Gentlemen O' Fortune

You have undoubtedly heard about the pirates that held an American ship captive along with its crew, who were later released with the exception of the captain.  As FBI negotiators are vying to get the captain back from the pirates' "life boat," where he is being held, many questions spring to mind, most important of all is: Are you kidding me?

Forget for a second that this sounds like a story best suited for Johnny Depp, the idea that the United States Navy and the FBI are trying to negotiate the release of an American captive held hostage on a freaking lifeboat by pirates is absolutely ridiculous.  So let me get this straight, we do not negotiate with terrorists but we do with pirates? Where do we draw the line? What if a pirate blows himself up, is he worth negotiating with? What about about a terrorist on a boat?

All of these questions are intriguing but perhaps what is most intriguing is the idea that this is happening.  What I mean is that if it was not for our "invade first, invade again, invade some more, and when everybody is dead, try to form relations through diplomacy, and if that does not work try to buy off the people who are trying to kill you" policy, we would not have half a million American soldiers scattered all over the world.  We have 50,000 soldiers in Germany for God's sake, because you never know when Hitler might be resurrected, or maybe those damn Swedes might start acting funny.  

To have that many soldiers all over the globe fighting one war or another, pirates will become more of a hassle than they should.  When a group of people less armed than your average American gang, give the most powerful nation that much headache, you start wondering that maybe you are spread too thin. Maybe, just maybe at the next opportunity, let Russia or China become the jerk who nobody likes. Who knows, you might like the idea of peace and perhaps even prevent the unnecessary death of a few thousand American soldiers.