I have to admite it, until now I had a romanticized view of these acts of piracy. Until now...

Thank you Alan for your excellent and non-stopping work!

That is what we face daily in Colombian fields, troops of criminals self named "guerrillas" kidnapping our people under the threat of a gun. And many europeans and "leftish" militants think that those criminals, like the ones in this picture, are freedom fighters. Sorry for the people that have been kept in captivity when those terrorists ask for a ransom. Nobody in the world deserve that terrible treatment.

Alan, I totally agree with your sentiments. I'll resist from stoking the fires here, but I am afraid things are about to get worse before they get better.

@ Mauricius
It is true that European militants of the far left think of kidnappers in South America as freedom fighters but I can assure you that those militants are far from being numerous.
Kidnappers are criminal. That's it.

I agree with your post. There is not justification of such actions.

I can't say I sympathize with the somali pirats (because obviously I'm not in their shoes). Plus the french were warned four times by the coast guards not to sail in the area.

It's a terrible situation where there is not right or wrong but only lost people taken in tourments.

But you did editorialize by not having this picture up on Boston. In fact, that whole series of pictures was the embodiment of the poor-oppressed-black-freedomfigters vs. nasty-imperialist-white-stormtroopers meme. Publishing this here, now, way after the fact and in a venue that is only going to interest a very few of the BP readers won't make up for the fact that you've already spun it the way most of your readers - ever adept at catching that sort of thing - could pick up and run with. In fact, I wish I didn't have to be suspicious of the coincidence of this being published now, just after Obama finally found enough spine to order what should have been done from day one...

@Hon Wei - thanks for your input, here are two responses:
1) The previous entry I ran was back in March 16th, nearly a month before the "Tanit" above was even captured, so how could I have run this photo?
2) A month ago, I honestly had no idea that there existed (or would exist) such a chorus of voices determined to legitimize or rationalize what seemed to me fairly obvious acts of base violence.

It's the way things are, you may have a reason to do things, but they will go out of control, eventually. On the other hand, the reason is possibly still there, mixed with all the mess.

There's no point in "romanticize" before and realize now just how crude the whole thing is. It's wrong, it's plainly wrong, we know it from the start. But it's still delightfully /romanticizeable/. Oh, come on.

It is possible we will have pirates or terrorist on our horizon once they learn to do it unnoticed and realize what they can do.

Congress will not act until the public becomes aware of the enormous threat that ballast systems provide for terrorist, pirates or foreign sea captains, who do not like our country, to use ships flying under foreign flags with foreign crewmen, to contaminate and pollute our waters. Until we demand protection by exposing this threat, lobbyist will push the senate to consider it a states rights issue. Virus and invasive s in water do not recognize the lines man has drawn on maps. Industry knows that log books and record keeping, are mere paper work that dose not prove procedures were followed. It is time protect our country and our waters by screening all problems of shipping offshore. Maybe if we were to build up our neglected Coast Guard to be capable of this mission we could create some jobs Sincerely
Don Mitchel

@Alan Taylor: I sincerely apologize - the lead in led me to think not publishing this picture was an editorial decision way back when. Still, I maintain that your other choice of motifs was in the predictable woe-be-the-poor-oppressed-masses of the third world genre to such an extent that it amazes me that you could not predict the amount of pirate well-wishing that was going to happen. After all, there was absolutely no counterbalance of the type at display here to the scrawny minority vs. beefy, well-equipped white police type imagery that instantly triggers the violent riot support reflex honed by years of "globalization" protests at WTO meetings in large parts of the blogosphere.

Is someone really trying to justify these acts of piracy? Are we blaming the victim for standing in front of an AK-47? The piracy continues because it's profitable with the results outweighing the risks. Like investing in subprime mortgages used to be.

The Coast does not belong to the USA. It is none of the USA's business unless they capture a United States Ship.
Our coast gard has nothing to do down there.
Unless they capture a ship registered in the USA.

Kidnap the damn kidnapers. Hold them for the same amount of ransom. \
Then put there sorry asses in a cannon and blow them back to there country from international waters.

@ Kermit - don't worry about the ransom (who'd pay it?) just do the latter .....

But there wasn't any harm done to these people until the French forces showed up and opened fire, in face most hostages report being treated well while under capture. Somali Pirate's rhetoric is increasingly leaning towards defense of their borders from all the toxic waste dumping and overfishing that's happening in their seas.

Obviously it is bad to capture people, but the way that you have framed it is exactly how the problem continues to not be solved, if we meet violence with violence, nothing will be accomplished, only more hostages will be taken and more people will be killed (as evidenced by the day after we killed 3 pirates to get that one captain back.) We need a strategy that deals with the problems in Somalia, not one that simply protects our economic interests.

the french have special forces???????

@14 "Vinny Spotleson"

You're completely right, a humanitarian.

No way to justify what these people are doing. This is such a sad story.

"Is someone really trying to justify these acts of piracy? Are we blaming the victim for standing in front of an AK-47? The piracy continues because it's profitable with the results outweighing the risks. Like investing in subprime mortgages used to be."
--

Yes. Maybe justification isn't the right word here, but the reason behind all of it is perfectly understandable, logic, rational behavior.

So am i blaming the victim for standing in front of an armed pirate? Yes i am. They knew the risks. They have been warned. It was there free choice to sail the Gulf of Aden, so be ready to deal with the consequences. It may sound harsh (and i nevertheless feel sorry for their loss), but that is the price you have to pay for dumbness.

I don't know all of the facts behind this uprising of piracy, but it is well know that Somalia is a failed state in almost every relevant aspect. So what do you think will happen if you allow that chaos spreads through this region? What is the reaction of many Somalis when there mere existence is threatened? What would you do if your existence was threatened that way?

This is not about justification, lawful or unlawful, right or wrong. All of this follows a very basic rule, which, unfortunately, many people have forgotten in the first world: actio e reactio, or the law of causality.

Remember: What you reap, is what you sow.