Credit also goes to Foreign Relations Committee chair, Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) who is calling for hearings to determine a policy about pirates. Now that there has been a successful military operation, the United States needs to determine if those taken captive (1 in the rescue operation) will be seen as criminals or enemy combatants/terrorists. The classification is important as one allows a trial in US courts and extends rights to those from Somalia.
These issues are not about to go away. A troubling trend has continued today with increased piracy that has taken as many as 60 hostages. These pirates are young men, those from the weekend operation were all between 17 and 19 years old. Moreover, some East African governments view some pirate groups in the same fashion Americans view the Coast Guard. This is not an isolated incident, rather, something that will require American attention.
I cannot help but feel that the hard line the Obama administration took over the weekend must continue. A message must be sent that these actions will not be tolerated, specifically as a new administration begins and the world is watching.
Wow, imagine that they paid the ransom and four more ships were hijacked this week. If they have no law, and we are in their waters, what do we owe them other than lawlessness? I understand these are men in limited option situations, I can't imagine that at all, literally having to kill to survive or provide, but there has to be a better way to handle this. Obviously negotiating with someone who has nothing to lose, won't warrant reasonable results, so there has to be a better result.I say we buy Somalia? It's probably pretty cheap.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how you negotiate with the Somalians, who have so little and seem to have a pretty lawless society. Chances of those living there accepting any kind of leadership from anyone in the Western World are slim at best.
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily think we owe them anything - after all, they've taken Americans hostage who were passing through. Yet, I do think we owe it to ourselves as a nation to act like a superpower should, which I think we did in this case.