We’re at a point of ideologically-controlled media propaganda where American servicemen can literally kill a thousand of the enemy, but lose one American, and still be portrayed as the losers.  We saw that in Iraq under President Bush.

I think we should celebrate the rescue of Captain Phillips, and celebrate the heroism and skill of our incredible warriors.  But let’s not celebrate by way of political spin out of Washington and picked up by the media establishment, because it’s an incredibly dangerous game.  If Obama deserves credit for the rescue yesterday, then he will therefore fully deserve to be excoriated if any Americans are killed in future reprisals.

On a final note, a Democrat member of Congress, Donald Payne from New Jersey, went on a “fact-finding” tour of Somalia that was itself very likely an act of political grandstanding.  His airplane was attacked (unsuccessfully) with mortars as it was preparing to take off.  The al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the mortar attack.

Barack Obama may want to end the “war on terror” by assigning it the incredibly euphemistically-named “overseas contingency operation,” but it is a war on terror nevertheless - a war that demands the total participation of our military, and a war that will necessarily require both courage and sacrifice from the United States if we have any hope to prevail.  I hope President Obama will abandon this incredibly foolish politically-correct re-labeling and treat this war with the seriousness that it deserves.

Ruthless, unconventional foes are not new to the United States of America. More than two hundred years ago the newly established United States made its first attempt to fight an overseas battle to protect its private citizens by building an international coalition against an unconventional enemy. Then the enemies were pirates and piracy. The focus of the United States and a proposed international coalition was the Barbary Pirates of North Africa.

Pirate ships and crews from the North African states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers (the Barbary Coast) were the scourge of the Mediterranean. Capturing merchant ships and holding their crews for ransom provided the rulers of these nations with wealth and naval power. In fact, the Roman Catholic Religious Order of Mathurins had operated from France for centuries with the special mission of collecting and disbursing funds for the relief and ransom of prisoners of Mediterranean pirates.

I STRONGLY recommend that you read the entire article (it's not that long!)  These are lessons we should have already learned.  We've been down this road before.  Any questions?