Pirates and tsars

  • As of 12:47, the sit­u­a­tion on the Somali pirates was that(*) they still have the Amer­i­can cap­tain hostage and that “other pirate-held ships were being moved towards the area.”

    As of 10:47, the pres­i­dent still didn’t want to even com­ment about the sit­u­a­tion. This, after the White House’s offi­cial word, hours after the hijack­ing yes­ter­day, that the they were “for­mu­lat­ing a response.”

    At about this time, I remem­ber a lec­ture on the his­tory of Rus­sia and its tsars (or tzars or csars or czars, depend­ing on which cross­word puz­zle you do). And now I know … I want less tishaishii.

    The lec­turer explained that the Russ­ian con­ven­tional wis­dom was that the coun­try could either have a groznyi tsar who was force­ful, dynamic and exerted power or a tishaishii tsar that was acces­si­ble, com­pas­sion­ate and exuded gentleness.

    All week long, the news has been about how Obama is mak­ing Amer­ica nice again. Europe likes us now. The Mus­lims like us now — and why wouldn’t they? Obama did away with his­toric pro­to­col and exe­cuted a deep butler’s bow to the Saudi king (**). Now THAT’S a guy who knows how to tell every­one, “I’m okay, you’re okay. Have another cookie.”

    I’m not say­ing there’s not value in that. But is it what we need right this minute? Do we need a tisaishii guy when North Korea is launch­ing rock­ets, Iran is acquir­ing nukes, Rus­sia seems like it’s on its way back to the Cold War and pirates — pirates – are tak­ing Amer­i­can pris­on­ers? Don’t we sort of wish there was a groznyi guy any­where in the Admin­is­tra­tion who knew that there’s a time to “for­mu­late responses” and a time to open up a can of whoopass?

    The crew mem­bers on the boat also for­mu­lated a response, by the way. They escaped, took a pirate hostage and worked out a deal to exchange him with their cap­tain. Per­haps they should have expected that the pirates would renege on the deal, but still, they DID some­thing, and in about 1/30th the time the White House is tak­ing to con­struct a sentence.

    All of which beg a cou­ple questions:

    • When we’re done apol­o­giz­ing to the rest of the world for being the source of all their prob­lems, can we take just a minute and con­sider why it is that when Amer­i­cans are being hijacked in air­planes or ships they take action and when Euro­peans are, they sur­ren­der with­out a fight?
    • We’re told we need to learn to be more mod­er­ate and paci­fist, but what is that worth, when it comes at the cost of inno­cent lives?
    • Doesn’t the world need both its tishaishii and groznyi to work in har­mony? Then why is all of the weight pre­sumed to be with a softer, squishier Amer­ica? I can’t think of any rea­sons that don’t actu­ally stink.

    Oh, and here’s good news. John Kerry wants to hold Sen­ate hear­ings about the pirates(***). Yep, that shouldn’t take long. I feel tons bet­ter now.


    Related posts:

    1. “Yes, we can” what? Ruin the country?
    2. Pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates for A Great Awakening
    3. Cold com­fort
    4. Cou­ple last Caribbean thoughts
    5. Pon­cho Sun­day roundup

    April 9th, 2009 | Grace | 1 Comment |

One Response and Counting...

  • Fr. John McCuen 04.09.2009

    No, Kerry’s on the right track! Hold hear­ings; sub­poena the pirates; and, when they fail to appear, have them arrested! That’ll solve the problem!

    I seem to remem­ber read­ing some­where, “To every thing there is a sea­son, and a time to every pur­pose under the heaven.” Oh, right, that would be the Bible! But your analy­sis seems spot on to me: this doesn’t appear to be the time for the “warm fuzzies” Pres­i­dent. He needs our prayers; and our coun­try needs our prayers, that God will help our leader rise to the occa­sion, and that He will have mercy on us, help us, and save us, by His grace…

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