While the rest of the world celebrates the Navy Seals’ killing of the Somalia pirates, and the freedom of Captain Richard Phillips, there is one group of writers who want to alert us all to the real message of this incident on the high seas: it’s the fault of the United States!
First comes Matthew Yglesias, who departs his usual perch at The Center for American Progress to offer his words of wisdom to the readers of Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast. He tells us that “the ocean is extremely large.” Amazing that he noticed what so many others have failed to observe. I’m being sarcastic, but he explains that the Indian Ocean alone is too large for foreign navies to patrol it.
And, he adds that sometimes rescues don’t work. The French, he tells us, killed one of the people they were seeking to rescue in a military action. Of course he neglects to mention that four others were freed, while without the rescue, all of them might have perished. But his real point is to blast those awful Bush era neo-cons who want to see, as John Bolton does, a “coalition of the willing” to storm Somalia and crush the pirate bases. Indeed, Yglesias goes on to argue that the “broader context” of piracy is the 15 years of anarchy that took place after an early American peacekeeping attempt in the 1990s. Now Somalia is fragmented, due to “a situation to which recent U.S. military intervention has contributed. Things got worse, he claims, when the Bush administration saw the pirates as a “threat to American national security.” I guess this sentence means Yglesias thinks interference with free shipping of American merchant ships is not a threat, which means that since he wrote this blog, Barack Obama’s tough talk also displeases him.
When Bush backed an Ethiopian invasion of Somalia in 2006, Yglesias says, it sought a “puppet regime” backed by Ethiopian troops. Instead of restraining Ethiopia, which he acknowledges wanted to invade anyway, we egged the Ethiopians on. Conservatives cheered (of course no one else did) and hence the US produced “a popular backlash and a violent Islamist insurgency.”
His assumption is that the backlash would have been avoided had we let the radical Islamists take over in the first place. That, he seems to think, would have satisfied them, and there would have been no piracy. After all, we have seen from history that appeasement works. Hence the only intervention Yglesias supports is one that “helps resolve the underlying chaos.” Evidently killing the pirates and destroying their bases won’t do that. Quoting the words of New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman, he agrees with his judgment that America’s foreign policy blunders have served to radicalize the Somali population. There would have been no pirate action the past few days, he argues, had “not past meddling [by the USA] knocked the country off the path to stability.” His solution: accept a radical Islamist government, probably there and elsewhere. Or as the late Jeanne Kirkpatrick once said: “blame America first.”
It seems to me that we could end piracy by simply handing over lots of money to the ‘pirates’. I suggest that the Liberals, Progressives, or whatever they will call themselves next, ante up a few million dollars a month to test the theory. Just to keep this in the private sector this should all be deducted from their pay so they can get all the credit and not be accused of using taxpayer money. As a Conservative I am quite willing to give them all the crdit they deserve.
I’m going to church tonight to ask for forgiveness for our sins and mine especially in regard to having mistreated these poor Somalis. For those who want to join me, we will start with a MIa Copa , followed by a few Hail Maries, followed by a few Avenu Malkainus. You notice that this service is all encompassing an any denomination is welcome to join in. The service will be followed by a five minute fast after which you are encouraged to drink a beverage of your choice.
I am open to other suggestions as how to celebrate our depravity in our universal treatment of our Somali brothers. Somebody has already suggested having a piss-in; however, I can’t go into the details of it because I would get censored……again……..
The Left has the same old song with the same old notes; they need to change their tune.
Somali pirates follow the tradition of the Barbary pirates, started during the Crusades (1095-1295), when Muslim pirates operating from bases in North Africa plundered ships carrying Crusaders and pilgrims and sold many Christians into slavery. They followed the example and teachings of their Prophet Mohammed who claimed to be appointed by God as HIS Last Messenger and conveyed HIS message to the whole of humanity, in the form of a book, The Quran. In fact, Mohammed preyed on innocent passersby.
Ruthless, unconventional foes are not new to the United States of America. Jump ahead several hundred years and without provocation, the Barbary pirates ravaged American merchant ships. Pirate ships and crews from the North African states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers (the Barbary Coast) were the scourge of the Mediterranean. They captured merchant ships and held their crews for ransom, which provided the rulers of these Muslim nations with wealth and naval power.
Before the United States obtained its independence in the American Revolution, 1775-83, American merchant ships and sailors were protected from the ravages of the North African pirates by the naval and diplomatic power of Great Britain. British naval power and the tribute (ransom) Britain paid to the piratical states protected American vessels and crews. Barbary pirates seized American merchant ships, no longer covered by British protection, in the years following United States independence; American crews were enslaved. In 1799 the United States agreed to pay $18,000 a year in return for a promise that Tripoli-based corsairs would not molest American ships. Similar agreements were made with the rulers of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis.
