It's the ungovernability...
Obama should act as Clinton did in 1993 to try and bring order to Somalia under the auspices of the UN.
Robert Fox in the Guardian says:
The US didn't succeed but their attempt was initially brave and principled and Bill Clinton acted well. Perhaps Obama can show his quality and act again to try and bring order under the auspices of the UN. I don't agree with the expert here. The emphasis should not be on developing a ready expertise ("security strategies") in asymmetric warfare. That idea amounts to a modern version of building Maginot Lines.
But Mr Fox's proposed solution is not the way forward:
"Navies of the world, including the US navy and the Royal Navy, have to change their operational thinking to meet the piracy problem. The big navies will need to build fast patrol ships, souped-up versions of the second world war corvettes, to cover vulnerable choke points such as the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and even parts of the Mediterranean. And they'll need lots of these light and relatively cheap ships."
But is the solution really about "operational ability". "It's the economy stupid.", said Clinton. One could also paraphrase him and say: "It's the ungovernability stupid..." Stop gap technical solutions on their own are an absurdity. The Somali's don't have warships, they have speedboats. To call piracy asymmetric warfare or not doesn't dignify piracy. The pirates cause big trouble with a few inaccurate Kalashnikovs and motorboats.
No one should be blinded by Robert Fox's military science. Asymmetric warfare is just a merely a label. But Somalia is a country where a 13 year old girl can be stoned to death in public for being raped, for God's sake! A country where that can happen is not a civilised country. In a savaged and savage country like this the people need strong government and law. Obviously the solution is to help bring civilisation and law to Somalia.
It's not only about the military lessons and legends of the South China Seas. The solution is not 55 tooled up high speed, networked, US navy coastal patrol boats. Try and bring Miami Vice the DEA and the Border Patrol to the Somali coast. Why not suggest they enforce the New York Police Department Zero tolerance piracy policy while you are about it.
Good luck with that.
Obama should act as Clinton did in 1993 to try and bring order to Somalia under the auspices of the UN.
Robert Fox in the Guardian says:
Current orthodoxy sees piracy as a product or symptom of failed or rogue states. The inference from Obama's statements is that the world must fix the Somali pirate problem at source, by fixing the anarchy of Somalia itself.Well yes. "Black Hawk Down" and all that. The US intervention in Somalia in 1993 was initially quite a selfless action. There was no benefit to the US in intervening in Somalia. It was a humanitarian intervention aimed at creating a secure environment for the delivery of aid. UN resolution 794. Of course in the end they fucked because they were incapable of reading the situation in Somalia correctly and supporting the man on the spot. The UN negotiator UN special representative Mohamed Sahnoun.
The US didn't succeed but their attempt was initially brave and principled and Bill Clinton acted well. Perhaps Obama can show his quality and act again to try and bring order under the auspices of the UN. I don't agree with the expert here. The emphasis should not be on developing a ready expertise ("security strategies") in asymmetric warfare. That idea amounts to a modern version of building Maginot Lines.
But Mr Fox's proposed solution is not the way forward:
"Navies of the world, including the US navy and the Royal Navy, have to change their operational thinking to meet the piracy problem. The big navies will need to build fast patrol ships, souped-up versions of the second world war corvettes, to cover vulnerable choke points such as the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and even parts of the Mediterranean. And they'll need lots of these light and relatively cheap ships."
But is the solution really about "operational ability". "It's the economy stupid.", said Clinton. One could also paraphrase him and say: "It's the ungovernability stupid..." Stop gap technical solutions on their own are an absurdity. The Somali's don't have warships, they have speedboats. To call piracy asymmetric warfare or not doesn't dignify piracy. The pirates cause big trouble with a few inaccurate Kalashnikovs and motorboats.
No one should be blinded by Robert Fox's military science. Asymmetric warfare is just a merely a label. But Somalia is a country where a 13 year old girl can be stoned to death in public for being raped, for God's sake! A country where that can happen is not a civilised country. In a savaged and savage country like this the people need strong government and law. Obviously the solution is to help bring civilisation and law to Somalia.
It's not only about the military lessons and legends of the South China Seas. The solution is not 55 tooled up high speed, networked, US navy coastal patrol boats. Try and bring Miami Vice the DEA and the Border Patrol to the Somali coast. Why not suggest they enforce the New York Police Department Zero tolerance piracy policy while you are about it.
Good luck with that.
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