So, apparently the waters off the Horn of Africa are seething with pirates. That’s right: pirates. I don’t know why I assumed this was something we left behind in the 18th century, but it’s big business in the Gulf of Aden, with Somali buccaneers being chased by Indian warships, and the US Navy, which has the Fifth Fleet there in Bahrain, going “whaddaya want us to do?”
Seriously: does the Navy do anything any more? When was the last time there was battleship combat that didn’t involve little plastic pegs on a game board? Go catch some pirates, ya bums!
The Indians just scored a major coup by, and I am not making this up, sinking the pirates’ mother ship. But a Saudi supertanker got hijacked by pirates last week and are holding it for ransom in – again, this is for real – the Pirate City of Eyl, in Somalia.
We can thank US policy for that, as for so many other wonderful things in the world. After the moderate Islamic Courts Union provided some stability in war-torn Mogadishu, the US decided it couldn’t have a government called “The Islamic Courts Union,” and so attacked with its Ethiopian allies, plunging the country back into chaos. Hello, pirates! And hello, of course, rape victims being stoned to death for adultery.
For every Germany or Japan where democracy was brought at the point of a gun, there are like seven thousand counter-examples. What’s the definition of insanity again?
