to repeatedly learn the same lesson is a distraction.
TPT, several months ago the guys over at the RealRevo offered a business plan to set up a pirate blasting cruise line!
I like the private solution!
I can see it now…
Kill a Pirate Safari!
You could make a fortune!
@25 joe buzz
You know, a few comely lasses in bikinis who can handle a .50 Barrett would sweeten the pot, eh?
A deck full of cuties (a different sort of booty) would surely be the sort of thing a group of swarthy ole Somali pirates would be interested in, ah, checking out, right?
I’d pay to be on that cruise – double if I get to shoot!
I’m also leaning towards the U.S. Navy sitting this one out, for several reasons.
One, I don’t want the U.S. to be the world’s policeman. All it does is breed resentment from those who are policed. Gratitude is almost never shown.
Two, if we can sit this out the other countries who are affected by this will be forced to deal with it. Let some other (Chinese?) imperialists stick their nose in and take the lead on this. If the U.S. Navy and Marines show up, and level all the pirates and their bases, the rest of the world can just snuggle safely back under their American security blanket. We can’t keep protecting these people forever.
Three, fuck Somalia. The U.S. has bled for Somalia before, and was repaid plenty for its efforts.
The Islamic Somali hordes don’t have nukes, they don’t threaten any national security interests of the U.S., and they are two-bit gangsters. In retaliation for this latest seizure of a U.S. flagged ship, fine, let’s utterly raze some staging areas and kill some pirates. But after that, when the barbarians have learned not to attack U.S. flagged ships, the rest of the world deal with this one. I’m not interested in risking American lives.
Is there ANYTHING in international law preventing passengers on a boat WHO IS BEING ATTACKED/BOARDED by pirates from deadly assault on pirates?
Could we chain them to the deck and offer them dog hair blankets and pig meat?
And then kill them and let the ocean swallow them up?
Watching the video of Eyl, gee a couple of companies of Marines couldn’t secure that place in about five minutes with minimal collateral damage. Take the politically correct yoke off the troops and beat these fools down in a hurry. What was the Rangers in Mogidishu’s kill ration with their hands tied? 1500-18. C’mon ,if we can’t stop these third world pissants, who can we fight?
@28 what is occupation
Well, just as the U.S. Navy has ridden in to save the day recently, one must think that the Somali Navy would do the same to rescue a bunch of Somali “citizens” held against their… oh wait… right {{ embarrassed }}
I’m not a student of international law, but I think that you’re actually spot on – pirates are considered enemies of humanity upon whom there is a year-round open season. All we’d have to do is wait for the first hostile feint and blow’em right to Mars.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
As needed.
I find myself agreeing with Sylwester, our resident Putin apologist, and wondering why most people here don’t seem to have a problem with further projection of American armed force.
1- I don’t want the U.S. to be the world’s policeman. This only breeds resentment among those being policed, making us a focal point of the rage of the anarchic and crumbling societies of the Third world. Do we really need that right now?
2 – Let some other power take the lead on this one. If the U.S. shows up off the Somali coast with the Navy and the Marines, and destroys these pirates and their staging areas, the rest of the world can simply snuggle safely back under their American security blanket. We can’t protect these people forever; the decent members of humanity must re-discover their survival instincts if they want to make it through the next 50 years.
3 – Fuck Somalia. Put U.S. troops on the ground as peacekeepers? I cannot believe this is seriously being considered. If the U.S. comes back to that hellhole, it will be only to rescue Americans and teach the pirates not to mess with American flagged ships. We’ve bled for the good citizens of Somalia before, and they have amply repaid us.
They don’t have nukes, they don’t threaten any U.S. national interests, and we don’t need an incompetent Obama administration bumbling around in Africa. I used to consider the merits of U.S. peacekeeping in Africa (See “Tears of the Sun”), but certainly not with the current administration we have. Let’s mount Spec Ops rescues of American citizens, cause enough damage so they respect the American flag, and leave.
I find myself agreeing with Sylwester, our resident Putin apologist, and wondering why most people here don’t seem to have a problem with further projection of American armed force.
1- I don’t want the U.S. to be the world’s policeman. This only breeds resentment among those being policed, making us a focal point of the rage of the anarchic and crumbling societies of the Third world. Do we really need that right now?
2 – Let some other power take the lead on this one. If the U.S. shows up off the Somali coast with the Navy and the Marines, and destroys these pirates and their staging areas, the rest of the world can simply snuggle safely back under their American security blanket. We can’t protect these people forever; the decent members of humanity must re-discover their survival instincts if they want to make it through the next 50 years.
