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The Pirates and Us
Reuters
That a ragtag band of pirates fended off America's finest for five days is eerily reflective of what’s been going on in landlocked American business.
Another coup for Obama! This guy has winner’s luck. Unlike Jimmy Carter’s doomed rescue mission in Tehran, this time we got the glorious moment when Navy SEALs grabbed brave Captain Richard Phillips from the pirates who’d held him hostage for five days in a floating oven, and finished off the bastards.
It was beginning to be a sore point for America’s self-image. No one could understand how a ragtag band of four renegade freelancers could board a sturdy U.S.-flagged container ship and defy the mighty U.S. Navy, which seemed to stand by impotently while lawyers and FBI negotiators figured out what to do.
First, Captain Sully, with his cool competence, and now Captain Phillips, with his uncomplicated courage. The exploits of such heroes keep breaking through the relentless beat of bad news with indomitable retro derring-do.
The “business model” of the new piracy marries low cunning with an alphabet of high-tech acronyms. With their GPS devices, RPGs, and AK-47s, they’ve been defying the world for two years. Our $800 million destroyer Bainbridge (ironically named after a Navy commodore whose ship was captured by pirates in the early 1800s) was forced to hang around beside the pirates’ hijacked lifeboat, offering them food and even providing batteries for their two-way radio, so negotiators could continue to talk to them. The threat of these impudent maritime muggers has reduced cargo ships to defending themselves with techniques that seem almost comically derived from The Dangerous Book for Boys. Stand by to repel boarders with…fire-retardant foam, water hoses, and super-slippery goo on bulwarks and decks. Even more fun ideas for your next kiddie birthday party.
The pirate drama feels like the perfect high-seas counterpart of what’s been going on in landlocked American business for some time: Big lumbering corporate entities hover on bankruptcy and plead for bailouts; baffled media companies beef about the Web insurgency; the Google boys rewrite the whole Web environment while mighty Microsoft is asleep; a football-scholarship kid called Howard Schultz comes into the beverage business and soon dwarfs everyone else with Starbucks; a Johnny-come-lately Japanese company, Toyota, humbles historic General Motors. And The New York Times reports that new, smaller risk-taking companies, staffed by the most talented employees who’ve left the struggling super-banks, are challenging the dominance of the financial behemoths who helped to fuel the financial crisis. Says Professor Matthew Richardson at NYU: “If the risk-taking spreads out to these smaller institutions, it is not longer a systemic threat. ”In short, the mantra that the giants got bailouts because they were too big to fail is a fallacy. They weren’t. They were too big to succeed.
It all underlines how vulnerable we are to enemies and competitors who are not dulled by excess money and sclerotic management layers. We were given a horrific version of the same thing on 9/11 and, even more, in the long Bushian aftermath. While America was obsessing about nuclear warheads and weapons of mass destruction, it was box cutters and flying lessons that brought down the World Trade Center, and a sneaky low-tech rabble insurgency that tied down U.S. military in Iraq for five years.
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Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
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Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
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Tina Brown is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.
The Daily Beast Video curates the most essential and entertaining video, and brings you original and exclusive productions from our talented contributors.
They called 9/11 and the terrorist risk that it spawned a new kind of "asymmetrical threat." This piece neatly captures a mirror-image of the risk of unpredictable assault, and that is "asymmetrical rescue" - how heroes can and do emerge with a blaze of light from the least expected corners of our culture.
USA 1
Pirates 0
What a great ending for a bad situation.
Remember when the Chinese fighter collided with the U.S. plane near China and we had to do an emergency landing, and we did nothing for 14 days? Not only that, China didn't release any information at all regarding the hostages for two whole days.
Here is an article documenting Bush's role. Imagine if Obama had been in this position and waited 14 days and didn't allow any military action how the right would have attacked him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/13/world/collision-with-china-negotiation s-bush-had-calm-hawks-devising-response-china.html
Anyways, I think a comparison of how the two handled their first international crisis would be a great comparison particularly how Bush interjected himself right off the bat openly and made the situation just that more complex and how Obama remained in the background and didn't interject Presidential politics when peoples lives were at stake.
Why/can't/the/UN/be/given/jurisdicion/over/this/problem?It/could/coordinate /the/enforcement/efforts/and/perhaps/contract/with/NATO/to/provide/the/poli cing/and/patrol/services.
It/is/the/height/of/absurdity/that/global/trade/is/not/safe/in/the/
21st/Century.
