by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n Pirates (the word peira\u00f4 is Greek for \u2018to try\u2019 or \u2018make the attempt\u2019) were common in the ancient world. They appear everywhere from Hellenistic novels to stories about Pompey\u2019s clean-up of the Cilician robbers. Some random thoughts.<\/p>\n 1)\u00a0Hit \u2018em where they are<\/em>. If we review how the Romans, Venetians, British, and Americans dealt with piracy, then we arrive at the same conclusion: forces go ashore and destroy docks, ships, and houses of the pirate community \u2014 and soon leave. There is no reason to nation-build in Somalia, only to blast apart pirates on the water; and when they strike, tit-for-tat simply to bomb or send a missile at their point of return on land.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0A larger malady<\/em>. Pirates are always a symptom of international instability and global inability or unwillingness to stamp them out. At present we are at a dangerous juncture. The U.S., in the \u201cpost-American\u201d world that Obama is trying to articulate abroad through apologetics and promises of mulitpolarity, cannot or won\u2019t exercise unilateral leadership. And under postmodern notions of morality, and in the present climate of \u201cWe\u2019re not George Bush\u2019s Guantanamo-renditions-wiretapping-preemptive America,\u201d it makes it hard, if we are to remain saintly, to do much of anything at all, except the occasional heroic efforts that we just witnessed to free hostages.<\/p>\n Moreover, there is a whiff in the air that the pirates have some connection, remote or not, with Islamic terrorism, or maybe it is that they are seen as 1990s-style Somali victims in need of understanding, or bad memories from the Blackhawk Down days. In any case, bombing the crap out of them if they don\u2019t quit is apparently provocatively Neanderthal \u2014 while letting the clueless ship or yacht that falls into their clutches is, well, a higher code of moral restraint. The pirates (\u201dWe are not afraid of America\u201d), of course, all know this.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0Pirates are nice guys<\/em>. In the last thirty years in the academic world, several theses have been published romanticizing pirates, in the manner they are celebrated in popular Disneyland-like culture \u2014 misunderstood jolly fellas, prone to a little excess from time to time.<\/p>\n For the deskbound academic who does not work on a ocean-going container ship, history\u2019s pirate can be a Robin-Hood redistributionist who takes from the mercantile class and spreads booty to the poor; or he is anarchist who defies the bourgeoisie norms of an oppressive society; or he is a sexual libertine \u2014 a cross-dresser, a sexually ambiguous Steppenwolf, a polymorphously perverse rebel, who has said no to the straightjacket of heterosexual norms; or he is an egalitarian who constructs an alternate \u201cpirate community\u201d that is without racial, gender, and class bias. There are all sorts of noble Jewish, black, and female pirates in academic discourse, far better folk that the British navy that tried to stamp them out.<\/p>\n I say all that since it seems such rarified academic nonsense has filtered down to popular discussions of the Somali pirates. While watching television, I heard Geraldo hope that Iran (that exports into Iraq shaped charges to blow up Americans) will soon join us to patrol the seas for civilization. Hillary let out that now well-known weird cackle about the problem. Some in the State Department worried that killing the pirates might \u201cescalate\u201d the tensions, inasmuch as heretofore they have been largely \u201cnonviolent.\u201d Such strange reactions to all this.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0Then there is the \u201cthey are not serious threat\u201d chorus<\/em>. In global terms, perhaps not. But they represent a further cheapening of international customs and norms, akin to the composition of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, or the blind eye accorded Russian assassination abroad. In response, why make the world angry at us for such a trifle? In the manner that it is not worth reminding the Russians that they shouldn\u2019t bully former Soviet republics or cut off European energy supplies, or not worth reminding\u00a0al Arabiya<\/em>\u00a0that radical Islam is a fascistic creed that thrives off the larger gender apartheid, religious intolerance, statism, authoritarianism and tribalism of the Islamic world, so too making a big deal about pirates just isn\u2019t worth the hassle and loss of cool.<\/p>\n 5)\u00a0We are the World<\/em>. I don\u2019t think Obama is going to galvanize an international task force to deal with the problem, for reasons other than a high-seas hijacking does not reach the level of Islamic killers in Waziristan. Note that as Obama swept the globe in various ways trashing Bush and the Bush administration, no other leader was so self-critical.<\/p>\n Ms. Merkel said nothing about the odious Gerhard Schroeder, now the pawn of the Russian Gazprom. Brown did not trash Blair, despite his unpopular stance on Iraq. Sarkozy does not like Chirac, but did not apologize for the latter\u2019s efforts to subvert the trans-Atlantic alliance. America alone sends the message that America has been the source of recent world problems, so I doubt that it can suddenly then revert to Bush\u2019s proactive policies, and yet won\u2019t find too many who can or will help (cf. Afghanistan) under the new multilateralism. The gospel is now \u201cKeep the apologies up; we love America when you say you\u2019re sorry; but so sorry, we can\u2019t help you clean up George Bush\u2019s mess \u2014 but at least we are rooting for you now.