3 – Let Somalia burn. Put U.S. troops on the ground as peacekeepers? I cannot believe this is seriously being considered. If the U.S. comes back to that hellhole, it will be only to rescue Americans and teach the pirates not to mess with American flagged ships. We’ve bled for the good citizens of Somalia before, and they have amply repaid us.
They don’t have nukes, they don’t threaten any U.S. national interests, and we don’t need an incompetent Obama administration bumbling around in Africa. I used to consider the merits of U.S. peacekeeping in Africa (See “Tears of the Sun”), but certainly not with the current administration we have. Let’s mount Spec Ops rescues of American citizens, cause enough damage so they respect the American flag, and leave.
Jimmy Carter was nearly three years into his presidency before he had a hostage crisis.
Should we all get disco pants and haircuts?
I’d just posted this at Wretchard’s ‘At Sea’ post:
The Times gleefully claims that the standoff “. . . showed the limits of the world’s most powerful military . . . ”
No, it didn’t.
What it shows is the deliberately circumscribed range of options available to the high priesthood of lawyer-bureaucrats masquerading as our leaders, rudderless technocrats for whom everything is negotiable.
In the end, whatever trouble they turn their attention toward, rest assured we’ll have more of it when they’re done, and we’ll end up subidizing it, as well.
Buckets @31. With all due respect…We are talking about the law of the sea. Not national pride, not national interest, just the historic battle against pirates at sea. This is bigger than “not our fight” (plus it is not much of a fight). If you want our excellent Coast Guard, in their law enforcement mode, could do what is needed before coffee break.
Everyone needs to get off the lawyerized PC (fer or agin) stuff. Piracy is piracy…a captains first responsibility is the safety of his vessel and crew. Let them do their jobs.
PS. Everybody has a rifle or two as part of the man overboard kit, for warding off sharks.
I agree that the U.S. could easily deal with this. And yes, our Coast Guard could likely sink several pirate ships.
But where does it end? Fine, we can easily handle this one. What about when piracy starts up again in Western Africa? What about pirate activity in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific? Are we going to handle all those attacks, too? What about the thought that sovereign nations should defend their territory and their citizens, and not simply call in the American heavy when the going gets rough?
Yes, the law of the sea provides for common cause against pirates. I’m not saying we abdicate completely our role in fighting them. But, I don’t understand why piracy is a scourge that must be fought by every nation, and yet when we look around the room, “everyone” seems to consist of solely the U.S. Navy.
The longer we insulate the Western world and civilized nations from the disintegrating Third World, the longer the U.S. must be hated as an “Imperialist” and be isolated in its fight against Islamic radicals and authoritarian powers. We can’t shoulder this burden alone forever. Other nations must step up.
Buckets:
The US Economy is dependent on seaborne commerce whether it flies a flag of convience or our own. If nobody polices the commons then seaborne trade suffers and the US standard of living declines. I’m afraid that you and Mr. Cat are kinda of clueless about this point. In the 19th century US merchantmen were able to hide behind the Royal Navy. They no longer can.
Postscript: I don’t no where you get your idea that we ar the only ones out there. Task Force 151 is the principal force and is made up of US and other NATO/allied nations. Your ignorance is showing when you say that we are the only ones out there.
Postscript: Where do you get the idea that the US Navy is the only one out there? Task Force 151 is an international force consisting of several NATO navies as well as Japan and soon the RoK. Your ignorance is on this matter is astounding.
The broad ocean commons is a public good and will remain unpoliced unless the leading naval power chooses to lead. That means that the US Navy must exercise leadership less the other nations abandon the task. Our Navy was originally built to defend American interests on the high seas and anti piracy operations were a key component of its mission.
Let’s us all wonder how John McCain would have handled this…
apologies for the screwed up edit…
Pirates do not stay perpetually at sea as we can see from the Youtube offering.
I emphatically reputiate any arguments that falls short of the USA putting a carrier group off the coast of Somalia and bombing them further into the stone age.
Make no mistake, I feel for the children but children are not a sufficeint reason not to impose civilization. The Somali’s are not civil, obviously do not care about civilizational norms, and thus should be removed from the face of the Earth. We already have a US Marine Corps assault brigade on assault ships in the area. They can go in after the airstikes and insure a full graves registration.
Actually having this entire discussion in this century is absurd beyond belief.
This is also a great lesson in why we should have never decommissioned several of our battleships. The hell they could bring while standing offshore would be very effective in that region of the world. As a weapons platform they are without peer.
Arming ships is only a stop gap measure. Pirates can always get more and more arms, more and more ships, while the merchant seamen have actual jobs running the ship.
And margins for shipping companies are razor thin. Paper napkins are out, paper towels in on most ships to save cash. It’s that bad.