I agree. "Pirates" draws up images of men in peg legs and eye patches several centuries ago. It's unbelievable to imagine these serious hostage situations occurring today. The more I read about the topic however, the more apparent it becomes that this is a major problem, not an isolated, highly publicized event. Here's an interesting point of view from a former chief security advisor to the UN in Somalia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/opinion/19long-1.html
It's a David vs Goliath story. So, Goliath knocks off David in this one. How big of a deal is that? Well, now everybody knows that Obama did answer that 3am call!
The French have twice sent special forces to retake two of their ships, both luxury yachts, as well as capturing several pirates in the process. If a little country like France can do it then, of course, so can America. We'll show 'em we won't tolerate such bay boy behaviour. We're not sof on crime!
So now the rescue of the brave captain becomes an uptick in PR for America and Obama. We are not the "sleeping tigers" as Hezbollah referred to our military response in Lebanon after the marine barracks bombing. Because we sent destroyers to blast their mountain hideouts from the safety of sea rather than landing an assault team on shore. They went on to brazenly bomb our Kenyan and Tanzanian embasses while a followup at the foreigner housing complex in Saudi Arabia.
America's previous responses to terrorist threats, a la Carter's hostage fiasco and Clinton's Black Hawk Down debacle, remain fresh in the national psyhe. And, even more so, in our military's mindset. Obama, of course, refused to be put in that corner come hell or high water. Lucky for him it turned out as it did.
The collective backslapping will cease in weeks. Not only are these heretofore insignificant Somali able to hold the world in thrall with their exploits, the Afghani have long been expert at holding world powers at bay, too. For centuries. Now add Iraq's upturn in secular insurgencies and Pakistan's perennially fractious population. These are the real, most dangerous, recidivist pirates. Bon voyage.
Tina,
You just won back a place on my favorites bar.
I may even re-sign up for the email updates.
Bravo. Let's have more of that sort of thing.
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Thank God we have toodogs to remind us that multiple points of view are desirable. And while we are at it, let's not forget that good punctuaction makes for clearer communication. Also don't forget to brush your teeth!
The only reason these thugs were able to hold us off is because we valued the life of a single person, Captain Phillips. Once he was out of harm's way our people swat them like flies. Our collective values as a society set us apart and for that I'm grateful. It's also a great call by Team Obama. Well done.
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Lady Di.? Tina Brown is the expert. The Merchant Marines, Pirates, The US Navy Seals? Not so much.
Well does Ms Brown have any comments about non-US ships that had been pirated for last 2 years..All of them paid money with very few exceptions. American citizens, government and Navy refuses to do so. They risked lives. It is going to take all of them - American citizens, Government, Wall Street, Main Street to get us out of this economic crisis. America is doing whatever it can; Europe/Russia/Rest of the world seem content to play the blame game.
"...the new piracy marries low cunning with an alphabet of high-tech acronyms."
High-tech? RPG's and AK-47s? Please. These are the poor man's counter to High-tech. Please leave the snappy military analysis to the experts.
And yet the conservative Radio Machine wanted the Captain to die. They wanted more grist for the Anti-Obama mill. Monica Crowley blamed Obama for not sending his condolences to Captain's family live on TV. She had no proof he hadn't contacted them in private.
Never mind that if the pirates caught wind of the fact that the U.S. president was involved, they might triple their price or execute the captain out of spite.
Hannity thought Hillary's laughing about the lunacy of all the modern problems facing the U.S., now including piracy, should have gotten her fired. But then Hannity wants her fired for wearing the wrong pantsuit.
Now will these scum bags praise Obama as quick as they blamed him? No! Because it was the Navy's job anyway from start to finish, not Obama. I hate the Hypocrisy Party.
Excuse me? Please back up your assertions that "The conservative Radio Machine wanted the captain to die." Name one radio host who said that, or retract it.
You say "If the pirates caught wind of the fact the U.S. president was involved, they might triple their price..." Oh, really, xbainx? They might have jacked up the price threefold to a whopping SIX MILLION DOLLARS! OMG! Where would the U.S. get that kind of cash?
Even better, you allege the pirates might have just killed the captain "out of spite," meaning that after squeezing millions out of Saudi Arabia, France, and other nations, they would just piss away the chance to salvage a multimillion-dollar payday after a failed hijacking attempt, earning them nothing but a U.S. Navy laser target on their backs. Yeah, that makes PERFECT sense. If you read Tina's piece closely, she points out that while the pirates are unsophisticated, they ain't stupid. Do yourself a favor, xbainx, and leave the buccaneer business to the experts.
