An excellent editorial on the recent pirate debacle off of the coast of Somalia...
(an excerpt):
"In 1851, the Navy sent the U.S. sloop-of-war Dale to Johanna Island, a pirate haven off the coast of Madagascar, in response to the seizure of Capt. Moore of the bark Maria by local strongman Sultan Abdullah bin Salim. The Dale's commander, Capt. Pearson, rejected any notion of ransom for Moore and instead demanded $20,000 from the pirates for our trouble, or he would open fire. In the ensuing negotiations, the sultan was willing only to give $5,000, most of which would be paid in trinkets, cattle and cotton cloth because of lack of cash on hand. Pearson was unimpressed, and after a series of threats from the sultan, the Dale commenced firing. It took 19 volleys to make the sultan see the error of his ways. He raised the white flag, said he would pay what he could of the demanded indemnity and promised never to harm Americans again - a promise he kept."
I agree with the author's main point: we shouldn't try to talk nice with a group of criminals - it only teaches them that they can continue capturing and holding Americans for ransom in order to get what they want.
3 comments:
and isn't it irritating now that obama is being adulated for signing some paperwork saying the military could use force if necessary — a right which was theirs to begin with. bah.
Dear Rebecca -
Brett Stephens had a provocative article on piracy in the WSJ. He writes: "By the 18th century, pirates knew exactly where they stood in relation to the law. A legal dictionary of the day spelled it out: 'A piracy attempted on the Ocean, if the Pirates are overcome, the Takers may immediately inflict a Punishment by hanging them up at the Main-yard End; though this is understood where no legal judgment may be obtained.'" Stephens observes that piracy was all but stamped out by the late 19th century.
He concludes: "Piracy, of course, is hardly the only form of barbarism at work today: There are the suicide bombers on Israeli buses, the stonings of Iranian women, and so on. But piracy is certainly the most primordial of them, and our collective inability to deal with it says much about how far we've regressed in the pursuit of what is mistakenly thought of as a more humane policy. A society that erases the memory of how it overcame barbarism in the past inevitably loses sight of the meaning of civilization, and the means of sustaining it."
The article is found at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122757123487054681.html
Cordially,
Charlie
Manda - I agree. He could easily have said, "We don't negotiate" after the safe return of the captain and crew and made the American stance on ransoms clear to all.
Excellent article, Charlie! Thanks for the link.
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