Piracy on the High Seas

[theoldwolf]

French free four hostages - one dies

VIVE la France. They get it. Just like the Dutch got it in 1977 when they freed hostages from the South Moluccans. There is no language that terrorists and pirates understand like force.

In both instances, some hostages died. In both instances, most were freed. The pirates and terrorists were dead or in captivity for their trouble.

How much is a human life worth? If, starting tomorrow, every single pirate attack in Somalia were met with immediate response from armed commandos? Yes, some innocent people would die. And, pirates would quickly understand that taking hostages for ransom would invariably equate to zero profit, imprisonment or death. And the attacks would stop.

Would I feel the same way if it were my family aboard that yacht? Myself along with them? Obviously there's no way to know until the moment - but I feel so strongly about this that I believe I would stick to my convictions. If someone offered me a contract that said "Your life in exchange for no more piracy, ever", I'd sign on the dotted line in a heartbeat. It would be a good trade.

[Edit:]

Latest headline: "Pirates: Give Us $2 Million, Or We'll Kill the Captain".
What the US Response Should Be: "Hello. We are the United States of America. You kidnapped one of our citiens. Prepare to die."

Comments

[sleepyjohn00.livejournal.com]

This isn't my usual reading material but:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/you-are-being-lied-to-abo_b_155147.html

It's been almost twenty years since Somalia had a government. Are you surprised that people turn violent when they have absolutely nothing to lose? And when they've been promised help that never quite seems to get there? When have the French been all these years to try to improve things so that the Somalis weren't desperate?

France is also the country that thinks it's OK to test atomic weapons near Tahiti.

[ccdesan.livejournal.com]

An isolated act doth not a foreign policy make. I just think in this case, they made the right choice.

"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."

I wish I could support the writer's thesis. This statement, the core of his article, is the same sort of noise I have been hearing from the opposition in Washington since 9/11 - that US foreign policy is to blame for the evils perpetrated by Al Qaida and the Taliban.

I understand the desperation - but that doesn't change the fact that what the pirates are doing is without justification. If the Somalis have grievances, they should turn first to the feuding terrorists who have destroyed their nation from within, and rise up against them rather than the rest of the world.

[sleepyjohn00.livejournal.com]

There is no cause, only relationships and events. If-we-had, if-we-only-hadn't, if-they-had, if-someone-did-something-somewhere. No end to it. The question is, how do we all deal with it, not what thirty-year-old argument gets waved around to rationalize it.

And I think the Somalis have tried to do something about the local warlords ( not terrorists ): they get shot a lot for it, though.