Seeing the self-righteous commentary eminating from Somalia this week, I realize haven't seen more perplexing indignation since Clemens threw his bat at Piazza, or maybe since Pacino yelled at Pfeiffer drunkenly over dinner in Scarface. Somalia is impoverished, lawless, and its waters are sometimes illegally fished. But Somali bleating in support of the poor kidnap and ransom folks is worse than confusing, as they prey upon ships bearing humanitarian aid like the Maersk Alabama. Something tells me that's not quite the blow for nationalism or Allah folks there want to imagine. The illogic of their indignation is many-fold.
First, there is the matter of pirate solidarity. Angry pirates rushing to support their "colleagues." Sure, it's great that AP and Reuters have direct lines to (generally one-named) pirates. Pirates condemning U.S. warships for protecting a U.S. citizen kidnapped in a foiled ransom plot. What's their point? "We have a right to kidnap and ransom people?" No, really. These pirates need to follow their indignation to its weird extreme conclusion, so we can hear them say stupid things like that.
Second, the elders. The elders of Puntland, negotiating for a group of pirates, were adamant that the pirates not be imprisoned. Concededly, asking the Puntland elders for help on this is like asking Hannity to seek the firing of O'Reilly for being too hard on Obama. Piracy is big stuff in Puntland, so it's hardly shocking that the elders didn't want to imprison those local breadwinners, the Puntland Pirates. (They can probably afford pretty cool jerseys for the hundreds of millions a year piracy can bring in.) But they're indignant too.
Third, most confusing to me, local religious leaders issued a statement denouncing both foreign shipping interests and the payment of ransom. "You will be defeated," the confused clerics droned on, in a mantra rivaled in its creativity only by the House GOP affinity for tax cuts as a solution to everything ranging from warts to nuclear proliferation. However, they added a warning not to pay any ransom. Great. Piracy is apparently God's nationalistic instrument of evicting foreigners -- but don't feed the pirates. Basically, the Somali clerics are saying, you're all screwed, we don't like any of you. Finally, a consistent thought.
Maybe the Somali pirates can throw some tea bags in the harbor at Mogadishu to protest mistreatment of local kidnappers of everyone, whether illegally fishing or bearing humanitarian aid. Maybe they can do that right before Haradheere and Mogadishu get blockaded. Oh, and about Somali ground forces shooting at the plane carrying a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Someone get these folks a copy of How To Make Friends and Influence People. Arr. They've apparently misplaced their copy. Almost as badly misplaced as they've misplaced their indignation. Yankees versus Pirates? I'm putting my money on the Yankees.
Source: Dagblog.com
No comments:
Post a Comment