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I was anxiously awaiting the headline indicating the captain's rescue from the sea pirates... and I was overjoyed to see it.
Glenn Beck pointed out this morning - and I agree - that finally, President Obama, here's something we can totally support you on - rescuing US citizens being held hostage.
Awesome.
Thank you, sincerely, Mr. President.
If your hesitation was due to uncertainty on popular support for instant action, please know that even Congressmen from New Jersey feel we have the right to defend our citizens abroad.
Thank you again, and let's keep working together on this one. (h/t: Drudge)
2 comments:
What a relief for that man's family. It must have been a tense few days.
You know, this pirate situation is interesting. There's no excuse for their criminal behavior. Hijacking is wrong, but I've never really heard anything about their side of the story until today.
I was completely unaware that their coastline (which they are unable to defend properly without a legitimate government or a navy) has been plundered for fish and contaminated with foreign nuclear waste over the last decade or so.
Peter Lehr (a Somalia piracy expert at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and the editor of "Violence at Sea: Piracy in the Age of Global Terrorism.") said this:
"It's almost like a resource swap, Somalis collect up to $100 million a year from pirate ransoms off their coasts. And the Europeans and Asians poach around $300 million a year in fish from Somali waters."
It sounds like it's pretty easy for the warlords to recruit angry fishermen because they feel they have been wronged and piracy is the most effective way to be "compensated".
Sugule Ali (one of the pirate leaders who has done some interviews with reporters) said:
"We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits (to be) those who illegally fish and dump in our seas."
What a sad situation on both sides. Hopefully the problems behind the scenes can be addressed somehow. It sure sounds like the people of Somalia are being treated unjustly.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-somalia-pirates_salopek1oct10,0,6155016.story
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