Twenty American crew members of the 17,000-ton Maersk Alabama, loaded with emergency relief bound to Mombasa, Kenya, turned the tables on Somali pirates.
No doubt members of the Obama administration, who had been in contact with the shipping company to learn "the who, what, why, where and when" of the hijacking, are busy formulating policy responses to this growing threat via Twitter and their BlackBerry smart phones.
At the time of the hijacking, the nearest U.S. Navy ship was 345 miles away. Navy officials said it was focused on another area and that Navy ships couldn't be everywhere. That makes perfect sense to me. The U.S. can only float a limited number of warships. And some of them are needed to monitor the effects of global warming on the polar ice caps.
Here's an idea that should be floated via Twitter and other digital, transparent portals to the Obama Administration. Put armed crews on cargo ships. Mount some Dillon M134Ds, Ma Deuces, or perhaps a Phalanx MK 15 CIWS on the vessels. That should keep the Somali speedboats at bay.
Why reward anti-social behavior with ransom payments? Most "community activists" from Chicago would have figured this out by now.
1 comment:
Please join the millions of others who are praying for the safe return of Capt. Phillips to his family in Vermont.
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