Eventually, some great power, India or China, will “solve” the problem by simply colonizing Somalia, and in the process killing most Somalis. Putting the rest in various schools that eradicate both culture and religion.
The Crew of the MV Great Creation has a very powerful nation that potentially could intervene on it’s own. Seizing the Horn and running the place for it’s own profit. Ask the Tibetans who much “respect” China has for indigenous culture.
Obama and Hillary are weak. The Twain quote shows how deeply feminized influences in very comfortable, rising income environments creates sympathy for thugs (like the preference for bad boys elevated to policy) among a feminized body politic.
But it goes far deeper than that. Political influence and power accrue to those who can construct social institutions that dictate power run according to their demographic reality.
The great sea-change in Western nations (and Japan) has been the massive shift among women from a preference for preventive military action to insure peace to the belief that all conflicts are solved by unilateral surrender and avoiding all military engagements no matter what the cost.
Pacifism and appeasement has always been a strong component among women, but only in the Post-War period has it grown to be the near universal rule among women. Who in a fractured post-War society provide the dominant bloc voting power.
What’s remarkable is not Barack Obama and his female Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offering subservient pacifism in the face of minor piracy that could be crushed conveniently and to send a message (about not testing the new President).
No, what is remarkable is how much success Livni got in the recent Israeli elections despite the fact Iran presents an existential threat to wipe out all of Israel’s people. Even when people know well an enemy plans to nuke them into oblivion many, most of them suburbanite yuppies, will choose feminized pacifism.
I mean, it’s remarkable. When people refuse to either “pick up free money off the sidewalk” (Obama/Hillary refusing to make a “message” and an example) or do the minimum required to survive (vote for Likud/Netanyahu to nuke Iran FIRST) hugely powerful forces are at work.
It’s not something that “just happened” … Only powerful demographic changes can explain it. [It's probably the flip side of Mark Steyn's observations about how Doris Lessing's "Children of Men" came true in Japan, where men and women, deprived of either children or relationships or pets in high-cost, densely packed, post-Traditional urban consumerist environments, got to "pet cafes" to play with cats for an hour, for a fee. The more urban or suburban an environment, the more avoidance of violence/military action at ALL COSTS becomes the dominant objective and the shorter the future time orientation.]
Everyone knows what needs be done and what the results will be.
Some talk about it and others look the other direction and talk of other things.
Alas, our President is one of the latter.
I expect this will end badly for our Nation.
But they won’t ‘step-up’, they’ll pay tribute. Which means a new growth industry in piracy.
You can’t ‘make’ other ‘nations’ defend their citizens or territory when the areas where piracy is a problem effectively don’t have coherent nations. And looking over the nationalities of the prisoners most of these nations do not have much of a navy, some not at all.
The point is that it doesn’t end when either appeasement (tribute) or ignoring the problem becomes the ‘solution’.
It ends when pirates become convinced that it’s a very BAD idea.
And like it or not, we’re the only sheriff in town.
“I emphatically reputiate any arguments that falls short of the USA putting a carrier group off the coast of Somalia and bombing them further into the stone age.”
Seeing as most Somalis are not involved in piracy, that seems more than a little extreme.
However, I would have no objection to a policy of (1) killing pirates whenever feasible, (2) following pirates to their home ports and killing them and those they do business with. It seems entirely reasonable for Somalis to learn that not only is it deadly dangerous to commit piracy, it is almost as dangerous to consort with pirates or even live next door. And if a Hellfire missile were to kill a few silly “human shields” from Berkeley, that would be just a bonus.
GB@42 says piracy will end “when pirates become convinced that it’s a very BAD idea.” Depends on what a very BAD idea is. The fear of being confronted and demolished at sea can always be offset by the risk of ever growing profits from such activity. Destroying a pirate flotilla here and there may only encourage better armed and more agressive pirates. As soon as piracy ceases to be as lucrative a business as it seems to be now, only then will piracy lose its appeal to the fortune seeking brigands of the sea.
Free enterprise is the answer, as it ever was.
Letters of Marque and Reprisal are authorized by Article 1 of the Constitution and are still available, as the USA was not a signatory to the Treaty of Paris in 1856.
Congress could authorize private contractors to seize pirate vessels preying upon US flagged shipping. I bet Blackwater would leap at the chance. A few months down the road, there’d be no Somalis anywhere near our vessels.
Learning from history means we don’t need to re-invent the wheel every time an ancient problem appears. Failing to learn from history means we go extinct, from stupidity.
.
Q-ships with Apaches would end the favorable economics overnight.
Some UAV’s wouldn’t hurt, either.
That H didn’t rescue the hostage overnight with SEAL action indicates what a flake H really is.
