Sørøveriets ædle kunst


Medierne har i disse dage travlt med at fortælle os om, hvor væmmelige de somaliske pirater er. De er farlige. De er usympatiske.

Så det er godt, vi har ansvarlige medier som Jyllands-Posten og fredelige, lovlydige statsledere som Anders Fogh Rasmussen og Gordon Brown til at bringe tingene i orden og sætte flåden ind mod de opsætsige sorte krabater. Hvor vover fattige, forhutlede og radmagre sorte at tage sig den slags friheder til et forgribe sig på andres ejendom, som følger med den Hvide Mands Byrde?

Selvfølgelig er der små ekstreme menighedsblade på yderspidsen af venstrefløjen, som spilder deres egen og vores andres tid med irrelevant pjat som at tage ned at tale med piraterne og høre, hvad de har at sige. “Balanceret dækning” – ja, en eller anden undskyldning skal de jo for Fanden have for deres ufattelige had mod vestlige værdier.

Nåja, og så er der krigsnørden Gary Brecher på Exiled Online:

Every day I love these Somali pirates more. You know that Lefty line, “this is what democracy looks like”? Well, this is what Robin Hood looks like: a bunch of black skeletons swarming over the side with RPGs. These guys used to be humble fishermen, till the Taiwanese and Korean trawlers took advantage of the fact that Somalia has no government to scoop every last sculpin out of the waters they used to fish. No government means no coast guard, so who was going to stop them?

Well, karma went out and traded in its fishing boats for a few fast outboards and some Yemeni guns, and made a career move into the piracy business. Now they are what the NT would call “fishers of men.” And getting rich off it, bling and all the nomad girls you can buy.

So a big hundred million ton shout out to my perps, showin’ your fat Jack-Sparrow-worshipping kiddies what piracy is all about.

Link: War Nerd Update: Yo Ho Ho and a Tanker of Crude

Mere Georgien

Gary Brecher har et tankevækkende lille stykke om krigen i Georgien/Grusien på Exiled Online:

Hard people on every side in that part of the world. No quarter asked or given. No good guys. Especially not the Georgians. They have a rep as good people, one-on-one, but you don’t want to mess with them and you especially don’t want to try to take land from them.

The Georgians bided their time, then went on the offensive, Caucasian style, by pretending to make peace and all the time planning a sneak attack on South Ossetia. They just signed a treaty granting autonomy to South Ossetia this week, and then they attacked, Corleone style. Georgian MLRS units barraged Tskhinvali, the capital city of South Ossetia; Georgian troops swarmed over Ossetian roadblocks; and all in all, it was a great, whiz-bang start, but like Petraeus asked about Iraq way back in 2003, what’s the ending to this story? As in: how do you invade territory that the Russians have staked out for protection without thinking about how they’ll react?

Exiled Online er russisk-baseret og gør sædvanligvis en del ud af at forklare, hvorfor Rusland ikke nødvendigvis er så slem, som koldkrigere ynder at gøre det, blandet med betydelige mængder af sarkasme og kynisme. Deres syn på konflikten i Kaukasus kan ikke undgå at være interessant.

Link.