Bushed Doctrines

President Obama just saved the country, and you thought it was just a crew of brave men hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia, no it was the country and perhaps western Europe too.  How?  Well just imagine if Bush were still the embarrassed President of the US and these hostages presented  the opportunity for military action to show strength [ and funnel money to  political allies and supporters].  The US and any needy economies with similar minded leaders would have sent an armada into the Indian Ocean, begun construction of new fleets; a military buildup of amphibious forces like the world has not seen, prepared for a ten year stay to protect America... the cost would have dwarfed the limits of governments spending on anything in history, the trillion dollars  wasted in Iraq would not even make a down payment on keeping an entire ocean safe from terrorists ...yes the pirates would be converted to terrorists... the nation would be on "Puce alert"... puce is the level used when brimstone falls from the skies.
For if Iraq were a threat to the US for the fictional weapons of mass destruction, these pirates would be the barbarians at the gates. More dangerous than the illegal immigrants from Latin America who come here like we all did ...  well like most of us except for the African slaves, and the Amerind peoples... anyway the pirates would be so much worse, more deadly than the killer bees , more toxic than Chinese imports, able to leap small Republicans in a single sneer... you know, truly dangerous.  We would spend until the printing presses at the national mint failed and then we would order more...from China.

But President Obama was in office, and the pirates were dealt with on that day, and tomorrow's pirate threat will be dealt with on that day, with reason, cooperation, and measured use of force...and they will still be "pirates", people who go to sea to steal wealth from others. The freedom at stake is the use of international shipping lanes, it is a nasty problem...might get worse; but we don't need to spend thousands of lives, trillions of dollars to hurt the pirates or to help our friends.

Personally, I have disliked the Pirates since they beat the Yankees in the World Series...but that is another blog...