Of course, the reason is that the pirates are MUSLIM.
That’s going to be H’s reason for not ‘stirring the pot.’
Surely he’s telling his boys and girls that we can’t be getting the Muslim pirates upset because it’d play poorly in the ‘arab street’ or some such blather.
By not framing the conflict correctly W set us up for this. Now H intends to transfer the guilt of the pirates onto our polity.
If it weren’t for his own economic disaster Putin would be laughing himself silly.
BTW, a land campaign is for idiots. Just pick’em off at sea. It’s so shamelessly easy it’s an indictment of W that this campaign was not started on his watch.
It should be apparent by the timing and the sophistication that AQ is the real brains behind this and that the village of Ely is a geographical cut-out.
The big money is going to Yemen. That’s the true pirate base. Good luck in filming there!
A simple operation run by our spec ops people would put paid to this ridiculousness. Chase down a few pirates and send them to allah. All the west needs is to put the thought in the heads of these pirates that it MIGHT happen to them. We don’t need to physically be on every boat that passes through the region. A little fear goes a long way. And we already have the people on our payroll so the cost would be minmal. Problem solved. Next issue please?
My ignorance ceased to astound me years ago. What never ceases to astound is ad hominem attacks made with poor grammar and riddled with misspellings.
Jerry has defined the oceans of the world as a global commons. I remember reading something, somewhere, about some kind of a “tragedy” that occurs on a “commons.” I’ll research and report back.
And sorry to burst your bubble, but protective convoys and a simple presence are a bit different than sustained offensive operations, either inland or at sea. Here’s a few interesting quotes from Navy Vice William E. Gortney on Task Force 151:
“Some navies in our coalition did not have the authority to conduct counter-piracy missions” [I'm sure they're working on this]
“But the problem of piracy is and continues to be a problem that begins ashore and is an international problem that requires an international solution” [Ashore??? But Jerry said Japan sent a destroyer, that should take care of the problem]
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=52586
Avoiding answering the hard questions will be the Obama administration’s plan for the next 4-8 years, so Jerry has good company.
wsl:
What does better armed mean? Do you think they will go out a procure a Burke Class Destroyer? There are absolute limits to the kind of arms that pirates can buy. The bigger the weapon, the bigger the vessel to carry it. If they were to cruise in anything more then a few hundred tons they become easy prey for an entire panoply of anti-ship weapons.
Here is some information on TF 151:
http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81500
It’s crazy to go ashore… absolute madness.
Pirates floating around in high speed skiffs dependent upon a mother ship? Give me a break!
BTW, someone is giving the mother ship pretty good intel.
And why are we not jamming the pirate’s communication?
And how is it we can’t intercept their transmissions?
What is up with all of this?
Is no one using marked bills?
The French look like boobs, losing almost all the money during an observed pursuit. Was Clouseau handling the case? Did the pirates use Jason Stratham? ( Transporter IV)
43. pst314:
Seeing as most Somalis are not involved in piracy, that seems more than a little extreme
Well, given that the Somalis are good for exactly what I don’t know then eliminating say 90% of them would be a good start toward helping them reconstructing a civil world..additionally it’s always the “innocent” civilians who die in the greatest numbers…why they act like sheep knowing they’re going to die anyway is a mystery to me. I mean pirates sleep, why don’t a few “good” Somalis’ kill them, revolt against the bad Somalis?
However, your compassion is cloying, although misplace for a great power in this situation.
It should be recognized that military power, projected worldwide,ultimately dictates what happens on this globe.
I say project it. I mean if we can’t handle the Somalis …pleeeze.
The great sea-change in Western nations (and Japan) has been the massive shift among women from a preference for preventive military action to insure peace to the belief that all conflicts are solved by unilateral surrender and avoiding all military engagements no matter what the cost.
Pacifism and appeasement has always been a strong component among women, but only in the Post-War period has it grown to be the near universal rule among [western] women.
Even when people know well an enemy plans to nuke them into oblivion many, most of them suburbanite yuppies, will choose feminized pacifism.
I mean, it’s remarkable. When people refuse to … do the minimum required to survive … hugely powerful forces are at work.
It’s not something that “just happened” … Only powerful demographic changes can explain it.
Interesting observations & perspective Whiskey.
Looking at western women as a demographic group, what distinguishes them from other women is feminism. Feminism generally posits that women do not need the protection of men.
But the unhappy, ‘bitchy’ feminist is so common as to be a cliche. I’d suggest that much of the bitchiness is the inherent psychological conflict between their consciously held feminist tenants and their subconscious, which ‘knows’ that they need mens’ protection.
Needing men’s protection obviously equates to at least some dependence upon men and that translates to women needing to yield to men.
