200 Years Ago…
By Mitch Berg
…when the last American merchantmen were seized by pirates, polite society was a lot more polite than today. Paradoxically, impolite society was a lot rougher than today, in a lot of ways (depending on where you were, yadda yadda bla bla bla).
And so it was considered the height of manners for gentlemen to be armed – to carry some kind of personal protection, a firearm or a sword or whatever – to protect themselves and theirs from life’s ugly exigencies. It was their responsibility.
Back around the same time, cargo ships were almost invariably armed as well. Piracy was a real, constant threat on many of the world’s key trade routes; the richer the trade route, the more dangerous the threat. Some merchantmen – the British and Dutch East Indiamen, which traded between Europe and South/Southeast Asia, were basically warships with cargo holds, due to the threats they faced from pirates both indigenous (the Horn of Africa was a hotbed of piracy then as now) and official (“Privateers” were pirates hired out by nations to do the dirty work of screwing with their enemies’ commerce).
It was their responsibility.
Now, with the Navy’s successful rescue of Captain Phillips and the expungement of three pirates, and the Obama Administration’s threats to attack pirate strongholds ashore (is that where Osama Bin Laden’s been hiding?), the pirates are threatening to ratchet up the violence. Which, by the way, more or less belies the notion that they’re just in it for the money, as some were saying last week.
Some of the world community’s been getting the vapors about this. But the past offers at least part of the solution today.
Just as it is the duty of every real American to own and be proficient with a firearm, merchant ships need to be armed; merchant crews need to meet skiffs full of thugs with gunfire. If they are in it for the profit, hard targets are a drag on the market,with ships as with people. If they’re not, then it’s war anyway.
With piracy as with economics 101 – if you subsidize bad behavior, you’ll get more of it. Ransoms – as the US discovered in 1803 against the Barbary Pirates of the western Mediterranean – merely create more pirates looking for the big payday. It was only when Thomas Jefferson broke with pure libertarian tradition and built a Navy and Marine Corps to track down and kill the pirates that the threat abated (and it was only when the “international community” in the 1840’s launched a concerted effort to crush them that they went away for good).
April 14th, 2009 at 8:10 am
Mitch said: “Just as it is the duty of every real American to own and be proficient with a firearm, merchant ships need to be armed; merchant crews need to meet skiffs full of thugs with gunfire.”
The Market, which you far-right types tend to fetishize, has obviously made the judgment that it’s cheaper to try to resist the pirates through non-lethal means, then pay ransom when that doesn’t work. Navies and diplomacy keep sea lanes clear. And while Angryclown realizes that “diplomacy” is a dirty word to you rabid right-wing kooks, it can take the form of an agreement among the countries with an economic interest in free, safe trade to meet piracy with firepower rather than tribute.
Democrats, from Jefferson to Obama, understand that it takes action, on military and diplomatic fronts, to protect international trade. Not empty histrionics.
But of course that’s why you’re not running things anymore.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Um, no, we’re not running things any more because the economy tanked and the Republicans gave away the high ground on spending and economics.
And is it any wonder that the pirates waited until now to go after a US ship?
By the way – is Bin Laden hiding in Ethiopia?
April 14th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Mitch mused: “And is it any wonder that the pirates waited until now to go after a US ship?”
Looks like they woulda been better off voting for McCain, eh? They might be a little less dead right now.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Ah. So Obama lulled them into a false sense of security!
Ingenious!
April 14th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Mitch, you ever heard of the CMP, Civilian Marksmanship Program? I think it’s time to introduce the CMP to US cargo shippers.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:04 am
It is nice to hear AC praise an elite US assassination team that targets poor brown people. This is the change we were looking for!
Looks like they woulda been better off voting for McCain, eh? They might be a little less dead right now.
McCain has personally killed many, many more people than Obama has. These were people we were actually at war with, as well.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Obama’s actions will only encourage more of “the pirates are threatening to ratchet up the violence” and create even more pirates.
Obama’s bellicose rhetoric will only incite more pirates and create more pirates.
*end loony liberal talking points circa 2002 – 2008*
April 14th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Really, Terry? I’d figured they were trained to fight all enemies of the US of A, not just the poor brown ones. Live and learn!
April 14th, 2009 at 11:32 am
angryclown said:
“Democrats, from Jefferson to Obama, understand that it takes action, on military and diplomatic fronts, to protect international trade. Not empty histrionics.”
Another chapter from “angryclown’s book of pretend information”? Your prettier way of saying “Dems good, Reps bad” is entirely unconvincing.
“Live and learn!”
I doubt you will, but here’s hoping.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Democrats of the Jefferson era would hardly recognize the Dems of the P-BO era, likely TJ would send the Marines against them.
“Some of the world community’s been getting the vapors about this. But the past offers at least part of the solution today.
Not me, today as yesterday, CAP EM! I’m grateful that the Seals sent three to thieir rendevous with the Devil. A rope, cinder blocks, and a quick ride to the bottom of the sea for that poor misunderstood fourth lad!
April 14th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
And is it any wonder that the pirates waited until now to go after a US ship?
Pirates have attacked US flagged ships in the last 200 years, they just hadn’t actually captured one. They didn’t “wait until now,” they just haven’t been successful.
April 14th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
And success can be fleeting.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
International community? Try Royal Navy.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
It was the RN, but as I recall there were other navies involved as well.
I need to re-read Birth Of The Modern for the details.