National Security is a Full-Time Job, Mr. President
James Carafano /
Reuters today reports Somali pirates just released a captured tanker after getting a record-breaking ransom. Pirates may seem so “last year,” but they are as menacing as ever. More troubling, they have links to an al Qaeda affiliate in Somalia, which also has links to the terrorist group in Yemen that organized the Christmas Day bombing against a Detroit bound flight — part of a new “axis of evil” we need to worry about. Last year we wrote a comprehensive assessment of how to deal with the pirates. We concluded there were no quick and easy answers, but the practical things that could be done required concerted leadership.
Somali piracy is typical of the challenges the United States faces today. They are complicated, defy easy answers, and like Haiti, can leap to the headlines in a NY minute, but then required sustained leadership and commitment after the press has moved on.