In May, 1801, the United States learned a lesson that we can only hope our current President Obama has now learned. There are some with whom we do not negotiate. Back then our government refused to submit to the increasing demands of the Pacha of Tripoli; so, the Pacha declared war against the States. While Tripoli was not a strong power and little effort was necessary to defeat it, we feared that the other Barbary powers (Moslems) would join against the United States. The United States sent naval squadrons into the Mediterranean under the slogan of “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!”
When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801 he refused to accede to Tripoli’s demands for an immediate payment of $225,000 and an annual ransom of $25,000. Paying this ransom would lead to additional demands, Jefferson argued in letters to future presidents John Adams, then America’s minister to Great Britain, and James Monroe, then a member of Congress. As Jefferson wrote to Adams in a July 11, 1786, letter, “I acknolege [sic] I very early thought it would be best to effect a peace thro’ the medium of war.” Paying tribute will merely invite more demands, and even if a coalition proves workable, the only solution is a strong navy that can reach the pirates, Jefferson argued in an August 18, 1786, letter to James Monroe: “The states must see the rod; perhaps it must be felt by some one of them. . . .”
I would love to see the left attitude if they were captured. I notice the liberal congressman who went to Somalia had 6-8 body guards. They always talk out of both sides of there mouth.
Oscar, I have a lot to be perdonned too, so pray for me, spare me a drink, a glass of californian champagne would be OK, not the sweet one !
hey, I got some “stoopid” adjectives on a lefty blog
Liberals should be forgiven for blaming America for piracy. That’s what has been ingrained into them. They know not what they do. They travel in herds and share one brain apparently because they parrot whatever the party line is never deviating on the talking points. Ask them why or how and you are met with a blank stare. This situation is no different.
The funniest part of all is that Liberals blame the government for all of the world’s woes when at the same time, they are enlarging the big-bad-US government at an alarming rate. Wonder when they’ll put two and two together?
The Somali pirates are animals. They should be dealt with accordingly. If (according to liberals) death is good enough for the unborn and unwanted Americans, death is surely good enough for Somali pirates who are terrorizing the world.
A couple of things I don’t understand. Why aren’t the ships armed? Frankly, if we’re worried about the sailors themselves, put a platoon of Marines with some heavy weapons (M-60s, M-249s, and those automatic grenade launcher things the Marines use) and let them shred a few pirate raider boats. If we did it under false flags (like Horatio Hornblower or Jack Aubrey) then all we’d have to do is raise our flag at the proper moment. After a while, other nations could run up an American flag at the appropriate moment, and scare the pirates off.
And why is everyone so convinced these people are blameless? We went their back during the Bush Administration, to try and distribute food aid to the people, and various groups insisted on stealing the aid and selling it to the highest bidder, and fought us when we wouldn’t allow this. During the fighting, they used their own children for shields and mutilated our dead when they managed to kill one of our guys.
Starving fishermen? Have no choice but to be pirates? It looks like the unstable government causes fishing to not be eligible for lending money for boats. The boats aren’t safe. I wouldn’t finance a boat used for fishing in waters over run with pirates.
If that had been a ‘Waco’ type situation, do you think the Feds would have waited so long? I don’t think so. Especially, after today’s remarks about ‘right wing terror groups’. As far as the pirates go, one through the forehead!
Don’t forget ‘internet piracy’ is ‘green’ because ‘stealing’ something online means you’re not buying ‘stuff’ created by the ‘ebil’ and wasteful and polluting makers of said stuff.
Did I digress? Yes, I did. Sorry ’bout that.
The ‘blame America’ rants are tiresome and dangerous to boot and now we have our own president full throttle ahead with the blame gaming of the USA.
Depressing.
After a few drinks, I was telling everyone how I loved to eat Somalis. Everyone around me was shocked until my wife interjected. “It’s not Somalis you love to eat, dear. It’s Salamis.”
Marie Claude
I’d love to share a bottle of our California bubbly with you. Excuse me but lefties are stupid adjectives. Love you.
AThinkingPerson says..
“Wonder when they’ll put two and two together?”
They did put two and two together but sadly the answer they came up with was “cheese”.
These lefties are nothing but an embarrassment to your country. Shame on their attention seeking ignorance.
Oceans are too big.
Honestly, is this what a Harvard education gives you? Haven’t these people heard of shipping lanes? Do they ever stop to ponder how the British eradicated piracy almost 200 years ago?
