As I'm sure by now most of you have already heard, pirates have boarded a US ship, taken a crew of US citizens captive, and subsequently been thrown off the ship by the same US crew. Presently they are holding the captive of the ship hostage on a life boat that is out of fuel, floating on the sea.
The US has a navy ship in the area watching the situation and waiting.
The ship itself is now out of the area and headed to a safe port under escort. But what is the US response to this going to be? What should it be?
First, you have the company that owns the ship, Maersk Line Ltd., has asked that no military action be taken, and stated that they are willing to pay up to 10 million US dollars in ransom for the safe return of the captain.
I think that it is very admirable that they are willing to pay that for the safety of their employee, don't get me wrong. But do they realize that, at the same time, they are further endangering future shipping in the area, particularly ships of their line? This is not the first such attack where these pirates have seized commercial ships and held them for ransom recently .... it is, however, the first US ship and US crew that has been attacked. If the ransom is payed, it will not be the last.
Likewise there is the fact that these pirates have already gone back on one deal to release the captain. The crew of the ship agreed to release a pirate they had captured in exchange for the captain; when they released the pirate safely, however, the pirates refused to release the captain as agreed. So what assurance do we really have that the pirates in anyway intend to release the captain at all?
So ... let's weigh the options:
1 - We (or Maersk Line Ltd.) pays the ransom and the captain is released safely.
But, as above, we have encouraged the behavior by giving the pirates what they want, virtually ensuring that they (or another group who sees that it worked this time) will hijack another ship.
2 - We (or Maersk Line Ltd.) pays the ransom and once the captain is safely released we hit the pirates, killing or 'arresting' them.
Since the ransom is not likely to be delivered to a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, however, you are most likely going to end up with a situation where the leader gets away with the cash and you catch the thugs he uses for muscle. Since those are relatively easy to replace (lets face it ... this isn't exactly highly technical 'skilled' labor we're talking about) you end up with all the disadvantages of #1 above, as well a having to deal with any captured pirates. With this administration these would likely be well treated and tried in US courts with full constitutional protections (including a tax payer funded defense), turned over to a local government that won't do anything, or turned over to the UN with the same results.
3 - Military strike/rescue - Use any and all means necessary to take out the pirates with extreme prejudice while attempting to rescue the captain.
A tough option that puts the poor captain in grave danger, no doubt about it. But as I've said in previous posts actions have consequences and you need to look beyond this one captain. I know it sounds cold and heartless, but if they get away with this you can expect more ... and sooner or later they will kill someone, possibly an entire crew.
I'm sorry, I don't believe in playing patty cakes with people that will threaten the lives of American citizens. Hit them hard, and don't let any walk (or swim) away. Find their base ship and put it to the bottom, if it goes into a port demand that the local government seize and surrender the ship and crew and make it clear that if they do not that we WILL take action if they do not. When they do not, hit the ship and send it to the bottom where it sits in port.
Send the message that messing with any ship flying the US flag is a very very BAD idea.
Thomas Jefferson dealt with a similar situation with the Barbary pirates early in his Presidency ... you know what his ultimate answer was to their demands to pay ransom in order to use the shipping lanes? He sent the navy over and bombarded Tripoli and lo and behold the shipping lanes cleared up ... not just for the US, but for France and Britain (both of whom had previously been paying the ransom) as well.
There is a time for diplomacy ... when someone is threatening you is not the time to appear weak.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
First I want to start off with saying I agree with your reasoning, encouraging terrorists (and yes these are terrorists) is a bad idea.
2nd I wanted to share something that you haven't written about but that I'll bet would make a nice rant for you. A recent article on msnbc shows the government has committed 7.2 trillion to the economic stimulus plan. At the same time current census bureau data shows the US to contain approximately 307 million citizens. (citizens not tax payers). Using these numbers, instead of using the money as they did, they could have insted given $23,000 to every citizen in the United States by now. Even if they tax that it comes out to $14,000 each. (lots of rounding there).
I think this is a very visible way of showing how wasteful this stimulus has been.
Taldaas
Post a Comment