Comments on: This Is Your Reward

By: MarkH

MarkH — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:42:51 +0000

It seems to me that the life of a warlord or pirate is alright with some people…enough. That isn’t normal for humankind which generally prefers a more orderly society with rule of law. Even the Jews in Israel, who have had some problems establishing a clear national identity with stable borders, prefer that. Probably the Taliban and their friends in north and western Pakistan would prefer that to their nebulous cross-border lives. It wasn’t always so clear, but recently the Palestinians on the West Bank and S. Lebanon like the idea. Gaza is a mess.

Hey, new countries all around, if they can stay within their borders and govern themselves peacefully.

By: robspierre

robspierre — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:53:29 +0000

“I doubt that sharia law would look kindly upon acts of piracy by anyone in Somalia.”

The only problem with that claim would be that piracy was the main maritime business of most of North Africa for about ten centuries–right up until the French and Italians colonized them all. Remember that line in the Marine Corps anthem about the “shores of Tripoli”?

By: SanderO

SanderO — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:59:05 +0000

I am suggesting that the UN set up some sort of government and begin delivering services and stand up an economy.

By: Blub

Blub — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:28:10 +0000

I don’t think we’re going to be the ones to do this. We already failed in our combat mission in Somalia once didn’t we? Let’s watch the AU arm-twist somebody else into doing it. I’m sure Sarkozy’s game – they seem rather trigger happy here for some reason, and Hu might just be willing to help if the Kenyans threaten his investments there, a bit. And if Hu jumps in, I’m sure Singh and Aso won’t be far behind in volunteering for some blue-helmet duty in Somalia alongside ‘em.. it’ll be a national pride issue for ‘em. I don’t see why we’d go in, with either troops or armed State Dept types. The reality is, aside from aid shipments, our strategic and commercial interests pale next to that of other big powers (notably the French, the Indians, the Iranians, the Japanese, and the Chinese). This is their oil we’re talking about, and, in the case of the Indians and the Chinese, their wouldbe colonial empires (just kidding).

By: foothillsmike

foothillsmike — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:25:52 +0000

Are you suggesting that we send in troops or State Dept. types. There is civil war going on there.

By: Blub

Blub — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:23:46 +0000

the military did it because its in international waters, and they’re the people we’ve tasked to it there, but it really is classic police work, isn’t it? They could’ve just as easily plopped UN Int’l Maritime Agency flags onto those warships, and then nobody would be calling this anything other than a police action.

By: Raven

Raven — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:21:37 +0000

Hmm, the military did it but you don’t think it was a military action?

By: SanderO

SanderO — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:21:30 +0000

The news seems to not go into the back story of how pirates came to be in Somolia, where there is no government, no economy, lots of poverty and starvation. Industrial fishing from european and asia fleets has robbed the locals of the fish in their waters and taken another means of survival from them.

The pirates began by targeting fishing trawlers which were destroying their small fishing industry. But then they went on to ransoming anyone that they could grab for the money. And most of these shippers took the chance and paid the ransom because the security measures were too expensive.

Let’s stop the mischief all around and help these people have a government, an economy and stop the fishing by “invaders”.

By: Blub

Blub — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:12:02 +0000

dumb question. how is shooting three armed hostage takers holding one hostage at gunpoint a military activity? Its police work. Presumably, SWAT guys around the country do this type of thing a couple of times a year domestically (sometimes to heroic outcomes and sometimes to tragic results, a la Ruby Ridge). Cop shows feature such a scene about 12 times a week during primetime season. The French did it once already in the Gulf of Aden, to tragic result (they lost one of their countrymen). The Germans and Chinese have each had their helicopters aggressively chase off pirates harassing ships in the convoys they were escorting, although these incidents did not seem to involve any bloodshed.

In fact, so far the only military action in this theater that we’re aware of has been the Indian Navy - they torpedoed what they said was a pirate mother ship, but the Thai government said they accidentally sank one of their freighters instead. So comedy of errors there.

This is not a war. It won’t be until somebody decides to bomb pirate havens in Somalia. Look to the Kenyans to pressure their Chinese and Indian allies to do this soon.

By: Petrocelli

Petrocelli — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:11:28 +0000

ROFL … Bows to the Master !