My Props To Obama On Hostage/Piracy Situation

As someone who has constantly criticized Barack Obama over almost every single one of his policies, I have to say that he gets my congrats on a job well done with regard to the hostage/piracy crisis of this last week.

His use of the U.S. Navy to resolve this issue was excellent and the results bear that out. Because of that fact, we didn't have to face the death of a valiant Captain Richard Phillips of the hijacked Maersk cargo ship.

Of course, no one, not even Obama or our Navy, can take away from the heroism of Captain Phillips who exchanged his life for his ship, and the lives of his crewmembers. He is the true hero in this whole situation.

I would only hope that the world community can come together to squash what has become an increasing occurrence of piracy out of the lawless country of Somalia. All too often, these pirates are targeting mercy ships that carry food, water, and medical supplies to the war-torn and economically depressed areas of that region. Most assuredly, some people have probably died because these much-needed items didn't make it to their destination on a timely basis. So, in essence, the pirates are murderers and should be viewed as such.

I don't follow the liberal belief that providing economic aid to the area will stop the piracy. Even, if it did, it would take decades of rebuilding the Somali economy to have any real effect. We need to stop the mother ships that bring these fast-boat pirates to their targets. We need to attack their training camps which can probably be seen from military satellite imagery.

Piracy will stop when the risk of personal loss is so great that it makes no sense to even attempt another ship boarding. And, that's just my opinion.