Pirates...or Patriots?

Hearing the word "pirate" probably arouses fond childhood memories of playing the backyard, or maybe adventure novels read in middle school. In my case, it usually reminds me of high school, because my school mascot was the pirate.

If you are just hearing about the 2009 Pirate Crisis, you're probably on the wrong blog. But anyway it's nothing too far away from the 2009 Israel/Hamas Crisis. Or the Oil Crisis. Or 911. It's basically Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups encouraging Somalian pirates to continue their crusade against evil, or something like that...
(And you know what? It's working.)*

Senior Al Qaeda official Sa'id Ali Jabir Al Khathim Al Shihri (try saying THAT ten times fast!), or Abu Sufian al-Azdi for short, encourage
" The crusaders, the Jews and the traitorous rulers did not come to the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden except to wage war against you in Somalia and abolish your newly established emirate, and by Allah, they shall be defeated. They shall bring a curse upon their people." (from a tape acquired by CBS news)

Okay, first of all I want to point out that these pirates have captured Greeks (most definitely not Jewish, anyone know the story behind Hanukkah?), Lebanese (see 2005 and the turning back of the clocks of Beirut), Egyptians (ehhh...), etc., etc., NO ISRAELI SHIPS. So If their goal is actually Jews than they have some bad aim.

Secondly, if these countries wanted to "wage war" against Somalia and Djibouti, don't you think they'd do it instead of just floating through the water to do some trading? Hello.

Thirdly, these attacks are clearly random. These are often not government owned ships and owned by corporations.

Obviously it's sick that America isn't really treating this at part of the War On Terror. Is it really not considered terrorism when a bunch of teenagers with guns attack and American ship? If they had been older would it have been? Or maybe if they were having a TEA PARTY? Or maybe we don't want to stereotype.

Just because these pirates are named things like Abduhl Wal-i-Musi obviously doesn't make them terrorists. But it doesn't mean we should try to be politically correct. Because they attack us and they have guns and they hate and they aren't scared of anything and they are encouraged by Al Qaeda...this certainly points to terrorism to me.
To treat these people like they are poor teenagers with guns is not only wrong its dangerous. Ignoring threats to our safety is a lot more dangerous than risking the Dixie Chicks criticize you in France.

I don't know why our President is worried about that anyone. President Sarkozy is not a fan.

There are three main ways the media has been handling this.

1. The Conservatives--Right as usual.
2. The Obamanatics -
The media, such as CNN and all of your other proudly liberal mainstream channels, have been dumping praise on Pres Obama this last week or so for giving the military the go ahead to save Captain Richard Phillips. Uh. Seriously? What was the alternative? "I give you permission to save your captains life and not let him get shot by some sixteen (excuse me, he might be seventeen) year old Somali kid." What? Am I the only one baffled by this? I guess you can't take anything for granted these days. I assume an American President would support the military in any possible way but with none of our 800 billion going to anything having to do with safety (other than environmental safety, whatever that means), but it's a new era. Hold on tight.
The main stream media has not really been praising our military for saving Cptn Phillips, or talking about how amazingly brave he is , or suggesting ways to avoid pirates in the future. Anybody should clearly see that the hero here was not our dear President but the MILITARY.
3. The Fringes
Here I am speaking of the your favorite crazies to watch on the news. What they say is so bizarre that it's easy to forget they are serious. But they are... Example : The Reverend Al Sharpton. Americans tend to call these people pirates. Some reasons include they are on boats, they have guns, they hijack boats, the ask for money, etc. That's basically what pirates are. Maybe they don't have swords or parrots or say arggh, but these people are dangerous. Al Sharpton commented on this, and said that he agrees more with the definition these people give themselves
"VOLUNTARY COAST GUARD".
This guy is a nut. If he is such a fan of these patriots, what is he doing wearing a suit being interviewed on CNN? Get out there and fight the power!!!!

Bottom line is: These pirates are way more than a nuisance and need to be treated that way. This isn't a new problem, this isn't an American problem, and it's not a Somali problem. It's a global problem. What a shame that there is no such thing as a global community (don't get me wrong, there never really has been one) to get together and try to sort this out.

*Sorry for all the (parentheses) in this post. And all the other posts. I really like them. Deal with it.