It's amazing how a little bit of gumption changes the world. This time the gumption was America's, and specifically Barack Obama's, perhaps even in conflict with other instincts of his. In any case, one day the U.S. Navy Seals take control of what could have easily turned into an epidemic of piracy. Then, two days later, according to the New York Times, the French navy seized a "mother ship" for pirate vessels in the Indian Ocean off Somalia. A ship flying the Liberian flag had been attacked by two pirate skiffs with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire. An American ship (taking food relief to Mombassa) was also attacked by pirates in the same area, but escaped. So there are now two vessels flying the American flag that have been under assault in the last 48 hours. This is the first time in 200 years that American seafaring has been under such siege.
Obama and Sarkozy have broken the habit of ignoring this kind of brigandage. It is clear that, one the tocsin is sounded, it shouldn't be silenced.
This is not, after all, a case of Terry and the pirates.