Oscar tu sei al meglio (in salami language)
Why aren’t the ships armed?
Because no ports will allow armed merchant vessels to enter. It’s illegal doncha know?
We can feed the starving pirates a few Lefty “progressives.” I would feel better afterwards.
Mr. Radosh:
“If we really want to deal with piracy, we need to stop its root cause-our crimes-before we send in the gun-boats to root out Somalia’s criminals.””
Han really wrote this?
If I had written anything so insipid and stupefyingly retarded, I’d get plastic surgery, change my name, and move to another country.
I mean…Jesus…what does thios booger-eatin’ moron want?
A “Somalia Stimulus Package”?
Look, kids…it was 4 dirt merchants in a boat with some rusty AK-47s who picked the wrong boat with a smart and courageous crew, and who didn’t have enough sense to surrender when a destroyer hove into view.
It’s only really indicative of the vulnerability of world seaborne trade in the face of policies that keep very valuable assets, both human and material, unarmed.
That’s about it, gang.
Please stop trying to draw all kinds of fantastically tenuous lessons from this in order to grind political axes.
It detracts from the solution, which is very simple and straightforward…arm the effin’ ships.
No Navy and no private gunsels necessary.
Just provide the “bang-bang” things, and keep the ambulance-chasers off our backs when we effectively combat piracy.
D’you think you can do that?
Well, it’s true that the left is blaming America but so is the right. Jonah Goldberg had a column out today blaming America’s “pro piracy” culture and obsessive attention to the rule of law as enabling the rise of piracy. And Radosh’s own peer at Hoover was sounding off in the Corner about how it’s the fault of post-modernists theories infecting the State Department which is, last I check, an American institution.
“The French, he tells us, killed one of the people they were seeing to rescue in a military action. Of course he neglects to mention that four others were freed, while without the rescue, all of them might have perished”
we don’t know yet if the bullet was from the french forces or from the pirats. As the hostage was hold in the bilge, could be a pirat retaliation !
A little historical perspective here ladies and gents: this is day 82 of the liberal’s wet dream, President Training Pants’ tenure. He has tanked the economy, doubled the already staggering deficit, promises to re-double it in two-three years, gone abroad and dissed this country to all of the Euro-slime and third-world American-hating scum, is smooching Castro’s buttox, and managed NOT to f**k up an engagement with a bunch of gunmen in row boats while having the mightiest military on the face of the earth at his disposal.
Yep, the way I see it, all you young whippersnappers need is someone over-running one of our embassies and taking hostages somewhere and he will be another Jimmy (“I spoke to Jesus in my living room”) Carter.
Man your people are lucky. We had to wait for two years and 444 days to have this sh*t eventuate.
What’s that you say? He doesn’t have a ne’er-do-well brother? How about that guy in Kenya who’s groping a teen-age Brit.
..yah, o.k., ya got me on the Billy Beer.
Bilge [15.],
You expressed my own beliefs far better than I. Thank you!
~
Войска ПВО [17.],
Ewwwwww. I read that link. Gnarly, dude! Grody-to-the-max evennnn. Blech! That’s really B.O.’s bro? The can of worms are being let out of said can.
*runs off to barf*
30 (big) pics of piracy off the coast of Somalia and the international efforts to rein it in.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/pirates_of_somalia.html
Let’s see, perhaps this is as good a difference between the left and everyone else…stopping the pirates vs. being blamed as the root cause. Say what? No wonder we have such a divide in our country…the left can heap gobs of hate and vitriol on those who disagree with their point of view but people who taking hostages and other people’s property get a pass. Yeah let’s reach out to them.
Will there be a resurgence in the bumpersticker, “USA, love it or leave it”?
“Honestly, is this what a Harvard education gives you?”
The typical Harvard graduate is probably well represented by Caroline “you know” Kennedy. It is vastly overrated. They are often nothing more than a bunch of morons.
Barack Obama who believes there are 57 American states and that Austrian is a language also attended this academic institution. By all rights, anyone directly associated with Harvard should be deeply ashamed. It is fair to describe it as an intellectual whorehouse. The only exception is probably the school’s hard science departments.
Matthew Yglesias, well… another toxic influence from Harvard University (Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!). Is there no end to the constant stream of America-hating graduates of Harvard and other Ivy League institutions?
I am beginning to realize that no other institution in this nation’s history has done more damage to this country than Harvard University. It never ceases to amaze me that so many of these graduates are from privilege (but not all of them)and have so much access to wealth and power, yet they turn viciously on the country that has provided so much for them.