\u201d<\/p>\n And then there are the apologies. Cannot China match Obama, evoking Tibet and Mao\u2019s killing fields? Or won\u2019t Russia give us a tiny\u00a0mea culpa<\/em>\u00a0for the 300,000 killed in Chechnya? If the Germans won\u2019t trump our supposed genocide of Native Americans with more remorse about the Holocaust, can they at least explain their profit-mongering commerce with criminal states like Iran?<\/p>\n So the game is now that we wish to be multipolar and multilateral \u2014 and yet remain unilateral in our apologies and serial trashing of our prior commander in chief? Meanwhile our TVs are saturated with stories about two-bit thugs with AK-47s \u201cterrorizing\u201d the global shipping lanes.<\/p>\n Strange world.<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Pirates (the word peira\u00f4 is Greek for \u2018to try\u2019 or \u2018make the attempt\u2019) were common in the ancient world. They appear everywhere from Hellenistic novels to stories about Pompey\u2019s clean-up of the Cilician robbers. Some random thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[722],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-JN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8157,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/snipers-correct-and-incorrect\/","url_meta":{"origin":2839,"position":0},"title":"Snipers, Correct and Incorrect","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ NRO- The Corner Were a confused Michael Moore and others faulting\u00a0American Sniper\u00a0on the argument that Chris Kyle was a sniper per se, or that he was an American sniper? I don\u2019t remember Michael Moore or any other Hollywood grandees objecting much to the 2001 war\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1577,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-art-of-seaborne-humiliation\/","url_meta":{"origin":2839,"position":1},"title":"The Art of Seaborne Humiliation","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online A\u00a0tiny flotilla of \u201cpeace ships\u201d sets out to run an Israeli blockade of the Gaza coast. The Israeli strategy in response is intended to ensure that neither weapons nor terrorists enter the Hamas-held territory, at a time when Hamas is in a virtual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2010"","block_context":{"text":"June 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/june-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1581,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/marinestan\/","url_meta":{"origin":2839,"position":2},"title":"Marinestan","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services HBO's 10-part series on the Pacific campaign of World War II just ended. That story of island-hopping was mostly about how the old breed of U.S. Marines fought diehard Japanese infantrymen face-to-face in places like Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Guam and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2010"","block_context":{"text":"June 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/june-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2808,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/dr-jekyll-and-mr-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":2839,"position":3},"title":"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. President","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services In matters of foreign policy during the president's first 100 days, we have seen two Barack Obamas. Consider \"Obama I.\" After taking office, the president gave his first interview to the Dubai-based al-Arabiya TV station, and listed various sins of America while praising\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2009"","block_context":{"text":"May 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/may-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2842,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/president-of-the-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":2839,"position":4},"title":"President of the World","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The globe is hearing a deeply pessimistic view of what America was and is. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Given Obama\u2019s performance on his recent trip, three developments were quite astounding. First, despite this fresh climate of atonement, there was a complete absence of a single apology from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "April 2009"","block_context":{"text":"April 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/april-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6134,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-glue-holding-america-together\/","url_meta":{"origin":2839,"position":5},"title":"The Glue Holding America Together","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"As it fragments into various camps, the country is being held together by a common popular culture. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online By\u00a0a.d.\u00a0200, the\u00a0Roman Republic\u00a0was a distant memory. Few citizens of the global\u00a0Roman Empire even knew of their illustrious ancestors like Scipio or Cicero. Millions no longer spoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Popular Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Popular Culture","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/popular-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2841,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2839\/revisions\/2841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}