Dutch Navy proves pirates not unbeatable…

Maybe I need a Twitter account, because I don’t have a long message here; I just want to say that when the Dutch Navy can capture 20 pirates, or whatever the number was, then I don’t think this pirate problem is as unsolvable as some think it is.  And no we don’t have to rebuild Somalia to make the piracy go away — if it got bad enough we might have to unbuild that nation, which I guess more accurately is no nation at all, but a failed state terrorized by marauding gangs.

It does seem like the private merchant ships do need to hire their own security, although some company officials and even individual merchant sailors seem to be against such a move.

So far, the U.S. Navy and the French and now the Dutch and others — The Indians and the Chinese I seem to recall — appear to be handling the situation.

Make no mistake, the pirates are still at it. But if the Anti-piracy efforts by NATO and others continues and especially if it all is stepped up, one has to think the pirates will go back to something else, such as raping and pillaging among their own people or other residents of Africa as they are so fond of doing.

DON’T REBUILD SOMALIA, FIGHT PIRATES: IN OTHER WORDS, NO MORE NATION BUILDING, EXCEPT OUR OWN…

With the most recent caputure of 11 pirates and the rescue of hostages (with one unfortunate hostage death) the French Navy is running neck and neck or slightly ahead of the U.S. in fighting piracy off the East African coast of Somalia.

But I understand a U.S. ship with the support of the U.S. Navy has just recently fended off pirates after the earlier espisode in which the Maersk Alabama also fought off pirates and the U.S. Navy managed to rescue a tenacious and brave Alabama captain who allowed himself to be held hostage to save his crew and then attempted escape and then was rescued thanks to Navy ships and Navy sharpshooters.

The distressing thing in all of this is that many of the so-called experts are saying that there is not much we can do to clean up the pirate situation.

Get this: they even imply or state outright that we would have to first rebuild or facilitate the rebuilding of the failed state of Somalia.

Nonsense, that kind of thinking is what got us into Iraq and Afghanistan.

Did we rebuild the North African civilization in reaction to the Barbary Coast pirates back in the early 1800s? No.  We fought back and they gave up.

That is what we and the other civilized shipping nations have to do.

Is it more complicated than that?

P.s.

PLEASE, NO MORE  “NATION BUILDING”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,

unless it is our own….

P.s. P.s.

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PIRATES FIND THAT IT DOESN’T PAY TO MESS WITH THE U.S. MERCHANT MARINE AND THE U.S. NAVY!!!!

While the Somali pirates are vowing to get revenge and maybe be a little tougher next time, the U.S. is looking at a victory in its first encounter with the scourge of piracy off the horn of Africa out of the lawless state of Somalia, even as the pirates hold ships and crews from other nations.

Chalk one up for the U.S. Merchant Marine or more directly the captain and crew of the of the Maersk Alabama container ship, and the U.S. Navy. The crew fought off pirates. The captain, Richard Phillips, was clever enough to allow himself to become a hostage in return for his ship being allowed to escape. The captain was brave enough to attempt escape, even though he failed, but at last on Sunday Navy personnel were able to shoot three of the pirates holding the captain on an enclosed life boat.

I have had to rewrite parts of this blog several times as the details came in, but like I say at the end of this post, this is not a news story, just a commentary on a job well done (you can get the news from your normal sources of course).

As I understand things now, by the time the final rescue was effected, the life boat had lost power and was acutally being towed by the Navy vessel USS Bainbridge. But the pirates were still holding Captain Richard Phillips at gun point. But two of them made the fatal mistake of exposing themselves outside and were shot and then snipers shot the third through a porthole (or some type of opening) as he was apparently threatening Phillips with a weapon. 

A fourth pirate was on the Bainbridge negotiating but was arrested.

Sitting here safe at home (as I earlier admitted in my previous blog) I thought maybe giving himself up to the pirates was an unwise move. But I guess Captain Phillips, a 1979 graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, knew some things I did not and was more clever than I might have thought. And anyway, apparently his plan worked. And we all have to be happy and proud of that.

I for one am especially proud of all involved on our side, the Merchant Marine crew members and their captain and the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. can be justifiably proud that we have taken a stand against piracy on the high seas, as we did once before in the early 19th Century on the Barbary Coast. This time it was off the Horn of Africa.

I also give kudos to the French forces that retook a pirated vessel the other day, even though sadly one hostage was killed. But that is the risk that sometimes has to be taken. Giving in to piracy is like giving in to a bully, it simply encourages more bad behavior.

(Blogger’s Note: This is a commentary not a news story. Some of the details of the rescue are not clear in news accounts I have heard and read so far. The only thing for sure is that it is indeed good news. I did read that one pirate claims they have learned a lesson — be tougher next time. But I think you have to head off force with force, anyway.)

Correction: In my original draft that I posted earlier in my haste I in part incorrectly indentified the container ship as the USS Alabama (making it sound like a Navy ship — I should have left off the USS). It is of course a private freighter owned by a company called Maersk, flying the American flag and called the Alabama.