Finally, you say "it was the Navy's job anyway from start to finish, not Obama." You may want to check that old piece of paper that Obama swore to uphold. What was it called? Oh, yeah - THE CONSTITUTION. As POTUS, Obama is Commander-in-Chief. Do you know what that means?
However, it is nice to see a liberal owning up to Carter's desperate, ill-planned, disastrous rescue attempt in Iran. BTW Tina, it is oil-rich, Islamist Iran that provided cash, materials, and expertise to the "sneaky low-tech rabble insurgency" in Iraq. You know, the ones that Michael Moore equated to American Minutemen and said would reign victoriously over the men and women that Obama thanked last week.
Sorry, Mr. Conservative -- even fellow conservative Ann Althouse calls out Rush Limbaugh for this. And Newt Gingrich and GOP spokesguy Brad Blakeman were part of the Limbaugh Chorus.
From http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/12/719369/-PR-disaster-for-the-GOP :-Republicans-bet-against-the-United-States-and-lose --
-- It began shortly after the first reports of the hijacking came in on Wednesday, April 8th, when Rush Limbaugh took to the airwaves to attack the Obama administration over the hijacking. Limbaugh's attack was an expansion on comments made earlier by Dick Cheney that the Obama administration left the American public more open to attack.
-- Conservative blogger Ann Althouse was listening and she described what happened next:
" He'd slotted the story into his Obama-doesn't-know-what-to-do template and was riffing away about Obama's indecision and what he must be fretting about and how he'd probably want to apologize to the pirates and so forth. The big show was steaming along. (I thought a good ending would be: hostage crisis... it's Jimmy Carter all over again.)
"And then he was slipped the news that the U.S. crew had taken their ship back, defeated the pirates. And Rush should have turned that big show around instantly. It should have been: Yay, America! Americans don't lie back and wait to be rescued. We're ready to fight. We're self-reliant. The government isn't the answer to everything. There were lots of great alternate Rush Limbaugh templates to mobilize right then. This is why we need to have our own guns. This is why the bitching about Bush after Katrina was all wrong. Etc. etc.
"But Rush couldn't turn that big show - that big container ship - around. He couldn't let go of Obama doesn't know what to do, and I felt a little sad about my radio hero."
-- Althouse points like a laser beam at Limbaugh's blunder, in fact she admits to it herself: the Republican Party expected Obama to fail this test, expected him to "be like Jimmy Carter." Just hours after the hijacking, long before most of the facts were known, Republicans and conservatives like Limbaugh and Althouse were placing massive bets against the ability of the United States--under the leadership of the Obama administration--to deal with this crisis. Limbaugh placed a big bet on the table that the United States would fail.
-- But Limbaugh's mistake should have been almost immediately obvious. Even as we were digesting the first news of the hijacking, more reports came in indicating that the ship's crew of tough American merchant sailors had managed to overpower one of their attackers and had chased the remaining attackers off the vessel. Unfortunately, the fleeing pirates had taken Captain Richard Phillips hostage when they fled in the Maersk Alabama's lifeboat. Rush Limbaugh had bet against these sailors, and so had already lost most of his bet even before his show was over.
-- But Republicans weren't going to cut their losses: instead they doubled down. After an attempt to trade the captured pirate for Captain Phillips went wrong, Phillips found himself trapped aboard the small lifeboat with four heavily armed pirates. "There's no way Phillips is getting out of this," Republicans seemed to be saying. Once again key Republican talking heads bet against an American mariner, the U.S. Navy, and the leadership of the Obama administration.
-- Republican spokesman Brad Blakeman was on MSNBC this morning predicting that the U.S. Navy would fail in its mission to rescue Captain Phillips. Over at This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Newt Gingrich went on the attack against the Obama administration, betting against the U.S. Navy. Knowing as we do how this story ends, it's hard not to conclude that Gingrich is a little reckless. Clearly Gingrich has no idea what he's talking about. Gingrich wasn't privy to the Obama administration's deliberations and planning. While Gingrich was loudly condemning the Obama administration as a "do-nothing," halfway around the world the U.S. Navy's SEALs were executing a plan signed off on by Barack Obama, and successfully rescuing Captain Richard Phillips. Newt Gingrich bet against the U.S. Navy SEALs and lost.
Well Said Lnsmithee!
I win moron. Now go to your Tea Party. I hate Republicans!
I can name several media pundits that are upset everything went so smoothly for Obama, they were blabbering the same way you were, calling him a combination of Carter and Clinton. Oh God forbid a combination of humanitarian and successful president.
You repeat and you repeat and you are so angry you don't even know what you are angry at anymore. Clinton and Carter are not in office. Bush was in office. Be mad at him.
