Snipers 3, Lawyers 1

By: Mr. Curmudgeon
mrcurmudgeon@inthepublicsquare.com

When Somali pirates boarded the cargo ship Maersk Alabama, seizing its captain for ransom, the guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Bainbridge steamed 500 miles to lend assistance. FBI hostage negotiators were added to the ship’s compliment of fighting men. The FBI negotiator’s motto is Pax per Conloquium, which means “resolution through dialogue.” Luckily for Captain Richard Phillips, Navy Seal snipers fired three perfect shots from the Bainbridge’s sea-tossed deck – at night – killing three pirates, capturing one, and freeing the American hostage. Apparently, hostage negotiations were at an impasse.

By bringing FBI agents into a military operation, the Obama administration demonstrated its commitment to treat acts of war as common crimes. Unfortunately, the combatants – I mean suspects – refused to co-operate. As for the captured pirate, FBI spokesman John Miller said, “He’s in military custody right now. That will change as this becomes more of a criminal issue than a military issue.” Someone needs to remind agent Miller and his hostage negotiators that the only reason Captain Phillips is alive and able to return to his family is due to our military and not Justice Department G-Men.

This disconnect from reality was highlighted several days ago when Maersk Shipping President John Reinhart announced at a press conference: “The FBI has informed us that the ship [Alabama] is a crime scene. Now with the Alabama safely in port, this is an FBI program. It has moved from a rescue to an investigation.”

Attorney General Eric Holder, who was a Clinton administration holdover in the Bush Justice Department, once refused to give Minneapolis FBI field agents the go-ahead to search the laptop computer of 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui. Almost a month later, Moussaoui’s compatriots crashed jets into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. As Obama’s top man at Justice, Holder will determine which court or country has jurisdiction over the captured Somali pirate.

The events that transpired on the deck of the U.S.S. Bainbridge illustrate the disparity between two worldviews. The Obama/Holder view holds that law enforcement and the courts – in other words, mindless process – is better suited to bring justice to an unjust world. The other view holds that the monsters which roam on the periphery of civilization – like Hitler’s Germany, Saddam’s Iraq, Osama’s al Qaeda and Somalia’s marauding pirates – are beyond the reach of civilization’s bureaucratic processes.

While our Attorney General looses sleep searching for the perfect venue to process our captured Somali pirate, three Navy Seal snipers sleep the sleep of the saved having brought monsters to ultimate justice while saving an innocent man in the process.

Yusuf Mohamed Mahdi, a Somali pirate commander, told Bloomberg News in a telephone interview, “We will take quick revenge on American ships if we don’t receive apologies. We will not only target ships and crew in the sea, but also American agencies’ staff in Somalia.”

A dark and chaotic world just sent the White House and Eric Holder’s Justice Department a clear message: when confronted by an evil beyond your comprehension or the reach of your civilized courts, keep your lawyers and send more snipers.

--Mr. Curmudgeon