There is also a sexual component to all of this and thus the trend toward metro-sexuality in young men, so as to secure sexual access to modern women in the urban/suburban environments in which most western women reside.
But metro-sexuals do not even expect, much less ‘demand’ that a woman ‘yield’ and so there is no component of surrender, nor of protection. I suspect that for women, at a very deep level, its profoundly unsatisfactory and disappointing. Thus the ‘bitchiness’.
Feminists are literally at war with at least one aspect of their own femininity.
The ‘unilateral surrender’ to which you refer is effectively, choosing a form of slavery. It’s choosing the traditional role of women as subservient to men. It’s benefit is the protection of men.
Its truly ironic that liberal western women, having rejected the US “John Wayne” style of masculinity are effectively choosing to ‘trade’ it for the much more oppressive, regressive Islamic barbarian style of masculinity.
No one would consciously choose that of course but feminism’s refusal to see the value of strong men which, necessitates at least some deferral from women, inevitably results in their choosing the only avenue open to the helpless… surrender.
Habu #52:
Do you believe in coincidences? Gee, another Democrat President, another example of the most powerful nation on earth having it’s nose rubbed in brigand poo in Somalia. I’m shocked! Shocked I say!
I agree with you regarding the battlewagons. That was a dark day when they were decommissioned. They epitomized “presence”.
Whiskey, speaking of the “feminized body politic”, do recall that just prior to the recent election Livni willingly and approvingly appeared on stage at a womens’ political rally in Jerusalem with none other than Dana International.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_International
Forget 16″ guns…
The ultra-rapid fire ship guns on the DDG-96 Bainbridge would flatten or sink any Somali pirate; there is no need to bring back the Iowa’s.
BTW, rail-guns are coming… they’ll make 16″ rounds look like pop-guns.
For a little bit on DDG-96:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/270670
“your compassion is cloying but misplaced”
It’s funny that you would find my compassion “cloying”, especially considering the totality of what I wrote. I’ll remember not to ask you for advice in dealing with crime in East LA.
Who would name their son Nimrod?
Sheesh!
hey
Rush just told Barry that his current non-actions a just his way of voting “”present”". and that a whole lot of truth.
between clijntonwho is so dumb…and the fairy king smacking his lips in policy-world we look like a bunch of punks, unable to muster a rsponse.
a couple of days back the brits uncovered an easter bombing campaign which was to be waged by paki students. my first reaction…and i do offer my regrets for this in advance…was to say tooooo bad. yup, i think its time for another 9/11 wake up call or we , as a nation are sunk.
Barry only knows those big do nothing policy platforms and photo ops with the Black Widow. i can say nothing more. we are failing as a world power and a nation and it scares me.
Announce an exclusion zone: no small craft including fishing craft are to be tolerated within ZONE X.
All skiffs, tramps, trawlers within this ZONE X will be sunk on sight after DATE CERTAIN.
All transiting ships will co-ordinate their passage with TF-151 and maintain radio contact every Y MINUTES. All courses must conform to the established schedule.
Any deviating major vessels will be immediately boarded at the convenience of the TF-151 Commander, no exceptions.
For the period of the emergency, all transit vessels are required to carry close quarters defense. All local port regulations to the contrary must be waived. Any nation unwilling to modify their ship defense authority will be closed to maritime traffic for the duration of the piracy epidemic.
Bounties to be offered as to the names and whereabouts of pirates and their cronies/ money men.
So affirmed by the major shipping powers…
Please expand and revise this draft.
We’re not failing as a nation, we’re failing as a government.
There is a difference.
It’s the failure of our culture that is most alarming.
Does this mean an end to “Talk like a Pirate Day”?
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/
buckets,
You are wrong on this one. For one thing there really is a common interest at sea. All sailors of any nationality have two absolute obligations, one is to assist anyone in distress at sea and the other, a related subset really, is to aide in the suppression of piracy. At the nastiest moments of the Cold War if a Soviet sailor had fallen overboard the U.S. navy would have rescued him and there was no doubt in our minds that if one of us fell overboard a Russian ship would render assistance. On one occasion it is said that an American carrier ordered a Soviet shadow to assume rescue destroyer station during flight operations. Ivan reportedly did so and much mirth and some grief followed. “It’s not our problem” is never the answer at sea.
I went to sea for 30 years and sailed that water repeatedly in the last 5 years. We carried .50 cal machine guns mounted on both sides of the vessel and our military cargo protection team were all equipped with M-4s and grenade launchers. Any pirate who had had the balls to get within range of those .50s would have been shot into doll rags without the slightest compunction.
The problem here isn’t ability; it’s will. Obama is a lying coward who is only good at attacking whites who won’t fight back.