I think every graduate of our elite institutions of higher learning should spend a couple of years living in a Marxist shithole like Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, or Nicaragua. Then come home and decide where they want to cast their loyalties towards. Make them make a real commitment.
Boats are the problem! If there weren’t boats, pirates wouldn’t have anything to hijack or even get off the coast in!
Lets all start a coalition to ban boats. We’ll call ourselves Bipeds Against THe Totalitarian Use of Boats (BATHTUB). Wooden-legged old salts are not allowed for their unspeakable use of trees for personal gain.
Kill the pirates and carpetbomb their city-lairs. Ignore the Left entirely – maybe if they feel ignored enough and mad enough we can get this ambient, stewing civil conflict over with. What an idiotic problem this and Islamism are. If this hasn’t been cooked up in the Kremlin I bet those clever psychotics are kicking their own asses right now.
I am going because I am looking foward to knocking the piss out of some leftist moveon/acorn retard.. oops I repeat meself.
In self defense of course.
My terrorist is Hari’s freedom fighter! Well, I just hope that as he hugs his friend the out of work fisherman who is poisoned and diseased, he doesn’t get his salty tears on his AK-47. My Lord, one lefty says the ocean is so huge, and the other that the Somali fishermen don’t have a place to fish because of the big bad world. I guess the ransom paid for ships, cargo and crews is penance for past sins.
The retarded liberals in america are the biggest reason why we have crisis in the rest of the world. When america could have taken bold solutions to remove threats and at the same time help the economy of failed states (exactly what our His Excellency President Bush did in Iraq), the retarded liberals always blame america and sanitize the failed states. the truth is Somalia has been a failed state since its creation in 1960. My country Ethiopia has to suffer because of this. Even when Somalia has a “government” in 1980s, it virtually couldn’t control more than 80% of its territory except areas around the capital and pro-govt clans. Then since 1991, Somalia has been government-less and has been attracting jihadists from all over the world. My Ethiopia finds it in its best interest to solve this issue and Bush was a good ally until the retarded liberals started complaining and bitching. America and world peace will be destroyed by the “blame america” mentality of the retarded gay loving liberals.
Bah! Ya’ll are thinking too hard. I could solve this problem with two rounds of BMG and fifty pounds of raw fish. You first knock out the pirate ship motor with a sniper round of BMG. Then you chum the area around the disabled vessel with fish guts. You wait till the sharks gather before you put a second round of BMG into the hull just below the waterline. Simple and ecologically friendly too!
That is a good news. After the recent world tour, Obama may have run out things to apologize for. Now, he can go in front of the UN General Assembly and blame American bullies for making the poor innocent people in Somalia unacceptably risk their lives in man-made seafaring contingencies to get spare dimes. He may even be able to offer several hundred million dollars of greedy American oppresors’ money to these people like he did for Hamas and Gaza.
Great posts guys and gals. I read um all and there all right on target. I can add nothing except to say what goes around comes around. The sniveling, whining cry of the left has not got a chance on this one. The world does not like what it is happening in the Indian Ocean. Hence I Think you will see many Somali pirates meeting there maker in the not to distant future. When a country like Socialist France does what it did you gotta believe that the pirates days are numbered. Imagine if Russia or China decide enough is enough. The future is bright for the extermination of this lawless plague.
Bilgeman
I’m for a Salami stimulus package! We can get into the details of it later on.
Marie Claude
Do you like mushrooms? How about pate?
Since there is no functioning government in Somalia that is capable of protecting Somalians, or capable of doing anything other than eating whatever food they can beg for from the functioning world community, I suggest a military solution. Screw diplomacy. Go in there and clean out that rat hole. And then convert the entire country of Somalia into a nature preserve. Since the Somalian people can’t figure out how to manage their country, they would have to find another country from which to beg.
Oscar, paté is fine, “paté Hénaf, paté du mataf”, (sailor paté)
old slogan for the paté in tins that are easy to stock in bilges
mushrooms, fricassée with garlic or crude, sliced with olive oil andlemon
all perfect for me
#22 e: LOLOL! Best response so far.
25. David Thomson writes:
“The typical Harvard graduate is probably well represented by Caroline “you know” Kennedy. It is vastly overrated. They are often nothing more than a bunch of morons.”
..thanks, David, I owe you a beer. In fact I can afford to buy all of you folks here a beer what with my first two sons grad-e-atin’ from Cal State Long Beach and my third son going into the USMC and then to college at one of the California state schools on the G.I. Bill.
Man, imagine that. I educated myself and will have educated my three sons for less than what one semester cost at Dear Old Hah-vahd.