By the way Obama supporters like the man, but really they voted against Republicans. In a higher margin of victory than Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and any modern president. Now the Democrats will be in control for another half century.
Nice article Tina.
Tina, you write about box cutters and low tech.
Captain Phillips and his crew are the real heroes. They, 20 in all are still alive. Their ship and cargo are safe and sound and will soon be on their way to their intended destination.
Captain Phillips proves what goodness does exist in the human spirit. Good defeats evil.
Dumb people like you shouldn't be allowed to comment on anything. Ooh good versus evil. It must be fun to live in a children's book.
Enemies, competitors, pirates, honor, courage, bastards?
Nothing about nuclear waste dumping, illegal trawling, failed state, starvation?
This piece is all about I and WE, cheer leading with no sense of context. For that you might have to go to the Daily Show or the London based Independent who have a real look at the issue here:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-ha ri-you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates-1225817.html
Thank you. Alas, hardly any reporter or columnist focuses on why the Somali pirates do what they do. Maybe the ignorant are dining on fish caught in those nuclear waste-infested waters.
Well said!! You articulated much of what I have been thinking .
Nice article.
During the time my Air Force family was stationed in Central America, Leftist guerrillas began kidnapping Americans for ransom to use in purchasing weapons. My parents informed my siblings and I that they would not negotiate with these animals in the event we were kidnapped as this would only lead to more victims and weaken the U.S. and her allies. Those of you who are dissing conservatives for daring to suggest that the U.S. not give-in to the pirates don't really understand the mentality of the incredibly brave captain who risked his life for his crew and the Navy Seals who are willing to risk their lives to beat the pirates and rescue the captain. The goal is not to go into a rescue carelessly and stupidly (Patton told his troops not to die for their country but to make the other poor bastard die for his), but to achieve the mission with minimal losses. This includes looking down the road. To have rewarded the pirates with a money-for-hostage trade was just setting up the next innocent victims. Thank God for a brave captain who knew the risks and Navy Seals who understand the dangers that face them but they are willing to die to protect us.
Guess what: Your hero Ronnie Reagan negotiated with hostage-takers. He just lied about it. Or have you totally forgotten about Iran-Contra?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/13/719516/-No-Reagan-Hostage-Deals -This-Time
Give me a break. Please.
Pirates? rag-tag pirates threatening the mighty US?
Macheavelli said that no one can stop a determined, suicidal, intelligent killer from attempting his goals.
No one can stop these pirates. Nothing anyone does will stop their mad high seas villiany. There can only be a reasoned, planned response. The US military handled this situation beautifully.
Not the same thing as the US economy, not quite.
American has a partial answer which explains why it took US Navy Seals 5 days to rescure the CPT. Somebody mentioned the Jimmy Carter Desert Open & Carter's "Blackhawk Down". It takes exceptional planning, training & a great deal of luck to pull off a rescue like this Seal Operation.
Hostages are still held by other pirate bands. That makes any shock & awe land operation difficult to impossible. The pirates have little to lose by carrying out threats to murder hostages.
It is difficult to judge Obama's response till we know much more about how he decided to respond to this situation.
Surprise terrorst attacks by people who expect death can't be predicted with accuracy. Preventing such attacks is always going to be difficult, rescuing hostages & bringing them out alive (you have to be a good poker player, have the right cards & a lot of luck).
Business & financial fiascos can't be prevented unless we have competent corporate execs who follow well drafted regulations. Corporate execs are humans. Humans can be & a lot of us are stupid. Getting rid of the putzs who set up conditions for 9/15/08 is essential. They are hopeless foul ups. Give them billions; they will lose billions.
Finding people capable of rebuilding an economy that really works to replace the failed enterprises is difficult, perhaps impossible.
BTW, how many banks folded this week-end?
Tina is for the growth of government one day as long as it's headed by The One, but finds large bureaucratic organizations unfit for survival the next. Consistency might be the bugbear of small minds, but still.
These reply links are great! I hate you Banjo1! You say nothing more consistently than anyone here! You don't even know what you are saying or what big government means. Keep it up!
I digress from the more serious story. I've been wondering how Blogs (the newspapers of tomorrow?...) would successfully integrate advertisements into their sites, without turning many of us away. I think, Daily Beast, your BV ad was a pretty good start.
I wish Europe wasn't old and tired and stuck on the "politically cool" idea that to be passive is to be "high minded". If we banded together we could solve this problem.