Both in our domestic and overseas affairs, we need to start thinking that “violence is the answer”–because it is. If the cocksuckers who hate us and write their America-despising, leftist garbage on JournoList thought there might be some blowback for their actions–like, say, a couple of silenced .40 bullets to the back of the head–they would be a lot more circumspect in their writing.
Islam is a sack of crap devised by a homicidal maniac to justify rape, pillage and murder. Anyone who does the slightest bit of investigation into the origins of this murder cult can see this. Why, then, aren’t they laughed off the stage and told to go jerk off in a corner?
It’s because their people are willing to kill to get them respect. The usual suspects who attack us so frequently know we play by the rules and wouldn’t give them the Pym Fortuyn or Van Gogh treatment. They know Muslims would because they’ve seen the proof. They know they can insult and abuse us with impunity. When we finally stop supinely accepting their attacks and respond in a way to scare them, they’ll suddenly realize their obligation to remain civil in their discussions of us–just as they now do with the Muslims.
Deny this if you wish, but that is what it is going to take. The Left thinks they have the monopoly on political attack and the threat of political violence. They need to be disabused of that notion and until they are, we can continue to expect contempt and disdainful insults from those who loudly proclaim their hatred for us.
Well, the French just went in after some of thier own, with mixed results.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/04/10/somalia.france/index.html
jaymaster #65:
It’s a sad day when the Fwench are shown to have heavier stones than the U.S.
God help us!
While our union rules for American flagged ships have reduced the number of American flag vessels, many of the cargoes are US cargoes worldwide. We have a dog in the fight, even beyond pirates being the enemy of all mankind.
That said, an individual navy’s response is dependent on their government’s policies. Some, like the Germans and Brits, are bloody worthless in the fight. Some are far more bloody minded. Now that the Chinese run warships through the area, I would rather think that being a pirate intercepted by them would involve a short and exciting period of time. What allows piracy is a lack of political will.
I think that one of the strongest motives for doing something would be for Lloyd’s to raise insurance rates for the area, changing the cost benefit ratio of transiting unarmed. However, if we wanted to bring this to a sudden and screeching halt, it could be done in under 24 hours. See Wretchards point on Eyl, Somalia. It can be dealt with.
I reference something we used in Vietnam under the code name ARC LIGHT. B-52′s can carry an amazing number of plain old dumb iron bombs [108 apiece]. A formation of them can drop a whole lot of them on a specific area with great accuracy. They fly at altitudes where there is no warning of their presence by sight or sound. Just suddenly, the world gets wonderfully exothermic.
Assuming that you want to avoid “innocent” civilian casualties in the boom town of Eyl [where pretty much everybody lives off of piracy, and very well by local standards], simply target the waterfront and docks. Do it in the middle of the night. Just suddenly, they are gone.
Even Somali pirates ought to be able to understand that message, at least those who survive. As far as blame, surely we have someone in the State Department who can credibly say, “Who? Us? We have no idea what happened.”.
There is the matter of the vessels and crews being held at the time, anchored in the harbor. That would argue for either assuming them to be expendable, or, if we wanted to get credit as the heroes, for a SEAL strike to liberate the ships just before the waterfront turns to glowing gas. I would settle for either.
Mind you, that makes the untenable assumption that the National Command Authority is on our side. So feel free to classify this as a geo-political fantasy.
“Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute,” …Robert Goodloe Harper [mistakenly attributed to CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY] 1797.
“We’ll pay you to only hurt us a little bit.” …. American Foreign policy 2009
Subotai Bahadur
mac #64:
Take it easy there sir. One of the leftosphere’s vital underpinnings, the Socialist-Communist newspaper industry, is having it’s last gasp. A lot of Americans have come to realize they were duped in the last election by a smooth talking empty socialist suit and his MSM lapdogs. All is not lost! If we can prevent the amnesty and legalization of millions of reliable socialist voters before 2010, and prevent A.C.O.R.N. from stealing the election, Chicago style, we may preserve our republic, and possibly all of western civilization from it’s most serious threat in sixty years. Before we turn loose our hard men like the Argentines eventually had to, let’s try working within the system for a bit longer! What are you doing next week, on April 15? Are you participating in a tax day tea party protest? If not, why not. It’s your God given right to assemble and redress your government with your grievances!
Ely is a hell-hole geographic cut-out.
It’s not worth the load of a single BUFF.
UAV’s need to take out the four wheel drive pirate sand buggies: Toyota seems to be popular.
They do stick out in a land of nothing.
The real players are in Yemen: AQ is back in business.
Hit these yoho’s AT SEA. No collateral damage, nowhere to hide.
