By MICHELLE FAUL
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 14, 2009; 2:51 AM
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Two maritime security contractors say Somali pirates hijacked a freighter in the Gulf of Aden overnight.
They say the M.V. Irene E.M. is the latest target of pirates who appear undeterred by U.S. and French navy attacks that killed seven bandits in the past week to free four hostages. That includes the weekend's dramatic rescue of the American captain of a U.S. freighter.
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Not yet two days after Navy SEALs dramatically rescued an American captain.
One wonders if the cost of actually maintaining the nautical "no-fly" zone in the Gulf of Aden is just too costly, compared to paying ransoms in an obviously escalating crisis--a sort of Ford Pinto attitude that it's cheaper to pay for the occasional disaster than solve the problem.
The Maritime Security Patrol Area exists in the Gulf. Why do we not patrol it, either with drones or some of those F-22s we're not currently using and blow anything that does not belong there out of the water? What 'belongs' and does not belong is merely a bookkeeping exercise.
Piracy is not new to the world, but neither is satellite surveillance and it would seem worth the doing not to have our $trillion war machine yet again trumped by (this time) entrepreneurial pirates in inflatable boats.
Entrepreneurial (adjective) Willing to take risks in order to make a profitOne of these days a tanker is going to accidentally explode while under attack. If the U.S. military is not up to the job, opportunities are winding down for the newly named (Xe) Blackwater. They would no doubt make of it a lucrative contract, rather than the currently unfulfilled obligation merely one of America's eleven carrier task-forces.
