Meanwhile, an all-American crew on an American cargo ship carrying humanitarian aid has proved exceptional in their response to the predations of Somali pirates. Other crews of ships taken by the Somali thugs have lain quiet until vast sums of money are transferred to Somali recipients (as it is generally agreed that resisting pirates once they've successfully boarded is deadly and usually counter-productive).
But not this American crew. They took one of the pirates hostage instead. As in all such situations, it didn't work out as well as it might, and the captain of the Maersk Alabama is sitting with a bunch of pirates in a life-boat that has no gas while the USS Bainbridge looms ominously nearby.
I can't help thinking this is an echo of 9/11/2001. It took the American passengers of Flight 93 just a few minutes to realize their plane was a suicide weapon headed for Washington, DC, so they risked--and lost--their lives in a revolt against their crew of hijackers.
The point is that exceptionalism is not always good for your health--it is frequently quite the opposite. It isn't necessarily good for your ship or your family. But one thing is certain: being exceptional guards one's personal dignity. To wit:
Those who know [Captain] Murphy said they expected a good outcome.
"To me, he was a hero anyway. As strange as it is, it's almost not surprising. That's about it. That's Shane," said Patrick Stewart, Murphy's roommate at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth.
Robert MacAleese, a senior at Massachusetts Maritime, said Murphy recently visited his father's modern cargo class.
"He stated that he sees pirates all the time," MacAleese said. But Murphy added that he thought the pirates "knew better than to go against the American ships."
Part of American exceptionalism is a conviction that we must not submit to evildoers, we must defeat them. In this case, the conviction has escalated a problem and may result in a tragically exceptional solution. The captain may not survive; the pirates may get away. The stakes are high and may go higher (especially as more pirates seem to be heading in the direction of the scene), and as they do, the one thing certain is that the United States is getting more interested in the pirate problem.
The American Marine Corps broke the back of the Barbary-Coast pirate problem many, many years ago (that's why the Shores of Tripoli are in the Marine anthem to this day), and it seems that they may be called upon to do it again, this time on the coast of Somalia. And if they are, you may be certain that the solution will be another exceptional example of American dignity on display.
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PS: In case I didn't make it clear enough, it is my sincere hope that there will be more gibbets and fewer payments for pirates. The Washington Times makes the point pretty well here.
