[quote=esmith][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=esmith]Of course, no mention of women and children who starve to death because of Americans’ refusal to pay ransom.[/quote]
esmith: Really? So, in your mind, this is a legitimate business enterprise? Americans should just pay the ransom, right? Because all of those pirates are simply there as family men.
This is worse than moral equivalency; this is moral infantilism. I worked counterinsurgency when I was in the Army and I’ll tell you this: Those SEALs waxing those pirates will send a very clear message and the OP captures it perfectly. In the French: “Pour encourager les autres”.
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In my mind, it is an interesting moral conundrum, the kind that Americans don’t get to face in their own country and so it gets easy to write these off to “us vs. them”. Is it legitimate and/or moral to steal from the rich in order to feed your starving wife and children?
Is it legitimate and/or moral that the captain in question makes roughly 200 times as much as an average resident of Somalia?
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esmith: I lost two friends of mine (one Ranger, one Delta) in Somalia in ’93 during Task Force Ranger/Operation Gothic Serpent, so this is a particularly sensitive topic for me.
I don’t see this as a moral conundrum at all. Somalia is a failed state in the classic sense of the word and the US tried previously to help stabilize the situation there. This is a clear cut example of what a lack of political will on the parts of the US and UN gets you.
Had Clinton been possessed of a set of cojones and sent any sort of significant armored presence in there (Army or Marine) or meaningful air support (such as AC-130s), we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. However, he dithered due to his fear of adverse public reaction and when he finally sent in 24th ID, it was too late.
We’re faced with a similar situation now and I don’t think military force is the only answer. The same situation exists on the ground and a multinational force, with proper leadership, could effectively turn the situation around. I doubt we will, but we’ll see.
