How to End Piracy in the High Seas
Washington, D.C., April 20, 2009--In a dramatic rescue operation a week ago, U.S. Navy Seals succeeded in freeing Capt. Richard Phillips from captivity by Somali pirates.According to Elan Journo, analyst at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, even though the operation was successful, it did not teach the pirates the appropriate lesson, as evidenced by news of a pirate attack on another American-flagged ship, the Liberty Sun.
“The pirates have not been deterred,” said Mr. Journo, “because we have emboldened them for years through an entrenched policy of passivity and accommodation--and the freeing of Capt. Phillips was unfortunately just one halting step in a better direction.
“What we need--in response to piracy as well as other foreign threats--is an across-the-board reversal in U.S. policy. When, for example, it became clear more than a year ago that the waters off the coast of Somalia are a playground for pirates, the minimum that Washington should have done was to lay down an ultimatum to the pirates to leave Americans alone or else--and lived up to it.
“The substance of that warning: if any American vessel is captured by pirates, we will use military force to destroy every last pirate base in Somalia. When such a threat of retaliation is made fully credible, it can be sufficient to deter would-be aggressors. If any dare test us, then we must unapologetically respond with force.
“When America has once again earned a reputation as a power that none dare cross,” Mr. Journo concluded, “we won’t have to worry about pirates.”
CNN Video on the Popularity of Atlas Shrugged
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2009/04/18/finnstrom.atlas.shrugged.cnn (Hat Tip: HB)The video (to add balance) also quotes an anti-capitalist on the banking crisis who blames freedom for the mess. Peter Schwartz's Mob Rule Comes to Washington: Capitalism as a Scapegoat for Government Intervention answers her nicely by pointing out that Washington by Peter "blames capitalism for the mortgage and credit crisis, in order to divert attention from the real culprit: government intervention."
[Update] And this from ARC:
First, ARC executive director Yaron Brook was interviewed on CNN on Saturday. The report, titled "Ayn Rand Resurgence ," can be viewed on the CNN Web site. Unfortunately, the report concludes with comments attempting to blame capitalism for the present financial crisis, and to link Ayn Rand to the failed policies of Alan Greenspan. Dr. Brook was not given an opportunity to respond to these statements, but readers may visit the ARC Web site to read our statements on the financial crisis and Alan Greenspan . In addition to this, yesterday Dr. Brook published an op-ed in The Fox Forum titled “The Ayn Rand Renaissance .” The article discusses the popularity of Atlas Shrugged, and its relation to today’s cultural and political trends. As of this writing, there are more than 500 comments on the article.
End States That Support Piracy
Elan Journo has an excellent short piece on dealing with piracy off the Coast of Somalia in his blog post "Ending the scourge of piracy?" His solution:The substance of that warning: if any American vessel is captured by pirates, we will use military force to destroy every last pirate base in Somalia (and any neighboring African country). No country that harbors pirates can demand that its sovereignty be respected. When such a threat of retaliation is made fully credible, it can be sufficient to deter would-be aggressors. If any dare test us, then we must unapologetically respond with force. Not just occasionally, when negotiations go south — but on principle.This appraoch is similar to the one America should take with terrorism in general. For details see Dr. Peikoff's End States That Sponsor Terrorism.
When America has once again earned a reputation as a power that none dare cross, we won’t have to worry about pirates.
An History Professor Speaks About The Tea Parties of 2009
On April 15 I had the pleasure of addressing a tea party at Charlotte, North Carolina. Attendance was probably 3,000 people, and they were well equipped with signs, placards and tee shirts bearing messages of outrage against the present state of government. Every individual came not by some orchestrated plan, but by a desire to support liberty.The event was non-partisan. There were lots of anti-Obama signs, but not a one pro-Bush that I saw. Nor did I hear any religious right propaganda; the only mention of abortion was the assertion that a doctor who does not want to do an abortion should not be forced to do it. The overriding message was outrage against the growth of government power.
My own talk focused on the moral aspects of the crisis. I contrasted the elevated view of man and his rights that is enshrined in the American founding documents, versus the cancerous view of man and the phony rights that dominate today. I noted that those who think that such events must be financed by billionaires have no conception of autonomous individuals with independent minds, and thus cannot understand people who come together out of love for liberty.
My mention of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" brought cheers. Afterward, at least two dozen people told me that Atlas was their favorite book. The crowd was hungry for ideas; I passed out hundreds of pieces of literature, and talked to dozens of people about the nature of this crisis.
These tea parties are expressions of an emotion, outrage, that is directed against a rising tide of taxation and increasing government coercion. But emotions are not guides to life, and will not tell a person either how to oppose a motivated socialist movement, or how to formulate a rational alternative. Unless some intellectual focus is brought to these events, they are likely to fade into irrelevance.
Thanks go to Andy Clarkson for the video, to Matthew Ridenhour for organizing the event, and to Lin Zinser and Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights.