Let’s not be too jolly, Roger….
Like probably everyone in America, I’m delighted that Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, has been rescued from his pirate captors, and I’m impressed by the tactical skill shown by the U.S. Navy. But I’m with Andrew Sullivan on this one — although it was a dramatic confrontation with a happy ending, it’s ultimately ...
Like probably everyone in America, I’m delighted that Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, has been rescued from his pirate captors, and I’m impressed by the tactical skill shown by the U.S. Navy. But I’m with Andrew Sullivan on this one — although it was a dramatic confrontation with a happy ending, it’s ultimately a minor matter. If the Somali pirates were a serious threat to our economy, to world trade, or to anybody’s national security, we wouldn’t have been buying them off for the past year and we would be taking much more serious action against them. And before we share too many high-fives around the coffee machine this morning, remember that this may just be the first round:
In Somalia itself, other pirates reacted angrily to the news that Captain Phillips had been rescued, and some said they would avenge the deaths of their colleagues by killing Americans in sea hijackings to come.
‘Every country will be treated the way it treats us,’ Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the pirate den of Gaan, a central Somali town, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying in a telephone interview. ‘In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying.'”
Even so, in the larger scheme of things, fixing the economy, getting out of Iraq, not getting bogged down in Central Asia, helping Mexico win its war against drug lords, rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure, getting weapons-grade nuclear material under reliable custody, and trying to work out a modus vivendi with Iran are far more important.
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/Getty Images
Stephen M. Walt is a columnist at Foreign Policy and the Robert and Renée Belfer professor of international relations at Harvard University. Twitter: @stephenwalt
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