Posted by
Bill Crawford on Monday, April 13, 2009 10:54:26 PM
Kudos to this President for going past the international lawyers and sanctioning force to end this stupid incident. Absent any other action, the piracy will continue, but they will let American flag ships pass unscathed.
What is the next step? The rules of international law have handcuffed frigates of all countries. They may be able to carry weaponry on board at sea, but the rules of every port forbid them to dock anywhere with them. Long gone are the days when ships at sea would carry a few deck mounted cannons to deal with this.
There is no impetus as yet for Obama to take the lead on this. Other countries seem to have resigned themselves to paying the ransom as a price of trade around the Horn, and there are quite a few European hostages in Somalia proper. This will be allowed to fester until the traffic interruptions going toward the Strait of Hormuz cost more dearly than a few million $ for the Somalis.
This is yet another case for the utter fecklessness of the U.N., as if the response to North Korea wasn't enough. The United States is the only nation left that has any answer for this crap.
There was a time when a man was safe anywhere they travelled, if they announced upon confrontation that they were a citizen of Rome. The Romans had a deserved reputation for chasing after anybody who gave them s**t and running over them with whatever they could muster. The world has come to that with us.
Obama wanted to "reboot" our relations with the world, and present a "diplomatic surge" to grow past the "Bush unilateralism". Look what he got at the G-20 meeting. He asked for help with economic stimulus in Europe. He asked for help with North Korea and Afghanistan. He asked for help with trade relations and his cap & trade proposals. He got bupkus.
That's the dirty secret. Bush didn't polarize, loose talk or force his way out of getting any help from these people. They weren't going to help anyway! The European continent is filled with ingrates. There is some understanding coming from here because they have their own problems, but they make no effort at all.
They just pretend the problem isn't there. You took our ship, and all you want is ten mil? Chump change. Now go away, and we'll pray you pick on somebody else tomorrow.
Is it any wonder the U.N. has become as useless as it is?