The reason crime happens is because it pays. Urban crime in America exploded in the 60s as soon as the punishment no longer fit the crime. Piracy currenly pays, and given oLambah as CIC it will no doubt continue to pay, unless the Chinese get annoyed at interruptions to their exports.
The only solution to Africa’s myriad problems is and always has been Colonialism. The West long ago gave that up in a spasm of misplaced guilt (life has been sooooo good for Africans since, no?). Whiskey makes a point about India or China coming into Somalia. Indeed, once they are certain the US is effectively castrated for good, they no doubt will gleefully carve up the Dark Continent, and don’t expect a whole lot of restraint in the process.
I expect it will need to be post-Obama. I can fully imagine Obama doing nothing if California got invaded. But if China invaded Somalia or Sudan or some other hell-hole, no doubt he’d send in the troops post-haste to save his kinsmen. Though at some point he will have crippled the military enough that China won’t even care.
Really, it astounds me that the Western powers didn’t decide decades ago that they were just going to go take all that Middle Eastern oil, the locals be damned. Can you even imagine how much better the world would be today had that been done?
peterike #70:
Hitler wrecked that for the whole world with his genocidal madness.
He destroyed European nationalism as a morally acceptable political undertaking.
His madness caused all of western civilization to step back, examine itself, and tear out beliefs of cultural superiority by the roots.
As a culture we’ve thrown out the baby with the bath water!
Mussolini’s fascists were no protectors of liberty, and certainly committed atrocities in Africa, but you can’t tell me that Somalia and its inhabitants today are better off than they would have been as a fascist Italian colony. At least under the Italians there was no widespread continuing starvation. There was progress. There was education and European culture for at least part of the native population.
I believe the world would be a better place today if all of western civilization hadn’t decided to surrender and commit collective suicide in the wake of nationalist excesses and communist taught self loathing.
Who would bring what charges, in what court, on what evidence, if a merchant ship shot up a pirate boat in self-defense?
peterike,
The Colonial powers did not give up their empires out of a sense of misplaced guilt, although some polemicists certainly advocated for that reason. The vacuous fools of sixty year ago were no smarter but possibly less influential than self important blowhards like Frank Rich or the tenured radicals of today. They gave up and withdrew because they were bankrupt after two world wars and America did not want to pay for their imperial adventures while we were facing the looming Cold War. In 1847 India was seen as an asset to England but in the world of fixed Bretton Woods exchange rates and free trade that was taking shape in 1947 the Raj was considered a net loss. Without India, the Dominions having been spun off in 1931, there was no reason for the British to hold on to all of the colonies. Similar conditions pushed for the withdrawal of the French and the Dutch. Some wanted to hang on, for prestige or for control of resources, but few argued that it was more economically beneficial to garrison and govern than to allow the bankers to work their magic and simply buy whatever the places produced.
Remember how the Arabs raised the price of oil 35 years ago? After a short sharp shock the Western banks absorbed the transfered money. What else could the oil sheiks do with it? A passing inflationary episode ensured that little real wealth was seen as sticking to the Arabs and the real losers turned out to be the poor countries of sub-saharan Africa. The rise in petroleum prices killed the Green Revolution. Unfortunately the Arabs and the Chinese learned the lesson and spent the last few decades learning how to handle money. The growth of Sovereign Wealth Funds is a way that they have transfered real wealth and power away from the West.
Would Britain be better off if she had tried to hold on to India? Maybe but India is probably wealthier and more likely to be our friend now as an independent country. Maybe we would have been better off if when the Move On crowd had chanted “It’s a war for oil” we had replied, “Hell yes” and broken OPEC. Remember the locals who live where the oil is found are almost never the same ethnic and religious groups that control the governments and profit from the oil trade.
Bill Befort,
The Spanish and Belgians both believe that they have a divine right to sit in judgement on all moral failings by any Westerner anywhere and anytime.
Not sure if this was covered so here it goes;
http://exurbanleague.com/2009/04/09/obama-issues-statement-on-the-pirate-attack.aspx
AR,
I won’t be at a Tea Party in the U.S. because I’m already out of the country escaping the Jug-Eared One’s punitive taxation. If I WAS in the U.S., however, I’d definitely be at a Tea Party, packing both a sign and some legal CCW heat.
Hitler wrecked that for the whole world with his genocidal madness.
He destroyed European nationalism as a morally acceptable political undertaking.
I think it was actually Kaiser Wilhelm II who did that. WW I mostly destroyed European self confidence and physical courage. Hitler was just the most obnoxious jackal to step in and take advantage of it (or perhaps second-most obnoxious, considering Stalin). Britain and France did terrible jobs running the carved up Ottoman Empire and the (meager) overseas German possessions. A post-reconquista Spain or a Victorian Great Britain would have done far more to clean up the Mid East in the 1920′s than the emasculated (literally – their manhood lay dead on the battlefields) nations that emerged from the carnage.
