pirates

[Anonymous]

I am so over the top proud of our country for not backing down to the ones that hijacked a ship and held an American citizen captive. I hope we decide enough if enough and good over there and really take care of business. I am not a fan of Obama, but he may change my mind after this one.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I am so over the top proud of our country for not backing down to the ones that hijacked a ship and held an American citizen captive. I hope we decide enough if enough and good over there and really take care of business. I am not a fan of Obama, but he may change my mind after this one.

I am also very happy about the resolution to this incident, but the idea that we can simply "take care of business" is rather naive. We are currently tied up "taking care of business" in two countries. I'm not sure how much more business we can afford to take care of. Moreover, the history of US involvement in Somalia is one of generally making things worse. Most recently, the US backed the Ethiopian invasion which has resulted in further death, destruction, and instability. To resolve this problem will require looking beyond simplistic solutions. Merely blowing things up will just make the situation worse. It is a good opportunity for Obama to act multilaterally and get other nations involved.

[Anonymous]

I am happy that we saved our American captain, but I wish someone would save all those Filipinos and other people still held hostage. I read 3 more ships were taken hostage last night!

[Anonymous]

Just what we need, another military action in Somalia because we've don't already have enough on our plates what with those pesky little wars in Iran and Afghanistan. Oh wait, didn't we already have one of those back in the 90's... yeah, that was a REAL success.

[Anonymous]

The pirates are out looking for $$ (ransom) and power (by hijacking supply ships). I don't think their pea brains really have the intention of anything else. Think about it, these young men are so poor and desperate, they're turning to piracy as a way of life.

What the pirates didn't anticipate with the Maersk is that they were picking a fight with the "big dogs" and that most US supply ships are run by retired Navy military with a competent crew who know how to handle a gun and how to gracefully handle crisis situations.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:The pirates are out looking for $$ (ransom) and power (by hijacking supply ships). I don't think their pea brains really have the intention of anything else. Think about it, these young men are so poor and desperate, they're turning to piracy as a way of life.

The reality is actually somewhat more complicated. The collapse of the Somali state left the nation unable to defend its coastal waters. As a result, there has been illegal dumping along the coast, including dumping of nuclear waste. This has led to widespread birth defects among coastal dwellers. In addition, illegal fishing has depleted the waters of fish and destroyed the coastal dwellers' traditional livelihood. As a result, the piracy is seen as basically patriotic among many Somalis. Of course, such a situation can easily be exploited for all kinds of ends and certainly a great number of those involved are simple thugs. The teenagers who hijacked the Maersk Alabama might not have been the brightest bulbs, but there are a great many sophisticated individuals involved in the background (with wide popular support). The pirates will learn from this experience and adapt. We've already seen that it hasn't slowed them down.

This problem will be very difficult to resolve and nobody should expect easy solutions.