Maersk Alabama Has Lessons For Obama

I'll Tell You Where the Buck Stops After the Security Council Meets Next Month just doesn't have the same ring, does it?.
The capture of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama by Isamist terrorists off the coast of Somalia can provide lessons that the Obama Administration should heed.

1. You can't negotiate with terrorists.
Obama has frequently touted his plans to negotiate with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear weapons programs and to tak with "moderate" Taliban members to sway the away from the Dark Side.

Problem is, these people are murderers and criminals. They has no regard for laws or for human life. Their ends are worth any means. The leaders of Iran and No Ko are not as interested in how the world views them as Obama. These are not people for whom a hearty handshake means much. Case in point, the Alabama:

The ship's second mate, Ken Quinn, later told CNN that the crew thought it had negotiated an exchange _ Phillips for the captured pirate. But when the Americans released their captive after 12 hours, the Somalis failed to release the captain, he said.

The sailors made an agreement with the pirates; the sailors kept their end of the bargain, the pirates did not.

A template that can be applied to any situation involving Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, North Korea's Kim Jong Il, and terrorists anywhere in the world.

Their word is not worth very much.

2. The "world" can't do anything without a leader

Another of Obama's visions seems to be that the U.S. should be equal with all other countries in the world. We are just one of twenty, I believe he told the world at the G20 summit last week.

The Somali Islamist pirates have been trolling the waters for victims for a couple of years now. No one in the world has stood up to them. No country has taken the intiative to stop the scourge of piracy. (More efforts are paid to piracy when it involves the X-Men Wolverine movie.)

If the world were such an potent force for good, this piracy would have been stopped long ago.

The world needs a leader; the world needs someone to echo those famous words: "The Buck Stops Here." Take leadership, President Obama; don't sit back and wait for the slow diplomacy of the U.N. or the E.U. After all, I'll Tell You Where the Buck Stops After the Security Council Meets Next Month doesn't have the same power.


Take leadership in the world, President Obama, as so many of your predecessors have. The world will be amuch safer place if we do.