Somalia is a craphole, and has been one for decades. It will get worse before it gets better, but I wish it would stabalize someway, so we could start deporting the criminal Somalies that came here. The fight depicted in “Blackhawk Down” tells you everything you have to know about the essence of Somalia. As for pirates, the cure is the same as it was in 60 BC, call the Navy and let them loose.
These leftist self-blaming idiots play right into the hands of islamists who use their statements of proof that they’re justified in supporting jihad and for hating non-muslims.
Matt Yglesias is, as usual, a complete pompous ass.
LET’S HIJACK THE PIRATES BUSINESS MODEL
They are doing way better than Wall Street!
http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/04/hijacking-pirates-business-model.html
Ten reasons why the Republican Party will continue to be the “party of NO and no consequence” for the next 12 years. (In order of relevance)
Dick Cheney
Carl Rover
George W. Bush
Rush Limbaugh
Bill O’Reilly
Ann Coulter
John Boehner
Newt Gingrich
Glenn Beck
Fox News
Issues that finished the Republicans
Lying to the American people (& the world) (WMD- The war).
Illegal war in Iraq.
Economy crash.
Listening to the “religious right” on any issue.
Allegiance to NRA.
Not listening to the American people.
Trying to destroy the environment.
The 20 million people who think progress equals socialism.
The left needs to find the “root cause” of their dementia. They should dig back into the 1960s and unearth the original trauma to their fragile psyches. I think they’re all suffering from 1968-PTSD and infecting younger generations with their superficial diatribes ever since.
WELL WHY DID THE SOMALI PIRATE CAPTAIN BUGGER HIS FIRST MATE?
BECASUE HE HOPED TO POSITIVELY INFLUENCE THE TONE OF ANDERSON COOPER’S PIRATE NEWS COVERAGE!
27. e:
Thanks for the chuckle; I like your humor.
As Commander in Chief, Obama is guilty of murder on the high seas and should be brought to trial for international crimes against an underpriviledged nation. (stoke; stoke).
The only reason Thomas Jefferson started the US navy was to combat pirates. He must be turning over in his grave. Russia offered to go in with us and clean the rats nests out. No one is going to help us except maybe the UK and Russia.
This is just the beginning, as the UN and international law experts have given the pirates a green light to go ahead. They have ruled pirates can only be arrested if they are caught in the act. Old Europe is worried about violating the human rights of the pirates, whatever that means. Muslims are using our own laws to defeat us. Political correctness and newspeak will destroy us all.
test
test
Greg
I know it must be hard for you to count correctly. Maybe if you used your fingers it might help.
Maybe this is a form of the new Obama mathimatics?
Ethiopian
Well said!
So George Bush is to blame for 25 years of chaos in Somalia. BDS again.
And please, no more nation building in third world mudpits. That goes also for Iraq and Afghanistan. If their people were interested in building a progressive peaceful state, they would have done it.
Alan;
Piracy has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with profit and opportunity. Ruffians of all religions have indulged, from the pagan pirates of Imperial Rome to the Christian Jack Sparrows of the eighteenth century Carribbean.
Liberals historically were very forgiving of the actions of criminals- they insisted on considering criminal acts the natural result of the social environment of criminals, many of whom are poor. It is not a stretch for the soft-headed to do the same for pirates or, for that matter, for any outlaw group that attacks the US. In the first days after 9/11 many liberals asked, “what did the US do to deserve the attack?” Nothing that liberals say or do surprises me.
Hey Greg nice roll call of conservatives and/or republicans. Your side won, ok, now get over it, stop campaigning and start acting like a leader. Your silly talking points are so worn out they no longer have points just circles within circles within circles.
As for the pirates of the Somalian coast here is my plan. Send a carrier battle group to the Gulf of Aden, accompanied by a Marine Expeditionary Unit. Bomb the crap out of their shore facilities and anything and everything that appears to or actually does support the pirates. Send in the accompanying MEU with enough firepower to ensure nothing will bother them. Root out the rest of the vermin and shoot them dead. Shoot their wives and children as well, their aunts, uncles, cousins, half brothers, in-laws and mangy dogs. Scorch the earth. Depart. Repeat as often as required until they Somali’s get the point.
No one lies or exaggerates like the liberal left.
Doesnt surprise me that Leftists jumped all over it.Navy seals did a good job in taking out those pirates that took that captain hostage.They shouldve killed them all so the whiny left wouldve had nothing to scream about.The ringleader knew EXACTLY what he was doing.Throw the book at him.Lets see were these pirates born, in the US?No.So why bother affording them rights,when they violated an american citizens rights on the high seas?