George Rebane

Millions once moved to California for its boundless promise, but time has not been kind to the Golden State, so starts Joel Kotkin’s ‘Sundown for California’ in the Nov/Dec issue of The American.  He details the history of our beloved state and jewel of the world from its unbelievable beginnings as a land of opportunity to its arrival as a land that now prepares itself to be destructive to all the creative and productive juices that flow in the veins of those who can.  And to think that once we shook our heads at the primitive Polynesian cultures who turned archipelagos of paradise into taboo ridden inkblots of misery dotting the blue Pacific.  Attempting to get the word out on this gives one all the pleasure of relieving oneself on the windward side of a sailing vessel.

Pirates and the Decay of the West.  The pirate attacks and seizures off the Somali coast are the most recent indication of the rot that is now at the core of western civilization.  The pirates are averaging one merchant ship attacked in international waters every four days.  And although we have the technical and military assets to secure our shipping, we have neither the political nor moral will to defend our interests in international waters against the world’s lowlifes.

Since Vietnam we have possessed the means to make shipping safe against the threat of fast small boats launched from slow mother ships.  We also have the means to deny the pirates their safe havens on the government-less Somali coast.  Given the presence we already have in the Arabian Sea and Diego Garcia, we have all the necessary resources to make those waters among the safest in the world.  The marginal cost would be minimal.

Instead, we are told of our concern about what laws apply to defending ourselves.  We worry about what to do with any pirates that we may capture and therefore capture none; French president Sarkozy is worried about turning them over to Muslim governments that might chop off their hands or heads.  Britain is worried whether we will have to establish another Guantanamo in which to jail them, and on and on.  Meanwhile over $100 million in ransom has already been paid to them this year and the Somali lawless continue to see it as the best game anywhere.  Here is a tale told by two lawyers who today worry about the lack of a proper legal framework for protecting commerce on the high seas (I’m not making this up).

Nevertheless, yesterday an eastern government knew what to do.  An Indian frigate encountered what appeared to be a pirate mother ship that launches the fast boats, and it sank the pirates.  Oppose this with our response of sending teams of lawyers to do research in online libraries, and see if there is anything that would permit us to respond as did Thomas Jefferson in the days of the Barbary pirates.  In the spirit of global co-operation, maybe we should contract with the Indian navy to keep the sea lanes of commerce open for us.

If in the coming years our Marines survive as a fighting force, I wonder with what kind of lyrics they would have to replace “to the shores of Tripoli”.  Perhaps something appropriate about filing suit at the International Court of Justice in The Hague would serve.  All the while the Somali pirates are in apoplexy laughing their you-know-what off.