If we are going to continue this warped approach of sailing the high seas without arming ships and crewmen and not training them in the use of weapons and defense??...then I suggest that the diets of all crews be changed so that the crew,on their new diets, will excrete the most horrific gas imaginable !! This way no "pirate" will ever want to board the ship or take a hostage!!! The pirates will pay us to leave!!...please!!
Seriously this wasn't some major operation. This wasn't some major presidential decision like dropping an A bomb or anything. The pirates were being towed by the NAVY BOAT. It was a 25-30 yard shot. The USA negotiated because they were in physical control of the pirates (they were in a boat that was out of gas that was being TOWED by the Bainbridge). What was the rush? There was no point in risking the civilians life. My guess is that the Navy Captain got tired of playing games and ordered the snipers to fire at the first provocatin which was when one of the pirates apparently aimed his AK at the civilian capt. 30 yards is roughly 90 feet which is the distance from home plate to first base. People easily toss baseballs that far. I can in all seriousness say I could have taken that shot. I would venture a guess that 90% of American hunters could have made that shot. Roughly 100% of all military snipers can make that shot. They should have just shot them sooner. There really wasn't a big decision made here and I would actually have been suprised if Obama had said no. I am actually suprised it made it all the way to his desk. This shouldn't have gone passed the Navy commander in the area. He should have been like "fuck them, shoot". I know police departments in the USA don't need presidential orders to shoot, I know as a Marine I did not need a presidential order to shoot. Good on Obama I guess for not fucking this up, but as far as major decisions go this wasn't a Hiroshima or a Nagasaki. More like a decision to pull a tiring pitcher. I will be impressed if Obama sends the Navy and Marines into Somalia. The international right of self-defense would justify an inspection and quarantine regime off the coast of Somalia to seize and destroy all vessels that are found to be engaged in piracy. That is the right decision but probably an unpopular one. I would give Obama credit for making this choice. I think he lacks the balls.
Actually, what Somalia needs is a functioning government. It suits the European powers to let the country roil in chaos, because it allows them to use Somalia's territorial waters as dumps for nuclear waste, among other things.
I think you lack the balls to rationally decide what it is you love about killing. Sometimes men need to die. But Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not good events. They aren't touchdown moments we should reminisce about. Ask yourself why you find it necessary for our military to police the globe. You aren't out there busting your hump. No Somali is ever coming here in a speedboat.
First, I think Ms. Brown wrote a great column.
Second, to Steve1705: liberals are not a bunch of naive, Pollyanna pushovers. We simply believe in social justice. If not for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the ultimate in liberalism, my marriage would be illegal in at least 16 states.
Because so many are also saying "I think he lacks the balls," I believe Obama will authorize military action.
Military action has not gone well in two cases: the Indian navy sunk a ship after being fired on. Unfortunately, it was hijacked and the captive crew went down with the pirates. And a French hostage was killed in the crossfire, when they sent in their marines.
And as military action goes, we are stretched thin because of Iraq. How many are coming back missing eyes, limbs, with 3rd degree burns because of lies and Halliburton?
I am sure Obama has told the DoD to handle Somalia and the pirates as they see fit. Remember, it didn't go so well in 1994. Obama does not want a repeat. Republicans would circle him like sharks.
And yes, I cooperated when I was called for a pre-induction physical. They did not want me because of asthma, which has gotten worse as I get older. I would never speak out against self-defense. At one time Jews were pacifists, and look what happened.
I believe the SEALS are splendid people.
Now if this country would help the little unborn babies live. That would be justice. Might does not make right.
Hey pricklypear, you have a one track mind. This is about piracy - you do this on every forum, and your whining is like fingernails on a blackboard.
So as long as you brought up your useless Catholic dogma, I'll bring up James Kopp. Remember him? An anti-Semite who murdered Dr. Slepian, and is a hero to every reptile in the world.
And as long as we're at it, Hercules is the son of Zeus and a human woman. Sound familiar? And Mary and Jesus is based on Isis and her son Horus.
And in Europe, on Easter Sunday the pogroms were worst of all.
All you do is regurgitate Catholic dogma. Get a life.
"Fended off"? Tripe. We CHOSE to try to talk the situation out first. If Obama had been Bush, the 'go to guns' option would have been the first chosen.
Tina: Why didn't you compare these juveniles (the captain of the boat was reported to be 16) to ACORN organizers. They are shakedown artists. True they may carry guns, but they are nothing more that entrepeneur organizers. And what will we do with the 16 year old juvenile? Hey, how about putting him Americorps to do more community organizing.
And you win. Remarkably racist, full of lies, and you manage to tie it to the article somehow. you bag of shit will we arriving in six to eight weeks.
Thank you.
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