I was once an unabashed fan of the scrappy pirates of Somalia. These tiny bands of rag tag fisherman on speedboats and pontoons had been wreaking havoc on countries both big and small for several years while their coastal waters slipped into further ruin at the hands of those very same powers.
Unfortunately it has devolved into a number of senseless killings of innocent people. What was once a reasonable battle has turned for the worse.
Piracy emerged in Somalia following the collapse of the government there in 1991. With no authority to police the waters, European ships began dumping millions of barrels of toxic waste into the ocean off the Somali coast while illegal trawlers fished Somalia's seas taking an estimated $300 million of tuna, shrimp, and lobster each year --depleting stocks previously available to local fishermen. Then, following the 2004 tsunami, hundreds of rusting barrels, dumped from foreign vessels, washed up on shore leaking toxic and nuclear waste --causing the deaths of over 300 Somalians.
The local fisherman took matters into their own hands by attacking the "enemy" ships to either dissuade the dumpers and trawlers or levy a "tax" on them as compensation.
Sugule Ali, one of the pirate leaders once told an interviewer, "We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits (to be) those who illegally fish and dump in our seas." Inevitably some fishermen took to piracy for their own financial benefit. Kinda sounds like Wall Street doesn't it?
But, lest we forget, America was was once the scrappy little country that was being run roughshod by larger powers and it too used pirates (renamed Privateers) against overwhelmingly superior European navies by sacking their ships and interrupting trade.
This was only fair --over a 30-year period between the Revolutionary war and the War of 1812 the Europeans, including, Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands made unwarranted attacks on approximately 2,500 American merchant ships while making off with their cargo.
Since that time America's only experience with pirates has been Johnny Depp. But the once scrappy Americans are now the rulers of the sea with a 280 vessel navy that includes a staggering 11 aircraft carriers. But with all that force and help from nearly all the major sea fairing nations, piracy has continued to be a problem in the shipping lanes off of Africa.
But now the tide has turned, the Somalis made a major mistake --they attacked an American-flagged ship: The Alabama. This is the first pirate attack on a U.S. vessel in nearly 200 years and the Somali pirates will unlikely make the same mistake again.
Four gunmen boarded the Alabama a few days back, but were overpowered by the container ship's 20-man crew, whose captain, Richard Phillips, then offered himself up as hostage. At this writing, he is being held on a life boat, which has run out of fuel and is surrounded by U.S. warships, a P-3 Orion surveillance plane and Navy helicopters. The Americans have even flown in FBI hostage negotiators to deal with the crisis.
A spokesman for the pirates issued a statement saying, "Our friends are still holding the captain but they cannot move, they are afraid of the warships. We want a ransom and, of course, the captain is our shield. The warships might not destroy the boat as long as he is on board."
The world will watch and wait to see what happens, but Americans have much to consider. Though the U.S. has been the major line of defense in the region at the bequest of other major powers who seem unwilling to risk their own necks, this is the first instance where American lives and interests have been directly threatened.
While Americans love a good fight, I hope that we will take a step back and remember that as a culture we also love the underdog. Once this crisis is settled, President Obama should address the underlying causes for this problem and the Europeans should compensate Somalia for the evil abuses inflicted on them in the past. Those very same abuses that caused the problem in the first place.
Idle Wordship