No one would consciously choose that of course but feminism’s refusal to see the value of strong men which, necessitates at least some deferral from women, inevitably results in their choosing the only avenue open to the helpless… surrender.
Which marks feminism as a truely leftist phenomemon. All Leftist ideology, no matter how diverse or seemingly incompatible (e.g. gay rights activists and Islamist apologists) shares one thing: a narcissistic belief that everyone else is obligated to give “me” what “I” want.
In a reasonably civlized society, a woman who wants the benefits of having a man around would understand she needs to do something to make it worthwhile for him (and he the same). Their life together is ideally a partnership with each partner figuring out what he or she can contribute to make it worthwhile for the other party. A mutual, consentual agreement between equals. Just like a market economy – if I want something from you, I need to offer you something worthwhile in return.
But Leftists hate that. They think they’re owed whatever it is they want from me. I have no right to ask for something in return. Whether it’s feminists who want to be protected and provided for, but without having to admit it and without having their protectors and providers disagree with any of their decisions, or whether it’s under-ambitious layabouts who want a roof over their head but not the responsibility of making either rent or mortgage payments. It’s all the same – give me what I want but don’t ask anything in return.
They really are barbarians in the worst sense. Not even barbarians. Savages. They are, despite the clothes or degrees or social affectation, they are completely uncivilized. They have the same basic world view of primitive hunter-gatherer tribes from pre-history. They lay claim to whatever they can take, swindle or steal, and only back off when physically threatened. They are brutish, clannish, and have no true moral framework. Leftists are the ultimate reactionaries – they are as we all were before the dawn of civlization.
“I think it was actually Kaiser Wilhelm II who did that.”
Thanks for the reminder. The Germans were already infected with the Master Race delusion before WWI. Read Headquarters Nights for some first-hand reporting on how it pervaded Germany’s intellectual elites.
Awmeggedon Wex:
Why is it a sad day ?
you’we nevew happy ! eithew you’d like to call us “suwwendew monkeys, eithew, collabowatows !
make up youw mind, we are minding ouw businesses !
sowwy fow the typos
So well put Wretchard. Please keep this alive; I pray for those poor sailors.
Amazingly, it was an essay by Wretchard on the potential threat of Piracy off the Horn of Africa about five years ago that first made me begin to pay attention to Belmont Club.
There are eerie echoes here, which I expect others have mentioned: When the radicalized Islamic “students” climbed the fence of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took all the staff hostage, then-president James Earl Carter had a short critical period during which he could have responded vigorously without a heavy price. The new government forming under the gaze of the Ayutollah Ruholla Khomeini was just beginning to coalesce. They were uncertain for their own part whether to denounce the violation of the embassy, or applaud. After all, the inviolable sovereignty of Embassies had been one of the foundations of international diplomacy for many centuries, even between Islamic countries and their enemies.
The pathetic wavering and hand-wringing of Mr. Carter was at least consistent with his earlier foreign policies. (Remember Carter’s ringing metaphors – “a candle in the window” and “moral equivalent of war” – response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?) When Carter did nothing but whinge and sputter, the mullahs of the fledgling Islamic Republic of Iran saw that the seizure of the U.S. Embassy was an accomplished fact and proceeded to assist the “students” in their looting and bullying, while professing publicly that they exercised no control. In the fullness of time Carter began to realize that his failure to respond had opened a vast rent in the fabric of modern diplomacy and international relations.
Going back a few more decades, the leaders of Western Europe quaked and quavered, fearful to risk any response that might precipitate hostilities when Hitler’s troops marched into Czechoslovakia in 1938. This provocation was a clear violation of the treaty restrictions to which Germany had acquiesced in order to end World War I. Hitler’s own general staff had agreed among themselves to stage a coup against Hitler in the event there were any armed resistance by England or France. When those countries showed they were unwilling to risk so much as a platoon, Hitler’s officers resigned themselves to his leadership and plans. We all know where that path led.
A readiness to bully domestic critics and opponents does not equate to the resolute grit to resist a street thug, much less international chaos and tyranny.
#46 said, “By not framing the conflict correctly W set us up for this.”
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but no American flagged ships were attacked nor were American citizens taken hostage on W’s watch. That’s an extremely recent change in the script. W got mau maued by the MSM for agressively fighting back against America’s enemies in the ME and SW Asia. Can you imagine what they’d have done to him for putting our sons and daughters in harms way in defending the interests of western nations other than our own?