Thumbs Up All The Way Around

Congratulations first of all to Captain Richard Phillips. From the fragmentary news reports coming out of Mombasa it is clear that he was the key figure in setting the stage for his crew's recovery of their ship as well as their personal safety. Putting one's self into the hands of the piratical goons of Somalia was an act of heroism in the finest traditions of the sea--and then some.

The Maersk Alabama's executive officer and crew also deserve kudos for acting quickly to turn the tables on the pirate left to secure them and their ship. While their effort to exchange the Jolly Swagman for the captain failed, it bought time for the cavalry in the form of the USS Bainbridge to arrive. It also assured massive media coverage. The kind of coverage which acts as a powerful lever on an administration which is politically sensitive even if often too high minded for the nation's good.

The Navy--in particular the operators who effected the rescue--are due a salute for doing a demanding job with the highest level of professional competence. A "well done" should go to all hands from all of us, We the People. (In the Geek's estimate the "well done" should also go to Adm. Gregg Smith at CentCom who demonstrated a fine sense of understated irony in properly placing the pirate fatalities on the pirates' poor decision making skills.)

Congratulations must be extended to the Obama administration generally and the President in particular for having done the right thing--keeping out of the affair publicly. When President Obama went two days without saying a single word on the "hostage drama" underway off the African coast, it was an encouraging sign. Silence implied (or at least allowed the inference) that a decision had been made to use direct action after a show of negotiations had been made and failed.

While the competence of the FBI negotiation team must be questioned given the severe cultural and other differences between maritime thugs of Somali provenance and the training and previous experience of the Feebs, negotiations had to be attempted if for no other reason than CYA in the event the direct action resulted in Captain Phillips' death or injury. The negotiation base also had to be touched to mollify the High Minded both inside and without the administration.

The Somali elders interjecting themselves into the negotiation process was drearily predictable given that captured pirates taken to the US might prove to be embarrassing founts of information. The elders' gesture was also predictable since it gave a chance for some sort of assertion to the effect that the old ways of organising Somali society still had merit and potency.

The critical and praiseworthy feature of the aborted negotiations was not the dropping of the ransom demand by the elders. No. That was a non-starter as the old guys of the village square must have known. The fulcrum point was the rejection by the US of the Somali condition that the pirates not be arrested. The acquatic scum could have been cut loose by any member of the Obama administration--the SecState, the AG, the President himself. But, no deal was made. No pirate would walk--except as doing a "perp walk" for the media.

Now to complete the deal, to fire a genuine warning shot across the bows of the Pirates of Puntland, the sole surviving Jolly Swagman has to be tried for his part in the crime. More, he has to be tried here in the US. No off loading the dude onto the courts of Kenya--let alone the Sharia system of that cesspool of Islamist anarchy bearing the moniker Somalia.

Attorney General Holder has stated that the US has the legal authority to try the last Somalian standing in this affair. The Feebie is interviewing the crew of the Maersk Alabama. Presumably they will do the same with Captain Phillips. It would take remarkably stupid money to bet against the feds building a case which will stick.

The French and now the Americans have shown how the task of defeating and deterring pirates is properly discharged. Both country's naval and military forces have shown what history has demonstrated again and again. Piracy is stopped by the robust enforcement of the laws both ancient and modern against the stealing of ships and seizure of crews for ransom.

Ending piracy and pirates does not require complex socio-economic theories. It does not need the constitution of effective western style governments. It does not even depend upon the creation of new international courts or coordinating bodies.

All that is needed is the possession of a credible capacity to use force. And, (this time the critical word is "and," not "but") the political will to use that force regardless of the reality that while risks can be controlled, minimised, they can never be eliminated.

President Obama by keeping silent and finally allowing the naval forces of the US to do their job appropriately has shown that he can have the requisite intellectual and moral courage to exercise political will for the longer term benefit of the US and other nations whose ships and people are put at risk by the Jolly Roger flying thugs of Somalia. It is to be hoped that this is not a one time demonstration. That the President and his people will do it again. If necessary.

It probably will be. The pirates (who describe themselves as Muslims) will be back again. And, in that old time Muslim mood of revenge-wanted-here.