that hoodoo in the indian ocean

From the Times:


Senior defense officials, themselves marveling at the skill of the snipers, said each took a target and fired one shot. Indeed. I marvel as well.


Only slightly less worthy of marvel will be the sharp increase this week of bright-eyed, hollow-headed high school seniors schlepping off to their local Navy recruiter's office to sign up for the big time. In terms of Navy recruiting dollars, this incident was worth the weight of the Bainbridge in gold.

Lame. But more lame than that is this:


In Somalia itself, other pirates reacted angrily to the news that Captain Phillips had been rescued, and some said they would avenge the deaths of their colleagues by killing Americans in sea hijackings to come.

“Every country will be treated the way it treats us,” Abdullahi Lami, one of the pirates holding a Greek ship anchored in the pirate den of Gaan, a central Somali town, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying in a telephone interview. “In the future, America will be the one mourning and crying.”


Profound logic. So...hijacking big ole cargo vessels on the open seas and holding their crew at gunpoint for millions of dollars in ransom...how exactly is that consistent with this policy of in-kind retribution?